From AAPSNews Service
A large pile of wood chips and lots of community muscle have made the paths of Eberwhite Woods a bit more navigable, once again.
Students from nearby Eberwhite Elementary School and teams of volunteer parents spread some 50 yards of chips along the paths this fall – something the school community does annually, covering one third of the trailways, rotating them to different areas each year.
Wood Chip Day, which took place on Oct. 16, involved students from every grade who dragged sleds full of chips out into the woods while others helped to spread them.
“This basically maintains the trail. It’s a community service project,” said Pam Baker of the Eberwhite PTO was in charge of this year’s project on behalf of the school, which coordinates the effort with the Eberwhite Woods Committee. “We got lucky – it’s not raining,” she added.
Baker said this year’s chips were purchased at Lodi Farms, who gave the group a discounted price.
Area resident Dave Sleamon often runs and walks in the Eberwhite Woods with his family, including his second-grader, Olivia, who attends Eberwhite. This day, he was helping with the wood chip project.
“We’re in here all the time,” he said. “I especially like to hike back here. My wife does nature walks with the kindergarteners in the spring. It’s beautiful through the whole season.”
The Eberwhite Woods and adjacent land were sold to the University of Michigan in 1915 for natural and educational purposes. In 1946, the U-M Regents deeded the woods and nearby property to The Ann Arbor Public Schools to be used as a school site. Eberwhite School was built in 1950 to relieve the overcrowding at Bach School, but a large portion of the woods was maintained in its natural state. In recent years, the City of Ann Arbor purchased 2.5 acres adjoining the woods.
See more about Eberwhite history online.
