Ahfachkee Environmental Legacy Trail: Indigenous Climate Action and Wetland Preservation

Project Summary

Students at Ahfachkee School, located on the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Big Cypress Reservation, collaborated with tribal departments and community stakeholders to plan and map an environmental legacy trail through a cypress dome wetland, preserving indigenous cultural heritage while teaching climate change mitigation and sustainable land use practices.

Detailed Story

The Ahfachkee School’s Science Department led the school and its neighboring communities to engage in climate change advocacy and mitigation. Located in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Clewiston, Florida, with another reservation in Immokalee, the project utilized TCI’s Civics Climate Action Learning Lab and Policy Tool Kits focused on Tribal Governments and Florida to educate students on climate policies and mitigation strategies. Five high school science classes (two environmental science, one biology, one physical science, and one chemistry) plus the Student Government Association learned to interpret scientific data and understand how it translates to their daily lives and environment. The project’s goal was to plan and map the construction of the Ahfachkee Environmental Legacy Trail behind the school in a wetland area consisting of a cypress dome. This initiative preserves the Big Cypress dome wetland ecosystem and the community’s natural runoff area while maintaining diverse life forms representing all three domains and six kingdoms. The trail serves as a legacy to Seminole culture, teaching how the tribe survived for hundreds of years in harmony with the natural swamp environment that provided food, water, clothing, shelter, medicine, culture, and worship spaces. Students learned how Seminole land use practices promoted climate change mitigation by limiting greenhouse gas emissions and preserving carbon sinks that naturally absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Through eight collaborative work sessions including coordination meetings, site mapping walks, and virtual meetings, students worked with multiple Seminole Tribe of Florida departments including Environmental Resource Management, Executive Operations, Tribal Historical Preservation Office, Department of Conservation, Real Estate Office, and Fire Department, plus construction contractors. The planned trail will consist of 11 individual hands-on science learning stations, Wi-Fi technology integration, cypress dome activities for wet and dry seasons, and an enterprise zone featuring a traditional Seminole chickee built by students and elders for educational and cultural activities.

Impact Statement

Students successfully advocated with tribal leadership to approve the environmental trail project, demonstrating agency in bringing stakeholders together across multiple tribal departments. The project empowered 49 students to become leaders in climate education and cultural preservation while creating a permanent educational resource for K-12 students, tribal communities, and neighboring schools. Students mapped trail locations, identified native and invasive plant species, located areas for decomposer studies, wildlife tracking stations, and bird watching areas. The project integrates traditional Seminole ecological knowledge with modern climate science, creating a model for how indigenous land use practices can inform contemporary climate action and carbon sequestration strategies.