Some new award-winning bed and breakfasts are planned for Black Diamond and there won’t be any complaints about insects on the premises — in fact, they are the main guests.
“Our students came up with the idea of ‘Bat Boxes and Bugs Bed and Breakfasts,’” said Ashley Connors, a Grade 4/5 teacher at C. Ian McLaren School in Black Diamond. “We went through the planning process, submitted the application and we won.”
The students’ proposal has been selected for the Fortis Environmental Ambassador Award. The school is receiving $1,000 from Fortis for the project.
“We have done our planning and I am hoping that we can get up to Rona and buy the materials,” said Connors. “We haven’t decided yet if we are going to build them or maybe order in the boxes and then place them around the community.”
Connors’ students have had the nature bug for some time. They regularly have classes outside, visiting the river valley behind nearby Oilfields High School — which is lovingly called “The Forest” by the students.
The bugs and bats program goes beyond science, Connors will take a bit from other courses throughout the bed-and-breakfast program.
“In Grade 4 we learn about the plant-life cycles, the plant growth – we talked about how the bugs pollinate plants and the bats would eat the pest buds that would harm the plants,” Connors said. “And in Grade 5 we talk about the wetlands.
“In Black Diamond, we are so lucky to have the river creek right there and a little pond.”
The students will also incorporate their language arts skills as well, by doing some persuasive writing to inform the community why and where the hotels will be placed.
As for social studies, the students are writing letters — and possibly making a presentation to Black Diamond council about the project.
“There’s an overall tie in social studies,” Connors said. “We talk about how people have an attachment to the land, and sharing the land.”
The students also have to do something any town councillor would admire — make a budget.
“The students will have to make it work within the $1,000,” she said. “As well, we may not be building the bat boxes but we will be building the bug hotels.”
All of the planning is being done by the students, with guidance from Connors.
Grade 5 student Olivia Selk is looking forward to the project.
“We’re helping the environment and we are actually doing something big – so the bats have some place to rest and so do the bugs,” she said. “We talk about the project a lot.”
She said there is one problem – make sure you don’t put the bat boxes too close to the bug bread and breakfast. To paraphrase Foghorn Leghorn, you don’t want the chickens nesting too close to the chicken hawk.
However, Selk feels her bugs will be safely tucked away at the B and B.
"The bats mostly eat pests, I’m pretty sure,” she said. “The bats will get rid of those and the bugs (in the B and B’s) will help the trees grow and stuff.”
