Good scientific research and wise use of nature help resolve local pollution around the school.
A good deal all around.
Trees will be a breath of fresh air for school
By Chris Bowman - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, May 12, 2007
Arden Middle School just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Five years ago, the local chapter of the American Lung Association enlisted atmospheric physicist Thomas Cahill to lead a volunteer study on the effects of vehicle exhaust particles in the Sacramento region.
Cahill, an international authority on the invisible but toxic floating specks, began by laying a ruler somewhat arbitrarily across an area map and drawing a line between his hometown of Davis and the foothills community of Shingle Springs, 47 miles northeast. He mounted air monitors along the transect, which happened to cross the Arden school at Watt Avenue and Arden Way.
So began a sparsely funded experiment that has produced brow-raising discoveries and low-tech pollution controls for schools and homeowners along busy roads.
The Arden school, which is sending 20 eighth-graders to Wichita, Kan., as finalists in next week's National Science Olympiad tournament, has become a community science project in itself.
The PTA, the county roads department and even a fraternity at California State University, Sacramento, have helped plant fast-growing evergreen trees to buffer the chronic spew of harmful soot from six lanes of heavy Watt Avenue traffic flanking the school's west side.
