Blandy Experimental Farm Educational Center Environmental Impact Statement By: James Wood Middle School Student

Project Background My trips to Blandy Experimental Farm included studying water from Lake Georgette and looking at what living organisms are there. I have thought of ways to preserve Lake Georgette with the new building coming. I have studied runoff and discharge at Blandy and how it would affect a new building.I have gone to different sites to see where I would build.I even went to the quarters were Joseph Tuley’s slaves stayed and different parts of quarters.I also did a little archeology and dug up some artifacts in a box that that Joseph Tuley might have used.I learned various new facts at Blandy about science and history.

The Greenhouse This is the best place to build because they are already taking the greenhouse down, that will give the new building more room and we don’t have to move trees or struggle to make more room. It has access to electricity, water, and it is near a small gravel road that will take you to the exit. Also if we want to make renovations there will be some trees we will probably need to cut down, but since it would be on top it wouldn’t be as much if we did keep the greenhouse.

Environmental Literacy There are not many animals near the greenhouse compared to the national wildlife habitat conserve area. If we build where the greenhouse is we are not severely damaging the environment. We would not be cutting down that many trees so we wouldn't damage animals homes in trees. To protect Lake Georgette from contaminants we can install filters and then behind the filters plant some native plants. Once the greenhouse is gone we can build on top of it, that’s why it is the best place to build. We won’t have to knock down much trees only a few, or maybe none! The most found organism in Lake Georgette was the damselfly which is somewhat pollution intolerant. We still have to make sure Lake Georgette is safe even though we are building where the greenhouse was.

Historical Significance There is no historical significance about the greenhouse just because it was built in the 1940s doesn’t make it historically significant. This greenhouse was probably just built by people just doing their job. It was probably used for the same reason it is used today, as a greenhouse. I didn’t find any person, place, interesting thing or event associated with the greenhouse.

Lake Georgette I think it is the second best place to build because it doesn’t have any historical value, and it wouldn’t flood if we built it near the road up on the hill, and a bonus to that is we are farther away from the living organisms that live in Lake Georgette so we are not hurting them as badly. I have other plans too. Lake Georgette has a lot of space to build and I want the building to have its space and Lake Georgette have its space. It has a lot of room that is also good if we want to make renovations or build on to the building. It has access to the gravel road which takes you to the exit, also has access to water and remember it has space so we can build telephone poles so it has electricity.

Environmental Literacy There are many living organisms in Lake Georgette. Lake Georgette seems pretty healthy but don’t drink it because it had some phosphates and the turbidity was not bad but, it is not where you would like it to be. Yes, the water is drinkable but if there is healthier water there I would choose that. We would build the building on the hill so that we would not be polluting Lake Georgette. I have a solution to keep Lake Georgette safe in case of pollution from the building. We will build a fence around it and outside the fence we can plant native plants to catch runoff before it goes to the fence. If this fails I have a backup plan, installing filters.

Historical Significance I couldn’t find any information about the historical significance of Lake Georgette it just seems like a random lake. After going to Blandy I still couldn’t find any historical significance. I went on the Blandy website and I even googled it but still couldn’t find anything historical about Lake Georgette. I still wonder how Lake Georgette got its name. I am sure Lake Georgette associated with a person, it had to get its name from somewhere. It didn’t have anything historically interesting or event, I don’t think there was a historical event that connected with Lake Georgette. I am not sure who it's named after, maybe I will find out.

Conclusion I think I have chosen the best sites for an education building. The greenhouse will be taken down soon; a building there so far has not destroyed the environment so a building on top of that same site can’t be much worse. The greenhouse doesn’t have any historical significance; it was built in the 1940s which was 76 years at the most, but that doesn’t make it historically significant. That is why it is the best place to build.

Conclusion Lake Georgette would be a good place because it has a hill near the road that way it won’t flood. The way to prevent contaminated runoff is to build a fence around Lake Georgette and put native plants around the fence to catch the runoff before it hits the fence. The building would need electricity but it has space so we could build telephone poles. It would cost a bit, but for student’s education, it might be worth it. I hope you enjoyed my slide and my reasonings for building on these sites.