Battle Ground school board member wins Green Apple Award

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Battle Ground School Board member Mark Watrin has won Clark County Public Health’s Green Apple Award for his work with school sustainability programs.

Watrin said he didn’t win the award by himself and noted the recognition he received should go to all of those who have volunteered alongside him.

“It’s brought a little more attention to our field trip program (at the CASEE center), which is great because we want to get as many teachers and kids out there,” he said. 

Watrin, a retired teacher, had a career in education that spanned 40 years. He continues to teach people about science. Watrin helped create the Center for Agriculture, Science and Environmental Education, otherwise known as the CASEE center, at Battle Ground Public Schools.

Watrin said a group traveled to Yacolt Elementary School to build a native plant garden there on Wednesday, April 26. Watrin has a goal to create six native plant gardens at elementary schools in the district by next fall. The model at Captain Strong Elementary School has been used across the district as an easy way to maintain native plant gardens.

“My next plan would see if the other two (elementary schools) can pull together a team, as it’d be great to be able to say a year from now that by putting some focused effort into it, that we were able to establish working school gardens at every school,” Watrin said.

Watrin said the native plant gardens are used by educators to teach kids and provide hands-on experience during their science classes. Through the use of the gardens, teachers have the ability to show students how plants grow with other things, like sunflowers.

“We also try to save a little space at each garden to feature Washington native plants,” Watrin said. “That connects with the curriculum because many of the elementary grades feature the importance of understanding our Indigenous community that lived here originally and how they used native plants.”



Watrin encourages people to utilize native plants in their own garden and landscapes. He added the CASEE center partners with NatureScaping to sell native plants. The CASEE center hosts a plant sale on an annual basis, but Watrin said anyone can contact them throughout the year to purchase plants.

Watrin said that red-flowering currant, mock oranges and evergreen huckleberries are great options to use in native gardens or landscapes.

Watrin is proud to be a part of the greater Battle Ground community. He highlighted the volunteer work many organizations have done in the gardening arena.

“It helps Battle Ground feel like a close-knit community even as it grows bigger,” Watrin said.

Watrin was not the only winner from North Clark County as La Center High School took home the Green Team Award in the high school category.

“The La Center High School green team, Environmental Action Team, is leading a districtwide sustainability project to collect food scraps for compost at all La Center schools,” stated a news release from Clark County Communications.

The green team students at La Center High School also manage a large natural school garden, complete stream monitoring projects, raise salmon hatchlings in the classroom, lead habitat restoration projects and coordinate events that celebrate school sustainability, the release stated.

The Environmental Action Team is also working to construct a green shed on campus that will be equipped with rain barrels, native plants and solar panels.