College and high school students use Lafarge facility for learning

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

Lafarge North America Lordstown Construction Recovery on Newton Falls Bailey Road served as a classroom for students from Youngstown State University and Lordstown High School to learn about plants and animals this week.

The students used the facility’s wildlife preserve as part of their schools’ biology curriculums. The students also provided input on future conservation programs at the site that qualify for the Wildlife Habitat Council’s Corporate Lands for Learning certification.

Since 2008, WHC’s “Wildlife at Work” program has certified conservation projects at Lafarge’s Lordstown plant as voluntary efforts that go beyond regulatory requirements to restore and conserve the site’s 94-acre wildlife habitat area, the company said in a press release.

“What’s happening here today is something we want to see happen on a regular basis,” said Tim Wirtz, plant supervisor who heads up Lafarge’s partnership with WHC.

Rob Campbell, a WHC education specialist, said the site has roughly 90 acres of wetlands.

The site also has been used by other students and community organizations interested in outdoor education.

“We’ve had kids from the local 4-H come out to help us build and mount birdhouses throughout the wildlife area,” Wirtz said. “The land has also been used by kids involved in the Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation District’s Watershed Field School summer program.”

The Ohio Ornithological Society has identified 26 species of birds living on the site, he added.