As work continues on restoring the Clearview Community Forest, other projects benefitting the project have also in the works.

 

A District 742 student recently donated 40 field desks for Clearview students to use during educational outings in the forest for an Eagle Scout project, the school’s first responder memorial was moved to the reading garden which is located near the entrance to the forest on the south side of the school, and a new shelter is also being built there.

 

Previously the reading garden featured a pergola-type shelter which had started to crack and deteriorate. Using money from a grant that was awarded the school to use toward the forest, a decision was made to build a new shelter at the forest’s trail head to replace it.

 

The new “Trail Head Pavilion” was designed to be more user friendly as an outdoor classroom, providing shade and supply cabinets, and including paving stone paths leading to it.

 

Tech High School’s Youthbuild program was asked to build the new structure. Youthbuild provides specialized training to students in construction and other fields in the building trades. Students chosen for the program receive school credit, a small stipend and equipment needed to perform the work.

 

“The Youthbuild program focuses on getting kids ready to go into the construction field,” explained advisor and Tech High School teacher Bill Garceau. “The students also get to become OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) certified.”

 

Youthbuild only accepts work for nonprofit organizations; building Habitat for Humanity homes is an ongoing project.

 

Clearwater brothers David and Matthew Neuman are two of the Youthbuild students working on the project at Clearview. They both attended the school as elementary students, so were excited to come back to use their talents to help with the new undertaking.

 

“I really enjoyed building cabinets and other things in the Intro to Woods class at Tech,” said David Neuman, who graduated this spring. “Once I heard about Youthbuild I really wanted to join because it sounded like so much fun.”

 

“My favorite thing [in Youthbuild] has been building the pavilion here,” said 17-year-old Matthew Neuman. “Plus, you build muscle doing the work with all the shoveling and things we do.”

 

“I enjoy doing everything,” said David Neuman. “You get to learn multiple things. Some days you build, some days you dig.”

 

Both brothers are interested in going into some type of carpentry work as a career.

 

The Youthbuild students tore down the original shelter before beginning the new pavilion project, and will be using the old wood to build blue bird houses to erect along the trails in the forest. They will also be making compass symbols to go on the forest’s picnic tables.

 

Clearview and a group of dedicated volunteers are working with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on a 10-year plan to restore the 42-acre Clearview Forest. The project includes cleaning out dead and diseased trees, removing invasive tree species and restoring the grassy area of the property to natural prairieland.

 

The school’s goal is to be able to use the forest for a variety of education uses, including building walking trails for students to use on nature outings.