Work has been ramping up at Camp Verde High School on building an updated greenhouse.
The district has been using a $14,000 grant from the National Park Service to pay for work, said Kim Fulps, the agriscience teacher at the school.
The money has been going into upgrading the old greenhouse that stood on the school’s campus right off of Apache Lane, including heat pads, seeds and pots.
Camp Verde Mayor Bob Burnside, who manages a plumbing and electrical company, has been donating time and work into hooking up the water system in the greenhouse.
There’s also been other needed purchases made possible by the grant like a wheelbarrow, Fulps said.
One of the primary goals of the new greenhouse will be to grow native plants that can be transplanted to an area near Montezuma Well in Rimrock known as “the pasture.”
The area’s original flora was killed off through years of grazing.
Last year, the agency was able to plant nearly 900 native seeds on the land’s 40 acres. With the help of schoolchildren and other volunteers, the park service reported that 80 percent of those new plants have survived.
This year, the goal is to plant 1,200 seeds while continuing to remove the encroaching invaders.
Park service employee Deb Decovis said the greenhouse at the high school will play an important role in helping to restore native growth to the area.
Decovis said the greenhouse project was an excellent example of students working together on something positive.
Fulps said the school was applying for another grant to help further the work in the greenhouse.
Regardless, Fulps said she hoped that the new greenhouse would be up and ready for action by the end of the school year. The project has been moving along since last summer. As part of the grant, Fulps said she had to work with the park service for a certain number of days.
The new greenhouse will be much more suitable to nurture many more plants for the park service’s project, Decovis said.
