McGowan Park Elementary Students Build Birdhouses for Future Sníne Elementary

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Story provided by Chelsea Isenor, Director of Communications and Board Administration

As the Kamloops-Thompson School District prepares to open its newest school, Sníne Elementary, students are helping to construct a unique part of the school.

As part of the habitat compensation efforts related to the school’s construction, the District planned to build and install eight bird nest boxes around the site of the new school in Pineview Valley.

On Monday, October 21, 2024, Grade 6/7 students at McGowan Park Elementary received a hands-on lesson in bird house construction. Led by SD73 Cabinet Makers Becki Lamb and Fiona MacInnis, students built the Sníne nesting boxes using rough cut boards. Students expressed that they enjoyed using tools to screw the bird houses together. Thank you to Chris Rice, one of the District’s electricians, for donating the wood for this project.

These birdhouses are specifically designed to provide a nesting habitat for the Lewis's Woodpecker – a bird species that is protected under the Species at Risk Act. The Lewis's Woodpecker nests in cavities of large diameter trees that are living, partly decaying, or dead. The recently built nesting boxes will be installed in live trees at a height of 13' to 15' in the Pineview Valley area around Sníne Elementary.

Construction is currently underway on Sníne Elementary, which is expected to open in Fall of 2026. Stay up to date on construction and community engagement for the new school here.