Mark Aubrey, left, questions his students about plants and trees during a landscaping management class at Cienega High School. The class is building a pond at the school and will introduce various species of wildlife in an attempt to re-create the habitat found in Cienega Creek.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

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A Cienega High School landscaping class will bring a piece of Cienega Creek to the school in an attempt to protect endangered species.

The class is replicating the creek's ecosystem by placing endangered fish, frogs, plants and other forms of wildlife into a pond at the school.

The project is designed to protect the endangered wildlife from invasive species that threaten the ecosystem, said landscape management teacher Mark Aubrey.

The area around the pond will include a garden for vegetables, a ramada built from a trampoline and a fence made from old steel panels.

Aubrey and his students will find out if they can re-create an ecosystem and learn how different aspects of nature work together, he said.

The project involves Aubrey's three landscaping classes, made up of special-education and mainstream students.

Aubrey's classes started the project at the beginning of the school year and expect to finish in May.

The classes will add the fish, frogs and other wildlife at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year, he said.

"We talk about animals, bacteria, oxygen, the whole cycle of how things work together," he said. "If something happens in Cienega Creek, this can be a safe house."

Aubrey received a $14,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, and another $14,000 in the form of donations and volunteer work from professionals, he said.

The Bureau of Land Management, which manages Cienega Creek, has assisted the classes by allowing them to participate in fish counts at the creek last fall and teaching the students about proper plant species to use in their pond, he said.

Students have dug trenches and ditches for the pond and will build the fences and the ramada, he said.

The students have learned how to measure oxygen levels in water, calibrate how much light hits the water versus shade and examine the factors that affect water levels and species populations.

"We're trying to provide a natural balance and if it goes out of balance, then ask 'why?' " he said. "It's all about experimentation and learning through doing, instead of sitting in the classroom reading about it."

There are three endangered species the classes will introduce to the pond: the Gila topminnow, desert pupfish and Chiricahua leopard frog.

These species have been threatened by non-native species such as bullfrogs, crawfish and game fish such as bass, Aubrey said.

Groundwater pumping and drought also have contributed to the endangered plight of these species and some native desert plants, said Karen Simms, acting manager for Las Cienegas National Conservation Area.

The pond will have to include all aspects of the ecosystem—including plants, bacteria, insects and algae— if the species expect to survive, Aubrey said.

"There's a mixture of endangered species and everything else," he said.

Some species will gravitate toward the pond on their own, Simms said.

"Once they plant the native plants, they will get colonization of other plant species and insects," she said.

Some of the students realize once an ecosystem is destroyed or an animal becomes extinct, nobody can bring it back.

"Things can go chaotic when you add little things, like chemicals into the water or when you take out a species," said senior Alex Crowe, 18. "Once it's gone, you can't undo it."

Crowe has learned how water affects the environment, he said.

"You can have a green lushy forest to sandy stuff. The less water it is, the less lush it will be," Crowe said.

Junior Jeffrey Cotherman, 17, said he's learned how to check the oxygen level in water.

"They have a little tool and they stick it in the water and check," Cotherman said.

He's also learned how growth affects the environment.

People hurt the environment by "building houses where animals live and by bringing in invasive species that destroy the native species of plants and animals," he said.

Simms said the pond will provide a backup habitat in case another non-native species invades the creek.

"We have some of the last remaining habitat for these endangered species," she said. "They can be a source to replace species that were lost."