Boulder Valley high school students talk trees and take action

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Recently, students from Fairview High, Monarch High, and Peak to Peak K-12 along with community partners hosted a Tree Summit at Fairview High School where they shared presentations about their experiences working to create green schoolyards on their campuses. They offered insights about fundraising and more for the audience of fellow students about how to green their own schoolyards. 

The goal of the event was to educate and empower schools, students, and staff to create and enhance green spaces at their schools. Finding community and taking action to make change was a shared feeling among students at the event. 

“I’m really excited that there are so many other students like me that are really passionate about this as well,” Tessa Nims, a junior from Boulder High  commented. “I’m here today to connect with those other students and the supportive adults around the area who are willing to help us students make the change we want to see.”

Attendees had the opportunity to get started on designing greenspaces and later in the day planted 14 trees around the Fairview campus. Planting the trees was the fruition of a multi-month effort by Fairview’s green team—the Fairview Institute—to create a plan, fundraise, and coordinate with the school and the district.  

“It’s really important to me that we’re actually getting things done and showing the work that we put into it all year and in past years,” Hannah Morgan, a sophomore at Fairview High School commented. 

Tree-planting is just the end of the first act of greening a school yard. Attendees also learned how to take care of trees once planted with a tree maintenance session from Cool Boulder, a city-sponsored initiative to create nature-based climate action.  

This was the second Tree Summit this school year with the first taking place at Peak to Peak in the fall. 

“I’m just amazed by the community that we’ve been able to form through this initiative,” Stella Corzine, a junior at Peak to Peak commented. “I’ve been able to interact with so many students and peers that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to.”

Trees play a vital role in enhancing our environment. BVSD appreciates the interest of schools and individuals to plant trees on school sites. BVSD has created a tree planting form to help guide this work and ensure trees are properly selected and cared for.  

The Tree Summit is also supported by community partners including Play Boulder, Cool Boulder and Classrooms for Climate Action.