Campus Conservation

We collaborate with local civics and conservation organizations to create more native ecosystems around the Bailey campus. These initiatives also give NPA students and club members unique learning opportunities!

Bringing Back Monarchs to Texas

The monarch butterfly is endangered due to habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change. Bailey NPA is proud of the steps we are taking to help bring back the monarchs to Texas!

Creating a "Monarch Waystation" in the gated nursery area with native plants, shelter, and water sources thanks to a grant awarded by the Native Plant Society of Texas
Rescuing zizotes and antelope horn milkweed plants from high-traffic areas on campus (like the athletic fields) and transplanting them to our gated butterfly garden
Rescuing Monarch eggs from high-traffic areas, hatching them in our classroom, and releasing them in our butterfly garden.

Cooling Our Campus

In early 2026, we received the City of Austin's Urban Forest grant to plant 37 saplings in front of our school to help provide cooler sidewalks for our students and staff.

This project will (eventually) demonstrate how the higher temperatures we feel within our neighborhood can be mitigated by planting trees to achieve a tree canopy cover of 40% or more in a 60-90 meter radii area.

Each semester, students in the NPA class will be assigned two saplings to observe in an official online study. They will regularly report on the health, growth, and the condition of the Groasis Waterboxx cocoons that support the trees.

We are grateful to Tree Amigos for sourcing and planting our native saplings at cost through their Shade Our Streets program!

Nurturing the Next Generation

Bailey NPA is proud to partner with local Eagle Scout candidates to create projects that both further our conservation mission while helping them graduate to the next level of Scouting!

2025: Storey Evans built six air pruning beds that are used by both students and community members to grow native trees from seeds. The bed's mesh bottom exposes roots to air, causing the taproot to stop growing when it hits the edge and forcing plants to develop dense, fibrous root systems (i.e., (“air pruning”).
2026: Sai Pen built a raised duck pond, deck, and ramp for our chicken coop. Not only did this provide a larger, roomier pond for our ducks to swim in, but it is easier for the NPA students to empty the pond through a hose that drains outside the coop. The hose has an additional benefit of watering the surrounding plants with naturally fertilized water!