De Soto High School’s newest club is putting the green in the green and white. The Botany Club is a student-led effort to implement sustainable practices at De Soto.

Botany club adviser, Kylee Sharp, says the Botany Club is largely student led.

“The students have some really ambitious and awesome goals for the club right now,” Sharp said.

Botany Club founder and president, senior Abigail Stutzman, was inspired to create the club because she “really likes plants,” as well as to provide a space for ongoing botanical experiments.

“Some of the projects that Mr. Sharp had been working on last year like the hydroponics and aquaponics weren’t going to have any other motivation to be continued or expanded in an organized way,” Stutzman said. “I had heard a lot of positive feedback when I had thrown out the idea.”

The Botany Club is tackling plastic recycling as their first project, as this service is not provided to the school by its’ current recycling company.

“Teachers can start collecting plastic recycling, then Botany Club students will come every other Thursday to their classroom to pick up that plastic recycling,” Stutzman said.

The Botany club has several future projects on the table, including a school garden and starting a composting system. The club is also planning a project to give back to the community.

“Students talked about a food garden and donating the food that they grow to De Soto or over to Starside or to the De Soto food pantry,” Sharp said.

Sharp is looking forward to the club’s future.

“Each one of their projects can be a really big and time intensive. I think if we can grow and develop the projects they have that would be outstanding,” Sharp said.