Birds, kids benefit from Putnam School habitat rehabilitation

Two local nonprofits — Birmingham Audubon and Jones Valley Teaching Farm  — are working to restore an important 10-acre bird habitat and long-neglected nature trail behind W.E. Putnam Middle School in the Eastwood neighborhood, providing students with hands-on outdoor learning.

School Principal Terrell Brown said this effort is important because most kids rarely go outside these days.

“This is something that’s needed at schools, so students can go outside and learn about nature,” he said.

The Putnam habitat has many old pines and white oaks that offer a home for such species as owls, hawks, warblers and a climate-endangered songbird called the brown-headed nuthatch, according to Birmingham Audubon spokesperson Sarah Randolph.

“We see this as a long-term project to restore this habitat,” Randolph said.

The restoration involves removing such invasive species as ivy, privet and nandina and replacing them with native plants.

Birmingham Audubon is taking the lead in the restoration, which will make the habitat “the best it can be for the birds who live here and the students who learn here,” said Kelly Baker of JVTF.

JVTF already maintains a teaching farm and food-based learning program behind the school. 

The restoration — some of it done by volunteers, students and teachers — began in January 2018. It continued with a work day Oct. 20 hosted by Birmingham Audubon, JVTF and Desert Island Supply Co. and attended by about 60 people.

Participants included Henry Hughes of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, who planted native trees, and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, who attended Putnam. At press time, more restoration was scheduled to take place on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 21, according to Randolph.

Restoration efforts also include the Panther Path Nature Trail created in the 1990s by former Putnam teacher Claire Datnow, who sought to create an easily accessible on-campus facility inspired by the Flora Johnson Nature Park nearby.

“No one had shown [the students] there was a world outside the classroom,” said Datnow, a Birmingham Audubon member who retired from teaching in 2000.

The Panther Path was later neglected, according to Brown, who became principal at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.

But with the restoration of the trail and habitat, there will be “another generation of students who will be outside,” Datnow said.

“It’s good for kids to learn outside the classroom so they can see how they apply the knowledge,” Brown said.