
DATE: Friday, June 6, 1997                  TAG: 9706050257

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 14   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: * Woodstock Elementary School in Virginia Beach has rescheduled the dedication of its Woodstock Discovery Trail. The ceremony will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, National Trails Day, at the school, 6016 Providence Road, and not at the time listed in today's Virginia Beach Beacon. Correction published Friday, June 6, 1997 on page A2 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. * WOODSTOCK SCHOOL NATURE TRAIL WILL BECOME OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

Students at Woodstock Elementary School can learn first-hand about trees, wildflowers, lizards, snakes, birds and even water quality on a new nature trail built on school property by the Woodstock PTA.

Woodstock Discovery Trail will be dedicated at 10 a.m. on National Trails Day Saturday at the school. The path can be found winding through a wooded area to the right of Woodstock's baseball field. The public is invited to the informal ceremony and to take a walk to see the trail's special features, said PTA president Kathy Farmer.

``The PTA wanted to use the property better,'' Farmer explained. ``Next year calls for an outdoor classroom at the head of the trail.''

A picnic-type shelter will be constructed over an existing concrete slab at the trail's beginning, said Clay Bernick, chairman of the PTA's environmental committee. Bernick, who works as the city's environmental management administrator, is excited about the possibilities of the natural area in busy Kempsville.

``You look at elementary schools with no diversity in the middle of old farm fields,'' Bernick said ``and look at what we have here.''

He pointed out a small ravine featuring a non-tidal wetlands to the east of the trail. The wetlands border a creek that flows into Woodstock Cove, part of the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River. Bernick can envision students testing the creek's water quality as part of an effort to stop pollution of the Elizabeth River.

There is still another creek on the west side of the school that also leads into Woodstock Cove. The PTA is planning a second phase of the nature trail to wind all the way behind the school and up the west side to incorporate the second creek.

Visitors to the trail, which will be open to the public, can walk under huge old trees shading green ferns and beds of May apples. Mountain laurel and wild azalea rare in the area today because of development of waterfront property, also grow nearby. Dogwood and wild blueberries abound, Bernick said.

The woods are habitat for songbirds, both migrating and permanent. Herons and egrets search for fish and crustaceans down by the creeks and small mammals such as squirrels, raccoons and opossums also inhabit the natural area. Lizards, snakes and other critters have already provided their share of excitement for children and parents participating in trail work days.

Seventeen, numbered wooden markers have been installed along the pathway. The markers will be coordinated with a resource book for teachers. Scientists from the Elizabeth River Project, which is working to preserve the Elizabeth River, are helping to identify significant natural features for the resource book.

The PTA has a five-year plan to develop the whole wooded perimeter of the school in a natural way, free of cost, by using PTA and community volunteers and donations of materials from local businesses, Farmer said.

Several teachers already have used the property as an outdoor classroom, but until now, she said, there had been no trail no markers and no concerted effort to identify the flora and fauna. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW

From left, Shamiqua Cox, Reed Bernick, Brittany Harrell and Ashley

Hilliard enjoy a break under a tree that shadows the Woodstock

Discovery Trail.

A broadheaded skink skitters across the Woodstock nature trail.

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by CNB