Lauralton Hall celebrates its first decade as a certified Audubon At Home Habitat! In 2013, Lauralton saw the culmination of two years of hard work by the LH Environmental Club and their faculty moderator Donna DiMassa. For two years the club worked closely with the Connecticut Audubon Society to develop a sustainable plan for managing their campus habitat, creating an urban wildlife oasis. Working with both Audubon and the Lauralton Hall landscaping crew, the club inventoried the natural features of our campus and improved our existing butterfly garden. Future plans called for the formation of a more centrally located pollinator garden and in 2017, a second garden was planted in the front lawn. Together these two gardens attract native pollinators to our area. As part of the Audubon At Home Habitat program, the campus also went pesticide-free and renewed its commitment to planting native vegetation. With the addition of the second garden in 2017 the school applied for, and obtained, the National Wildlife Federation certification as a Schoolyard Habitat.

Rooted in the mission of Lauralton Hall and the Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy, Lauralton Hall holds a respectful view of the natural world as the unique creation of God. The Environmental Club continued to maintain its commitment to the Sisters of Mercy's critical concern for the Earth by building bat houses and erecting them in critical bat habitats along the edges of campus. Today, Lauralton students, faculty, and visitors are able to observe the benefits of this continued commitment. The campus is currently home to a variety of wildlife, including woodchucks, skunks, raccoons, foxes, and more recently, a pair of nesting bald eagles. This wildlife oasis has enriched the student experience at Lauralton through class religious retreats, writing prompts in English Literature classes, and of course, through the AP Environmental Science class curriculum. “Having a fully functional ecosystem just outside our doors has allowed us to observe firsthand many of the concepts described in our textbooks and classrooms,” shares Lauralton Science Teacher Mrs. April O. Kelley. Lauralton Hall is committed to many more decades of environmental stewardship.