Watkins Eco Warriors

04/26/2026

04/22/2026

Creating an enrichment net for elephants at the Columbus Zoo Day 26 Zoo ECO Summit

04/22/2026

We are at the ECO Youth Summit at the Columbus Zoo today! Our first activity was to create enrichment nets for the elephants!

04/17/2026

Feel free to join us for our paver unveiling ceremony! We will be celebrating our donors as well as paying remembrance to two District staff members who have passed away last year. Afterward, we will be at the District Arts Festival. Stop by and learn more about our ECO Lab project. We will have sweet treats available to those who would like to make a donation.

04/13/2026

Absolutely AMAZING day!
Today we planted 100 tree saplings to create a pocket forest .
A huge thank you to Licking County Soil and Water for giving us a grant for most of the trees then $1,000 for fencing to protect them as they are growing!

Also, thank you to Licking County Pollinator Pathways donated who 24 of the saplings and helped us plant.

Thank you to our amazing grounds crew who supported the entire process!! 🌳

Pocket forest are used to restore biodiversity without needing a lot of land! This grouping of trees will grow at a much faster rate this way too!!

04/06/2026

All proceeds will go towards our projects !!
Any local bakeries willing to donate some baked goods for any of the dates would be greatly appreciated 🫶🌳

01/11/2026

We are creating an advisory group of adults to advise us. We are working on a master plan for the ECO Lab and will share it for their consideration in early February. We had several farmers help us out with straw, and we would love to have a local farmer join our advisory committee. Our developing plan includes an area we want to devote to the history of farming in our area, so we are particularly interested in having someone to advise on that area. We are also interested in including public art in the ECO Lab. If there is someone who shares that interest, we would love to hear from them as well. Please message us, and our advisor, Dr. Ball, will reach out to possible advisors to provide more information.

We are also in the final stage of Columbus Zoo grant consideration this year, so please send us good thoughts as we complete the question-and-answer portion of the process this week.

Thank you, everyone, for your interest in our project!

Send a message to learn more

12/11/2025

We got exciting news that NPR Radio picked up WOSU’s article on us! A huge thank you again to everyone who helped us get straw! We spread the bunch that Mr. Sammons dropped off yesterday! Mr. Ratzel’s Agriculture students pitched in to help!

12/10/2025

We are very excited! WOSU is set to run a story about us tomorrow morning (Wednesday) around 6:45 and 8:50 a.m. on 89.7 FM and livestreamed on www.wosu.org/news. A written story with the photos will also be online tomorrow morning.

News and podcasts for Columbus and Central Ohio from WOSU and 89.7 NPR News.

12/02/2025

The snow should help our seeds settle in! Pollinator Pathways came out yesterday and invited WOSU. They interviewed our advisor, Dr. Ball, and several of us! They also spoke to Mr. Ratzel, who has been working with us and partnering with us and his agriculture classes. Agriculture 2 students came out and helped plant yesterday too!