"Discovering the Laurel"

Last Monday strated the scholar program, which guesses to be full of activities, knowledge and fun.

The Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, through Environmental Center of Priolo, in the ambit of the project Life Sustainable Laurel began its program of activities for schools with "Discovering the Laurel," a unique opportunity for students of the 5th year of the Basic and Secondary School of Nordeste that through a field trip visit sites where the Laurel Forest is present, where of singular beauty the natural forest of the Azores appears.

This activity consists of a set of plant identification where the students just need a field notebook with pictures and some clues about the plants that form the Laurel Forest and and about the ones that threat this forest, a pen and a deal of attention and interest is all that is needed to learn more about our natural heritage.

This activity has been developed over the past two years and assumes an important vehicle to raise awareness of the preservation of the natural vegetation of the Azores and its problems.

The questionnaire completed by the end aims at assessing the knowledge resulting from the activity developed. The students had maximum grade as they correctly answered all the questions, leaving the technical team with a huge smile and great satisfaction. We hope to have taken one step towards the conservation and preservation of this forest that is threatened.

This Monday, in the course of the activity, the students also had the rare opportunity to observe a species of bird that sometimes visit us at this time of year, coming from the Arctic areas, a Snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis).

André Batista, Coordinator of the Environmental Center of Priolo

www.centropriolo.com