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Get Your School Certified

The Jersey-Friendly School Program has three certification levels.

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The Barnegat Bay watershed is a great place to live, learn, work, and play. It is up to us to keep our watershed healthy for people and wildlife. Schoolyards are an important component of a healthy environment. The goal of the Jersey-Friendly School Certification Program is to create healthy schoolyard landscapes for a healthy watershed.

Getting Started

There are three levels of certification in the School Program. Start with Level 1: Creek certification your first year, and then build on your progress in consecutive years to achieve advanced certification status, Level 2: River and Level 3: Bay

Achieving Certification

Starting with the Creek Level, your students will learn about the importance of clean water for drinking, swimming, and fishing; healthy soil for gardening and growing; and essential habitat for wildlife. With your guidance, they will use what they have learned to plan, design, and install a Jersey-Friendly Schoolyard garden project. 

Start small – installing a Jersey-Friendly garden at your school doesn’t have to be a monumental task. Create a small pollinator garden. Develop an outdoor classroom. Install native shrubs and trees around your school grounds. Identify and replace some invasive species with native plants. Small changes to your school’s landscape equal big changes for a healthy environment.

Need more information about getting your school yard certified?