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FAIRBANKS — The Quonset hut and trailers are long gone, but the original 11-acre site of Two Rivers School is on its way to becoming an important outdoor educational arm of the new school a half-mile down the road.

An innovative outdoor learning program is in the works led by Kim Kelly, who heads the Extended Learning Program at the K-8 grade school located off 18 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road.

The idea is an outgrowth of a history project Kelly started in her multi-grade classes to document the school and Two Rivers’ beginnings for its 50th anniversary celebration last spring.

The idea took root and soon the children were interviewing and filming people in the community, homesteaders, former teachers and the like for the project.

The film was edited and made into a DVD that premiered at the anniversary celebration last spring.

What is continuing is a project called Learning Landscape on the old school site. It’s a collaboration involving the Two Rivers Garden and Conservation Club, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and School District and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The school is working jointly with local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a trail from here to the Learning Landscape area,” Kelly said.

But that is just the beginning. The partnership between the federal agency and the school will not stop with trail clearing. Habitat restoration and studies will be continuing for some time, explained Mitch Osborne, a Fish and Wildlife Service habitat restoration biologist.

“We provide professional expertise,” Osborne said, “and labor with the Wounded Warriors Transition Unit at Fort Wainwright. The goal is to restore habitat.”

Schoolchildren will be involved in replanting areas of the old school site with spruce and birch and helping restore a nearby pasture with willow plantings, Osborne said. And every winter, they will measure snow depth.

“We want the kids to collect long-term data for climate change,” he said.

The old building foundations, basketball court and fencing at the site have been removed, and students have been clearing an off-road trail from the new school to the site. About a quarter-mile has been completed, and the remainder will be done in the spring once a wetland permit is received.

“We’ll be teaching kids about garden and nature,” Kelly said.

The entire staff of Two Rivers School is involved in selecting the horticulture and gardening curricula that will tie in the project with mathematics, social studies, language arts, physical education, music and health.

In addition to a half-mile trail between the new school and old school site, the former ski trails at the old site will be developed into hiking trails to benefit the students, family and Two Rivers community.

Next spring, student and staff efforts will focus on building two garden areas in collaboration with Feedback Farm, Alaska Grown Farm and Nora Gruner of Nora’s Perennials.

Plantings will include fruit trees, vegetables and specific flower garden areas to attract butterflies and perennials used to dye fabric.

In the summer months, the gardens will be cared for by local families.

A $2,500 grant from the Department of Agriculture will be used to build insulated garden boxes at the learning site, buy tools, soil and seeds to start plant growth in the school’s classrooms.

In addition, to planting and caring for gardens, students will be involved in bird counts on a long-term basis, Kelly said.

The Learning Landscape restoration and agriculture plans will reinforce environmentally friendly practices already being incorporated at the school.

Plans also are in the works to develop a solar panel system and eventually contribute back to the electric grid.

Contact staff writer Mary Beth Smetzer at 459-7546.