As the 2025–2026 school year comes to a close, the REYS (Restoration Ecology for Young Students) program celebrates another year of growth, learning, and hands-on conservation. Now in its ninth year, REYS continues to connect students with their local environment through place-based education and habitat restoration projects that leave a lasting impact on both communities and young people.

This year's success was made possible through the generosity of dedicated funding partners, including the Worthington Family Foundation, the Greenwood Foundation, and the Charlevoix County Community Foundation. Together, their support enabled more than 500 students from across northern Michigan to participate in meaningful restoration projects, environmental education experiences, and community partnerships. Their collective investment is helping inspire the next generation of environmental stewards while restoring valuable habitat throughout the region.

Throughout the year, students engaged in a variety of hands-on restoration efforts at sites across the region. At Brown Bridge Quiet Area, Traverse Heights and Kingsley Elementary students partnered with the Grand Traverse Conservation District to plant more than 2,200 native plants, helping restore biodiversity in a highly visible public natural space. At Mill Creek Elementary, students added another 1,000 native plants to a long-term restoration site, now totaling approximately 9,000 plants, while learning to adapt their strategies in response to challenging invasive species pressure.

Partnerships also played a key role in expanding impact. At Boulder Park Preserve near Charlevoix Hospital, students supported by the Charlevoix County Community Foundation worked with the Little Traverse Conservancy to begin transforming the site into a pocket prairie that will one day provide a welcoming space for reflection and connection with native landscapes. At Elk Ridge, students from Vanderbilt, Wolverine, and Boyne Falls, in partnership with the Greenwood Foundation, continued a multi-year restoration effort by planting approximately 3,000 native plants and contributing to ongoing research on herbivory and long-term landscape recovery in an area still healing from historic disturbance.

Through REYS, students are not only restoring habitats, they are developing the knowledge, confidence, and stewardship ethic needed to care for Michigan's natural resources for years to come.

Taken together, these projects represent far more than thousands of native plants added to the landscape. They reflect hundreds of young people learning to observe, care for, and improve the places where they live. Through REYS, students are not only restoring habitats, they are developing the knowledge, confidence, and stewardship ethic needed to care for Michigan's natural resources for years to come.

As interest in the program continues to grow and additional schools seek to participate, we are deeply grateful for the partners and supporters who make this work possible. Their investment is helping cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards, one student, one habitat, and one community at a time.