Students Help Protect a Little Piece of Ticino

04/11/2007

Franklin students make news while protecting the local environment.

Sixteen Franklin students along with Professor Brack Hale spent Saturday, March 31, 2007 working with Pro Natura Ticino and several members of the local community helping clean up and restore habitats at the Laghetto di Muzzano. The Laghetto is an important natural resource for the area and is protected as a nature reserve by Pro Natura. Still, the lake has suffered greatly from the ongoing development of the watershed, which has increased the level of nutrients the lake receives and introduced a number of exotic species into the natural habitats. The students’ activities concentrated on picking up trash from the lakeshore, building nests for snakes and other reptiles that live around the lake and removing an invasive palm species which is altering the composition of the riparian plant communities of the Laghetto. Pro Natura was very impressed with the work that Franklin students accomplished. Both Pro Natura and the student volunteers have expressed an interest in making this an annual event.

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