It’s difficult to imagine a bird sanctuary located next door to a wastewater treatment plant. But that’s exactly what Palouse Audubon envisions. The Stateline Wetlands, an eight-acre constructed wetland that neighbors the town’s wastewater treatment plant, has enormous potential to become a destination for migratory birds as well as an environmental education and research site.
With its TogetherGreen Innovation Grant, Palouse Audubon Society will partner with groups like the University of Idaho Women in Science, Idaho Fish and Game, and the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute to bring this vision to life. These groups will work together on habitat restoration activities that include planting native species and creating a quarter mile trail system with interpretive signs. Local students from the 4-H, elementary, junior, and high school students, as well as college students will help plant 1,500 plants and shrubs.
Palouse Audubon and its partners hope that these efforts will help transform the field west of the treatment plant into an ecological treasure—a place for migratory and resident birds, a community wildlife park, and an environmental education center for schoolchildren, university faculty, and community members.