Students at Waterloo High School put their woodworking skills to good use early last month as they built and installed 22 duck nesting boxes to aid in maintaining the habitat around the Jerry Costello Lock & Dam in Modoc.

WHS construction teacher Matt Lucash discussed the project with the Republic-Times, noting how he’s served as shop teacher for about three years after the previous instructor retired. He’s worked at WHS since 2003 as a history and PE teacher.

Lucash recalled how, as he was getting started in his new vocation teacher position, he was looking for some larger projects for his students to focus on.

“I was a new guy, kinda needed new ideas for projects, and Lisa Miller from Zahnow reached out to me and asked me about some duck nesting boxes that she had at her house that were rotten, and she wanted to replace them,” Lucash said.

With that request coming somewhat late in the school year, the project didn’t get off the ground, though that changed in Lucash’s second year as construction teacher.

He said Monroe County Electric Cooperative offered a grant last year for $500. Along with this, a parent of one of his students is chairman of the Delta Waterfowl Kaskaskia River Chapter, and the organization donated another $500.

With that $1,000, Lucash and his students purchased lumber from Doug White Hardwoods in Marissa, ultimately making 25 duck nesting boxes, some going to Miller and other members of the community and 15 going to Delta Waterfowl.

The first year proving a success, MCEC and Delta Waterfowl again contributed a collective $1,000 toward the project this year.

Students completed the construction aspect of the project in February, building a total of 22 nesting boxes.

While students fulfilled the shop aspect of the project, Ben Campbell, the aforementioned chairman of the area Delta Waterfowl chapter, suggested adding a big conservation element.

“He came up with the idea of ‘Hey, it would be nice if I could come in and give a little talk so that we could just talk about habitats and how that’s changed over the years based on light pollution, weather pollution, all that stuff and how it affects water fowl population in our area,’” Lucash said.

The conservation education didn’t end there, however, as students also got to see for themselves the boxes put to good use.

In early March, Lucash and some of his students took a trip to the area around the Costello Lock & Dam to install their work personally.

“We went out and sloshed around in some marshy woods, installed those 22 duck nesting boxes,” Lucash said. “Me and 23 students went and stomped around the woods for three and a half, four hours.”

Campbell, who joined the group for this part of the project, spoke about the value of the students’ work when it comes to conservation.

He spoke broadly about Delta Waterfowl’s efforts in the area, trying to ensure ducks have the food they need to make bigger broods for themselves.

The boxes, he said, should be very helpful in aiding the duck population into the future.

“I think it’s gonna be very beneficial to the local area,” Campbell said. “The more that we can breed here at home, the more ducks that we’ll have for years to come. Hopefully these boxes, if we keep this project going, we’ll have ducks for generations to come.”

Campbell also described what he hopes was a positive experience for the students as they got to directly contribute to their environment.

“It was kind of an amazing sight to see all them kids out, seeing their work actually be used for what it’s meant for,” Campbell said.

Lucash expressed a similar sentiment about the importance of conservation and how his students have been able to contribute in such a substantial way.

He also spoke about how WHS construction students have likewise done positive work elsewhere in the community and within the district, be it building gaga ball pits for local daycares or constructing bookshelves for Waterloo schools as well as picnic tables at Waterloo Junior High School.

“I’ve been a hunter my whole life, and I respect the outdoors, so I thought this was a great way to get kids interested,” Lucash said. “I’m also very adamant about community service in my class, so we do a lot of school-based projects.”

With two years of successful duck box building along with a myriad of other projects, Lucash voiced his hopes for the good work being done by WHS construction students to continue.

“I’m actually taking the assistant principal job at Waterloo next year, so my goal is to hopefully keep this going with whoever fills my spot,” Lucash said. “Our ag classes next year are gonna be teaching the natural wildlife habitat class as well, so I’m hoping we can figure out a way to keep this project going and maybe mix it in there so we can get more kids involved with something like this.”