LAKE SHORE, Utah County — A school project to help birds near Utah Lake is being touted as a success, even though it didn't turn out as planned.
Several years ago, more than 100 students from Sage Creek Elementary School in Springville built nesting platforms for great blue herons near Utah Lake.
In 1983, Utah Lake flooded and spilled into the wetland area, killing cottonwood trees, which herons and other birds used for nesting. But the good Samaritan effort by the 9 and 10 year-olds didn't work.
"The birds never used them," said Scott Root, spokesman for the state Department of Wildlife Resources. "(The nesting platforms) are still there. They get shot up by hunters."
"I was so disappointed," teacher Sheila Robbins said of the fourth-grade project.
But Robbins doesn't consider it a failure because of the educational experience the students received.
"They learned much, much," she said.
A federal grant of $1,000 paid for the materials so the students could build 20 platforms. Parents pitched in to help cut the wood to the right length and drill holes so students could bolt the platforms together. Linemen from then-Utah Power hoisted the platforms onto old power poles.
Students used math skills to determine how much wood and bolts were needed, then used their science education to learn how the birds with a 6-foot wingspan would use them.
Robbins isn't sure why great blue herons didn't take advantage of the nesting platforms. The property owner parked old cars nearby, which may have frightened the birds away, she said.
Osprey nesting platforms that Boy Scouts and DWR employees put up in the same area do get used, Root said.
"They come back every spring," he said of the osprey.
In fact, more of the fish-eating birds are migrating to Utah every year, Root said.
"It may be the food source," he said.
Robbins' teaching efforts include not only experiencing the wetlands, but also the forest.
For the past four years, she has taken her charges to the Diamond Fork Youth Forest in Spanish Fork Canyon, where they have helped build the learning center for other children.
In November, the U.S. Forest Service gave the Springville school a national service award, one of three entities in the state to receive the honor.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com