No one really knows what making a lasting impact truly means. An action recognized as a charity or program to help others creates a buzz for a little while, but as far as a long-term impact, a solution is often overlooked or simply unheard of.
The 10-acre patch of land between Victory Parkway and WHHS had been plagued with trash and neglected by the community for years. It remained that way until someone in the community decided to make a change. A small group of dedicated students, and some supportive parents, are stepping up.
Spawned by a collaboration with Green Club and Bio-Eco Club, the restoration of the Victory Parkway Park or the “Walnut Woods” project has been a plan for about three years. This year, the cultivating process was put into full throttle.
“The Walnut Woods project is one that will greatly benefit our community. It promotes native tree growth and opens opportunities to the faculty and the students of WHHS…We are currently on our third generation of trees and the last two years have been really successful in growing, nurturing and transferring them,” the president of Green Club, SENIOR Hemmi Song, said.
Allie Mondini, an advisor for the Bio-Eco Club, has been one of the overseers of the project and had nothing but positive things to say about its benefits to the WHHS community.
“I see it as an intersection between better planet conservation, education, and a bridge between WHHS and the community,” Mondini said.

According to the Victory Parkway Park Restoration and Utilization proposal, the conservation of the Walnut Woods involves the removal of invasive species such as honeysuckle, increasing the biodiversity of native plant species and improving the surface water runoff situation at the bottom of the basin.
The educational part of the project includes providing a safe space for schools across Walnut Hills and Evanston to have an accessible area for many classes, such as science and art, to interact with the curriculum in a fun and environmental way. This is especially important considering many urban schools do not have the opportunity to interact with a large natural area.
Timothy Agnello, a science teacher at WHHS, as well as a professional geologist, has other ideas on how to utilize the space. He’s hoping to use the Walnut Woods for topographic mapwork and a model for his classes. The model being a full-fledged landslide.
“I’ve been seeing water seeping out the bottom, which usually signifies the base of a landslide,” Agnello said.
The Bio-Eco and Green Club’s collaboration on the woods project was impressive and essential to the project’s success. The Green Club’s focus is solely on cultivating, while Bio-Eco’s focus is conservation, making them the obvious candidate for taking on the woods project in the spring.
“Because the Green Club can’t be out in the greenhouse during the winter season, they grow native trees to be planted in the woods area… and when it’s time for Green Club to grow the vegetable gardens, they’ll focus on that, while my Bio-Eco kids will keep maintaining the trees,” Mondini said.
The project is sponsored by Cincinnati Parks and Cincinnati Public Schools, which allows for long term goals such as building an educational day-care program and an outdoor amphitheater to be accomplished.