In 2016 HCA launched the Green Guard Stewardship Program at East High School. Program participants included students originally from countries including Nepal, Rwanda, Kenya, and Cuba. Along with some Kansas City natives, the group with a wide range of life experiences and personal values all contributed their time and energy to improving and protecting the woodland on their school campus.

East High School has a 13-acre patch of forest that had been forgotten; it was overgrown and a dumping ground for trash. The 2016 East High School Green Guard stewards restored part of the area by saving trees from the death by grape vine. This year’s stewards will be restoring the outdoor classroom to be used by the students and teachers at East High School.

Through partnership with the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance (TRIM) grant program, HCA contracted Molly Gosnell, Midwest GeoInfo, to produce a tree inventory of the East High School forest. The 2017 East High stewards are using this inventory to determine what trees will need to be removed and what trees should stay based on tree health and whether the tree is an invasive species. Invasive species are harmful to forested areas because they out-compete native trees and would eventually turn the forest into a monoculture, reducing food and habitat diversity for wildlife. The stewards will also use information from the inventory to provide education about the ecological and health benefits of the trees in the forest patch. 

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