By News Editor Emma Stancey

As a part of their Conservation @ Home initiative, The Conservation Foundation designated the NNHS Fahle Prairie as a native plant area on Wednesday, December 4th.

According to the organization’s website, The Conservation @ Home program, “is an extension of [the organization’s] existing homeowner education and watershed protection efforts, and encourages and recognizes property owners that protect and/or create yards that are nature-friendly and conserve water. This includes planting native vegetation, such as prairie and woodland wildflowers, trees and shrubs, creating butterfly and rain gardens, and removing exotic plant species.”

According to principal Kevin Pobst, the Fahle Prairie has commemorated Michelle Fahle, class of 2013, since the spring of 2010 when the Fahle family created it.

Fahle, class of 1977, gardens prairies for a living, and he came up with the idea to dedicate a prairie in honor of his daughter.

“When the parking lot [alongside the tennis courts] was being paved [over a previous prairie], there was some conversation about building a prairie,” said Pobst. “Then when Michelle passed away, he thought it’d be the best way to memorialize her.”

Pobst said the Naperville Education Foundation (NEF), Boy Scouts, and AP environmental science and horticulture students have maintained the prairie over the course of its three-year life by planting, weeding, and collecting seeds.

“[The designation] is not publicity as much as it’s an acknowledgement that this is a space that is contributing to the revitalization of native species. However small it is, we’re making our contribution,” said Pobst. “It is essentially a sanctuary for native species.”