Last spring, members of Ascension Lutheran Church, 600 E. Penn Grant Road, Willow Street, applied for a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The grant provides funding for various programs that promote environmental sustainability, and the church hoped it would provide the necessary resources for a greening project conceived by congregation member Rhonda Miller. After receiving the grant in June 2023, Miller began the process of finding a contractor to complete the project, and Ascension Lutheran officially partnered with Waxwing EcoWorks Co. last November. The church and its contractor are breaking ground for the project on Wednesday, March 20.

"Some time ago, I had this idea about making our property more sustainable as a way for us to be better stewards of the land in our possession," Miller said. "We hope this is a launching point for other things we'd like to do."

The goal of Miller's project is to make several improvements to Ascension Lutheran's property, which will include conservational landscaping, enhancing native meadows and strengthening nearby wildlife habitats. The project will also involve remediating the mowed lawn and transforming parts of the property into areas that are rife with native plants, which Miller hopes will become a haven for pollinators and migrating birds.

In addition to making Ascension Lutheran Church a wildlife-friendly zone, the greening project's secondary goal is to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff that enters a creek near the church's property. Miller has partnered with Stroud Water Research Center to plant an abundance of trees and shrubs on the borders of the church's property to repair the buffer along the stream. Miller also invited students who are studying environmental science at Franklin & Marshall College to get hands-on experience by assisting with the tree-planting initiative and other aspects of the project.

Riley Kurau, a member of Ascension Lutheran Church and BSA Troop 58 in Willow Street, will assist with the planting of pollinator gardens on the church property as part of his Eagle Scout project. Kurau is constructing houses for bluebirds, purple martins and owls that will be placed in the gardens. "It's a very exciting thing that will happen in conjunction with our greening project," Miller said. "(Kurau) has been researching maps of the area, and he recently presented his idea to the church council."

Ascension Lutheran Church will host an educational event on Sunday, April 7, at 1 p.m. The event will feature a presentation from Waxwing EcoWorks Co. founder Elise Jurgen, who will discuss the basics of ecological gardening and other ways members of the community can promote biological diversity at home. The discussion will include a second presentation from Mike Hudson, the Lancaster outreach coordinator for Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake.

For more information, visit http://ascensionws.org.