On this occasion there was nothing to worry about. In a semi-swampy field next to Hermitage Hills Apartments, Trisha and more than a dozen fellow seniors were involved in a school activity.

Planting bushes, sowing seeds and spreading straw over the half-acre, the Hermitage students were helping to create a wetland for the developer of the complex, Universal Development. After more than three hours of slopping in the mud, students were ready for a break.

"We never knew how much was needed to start a wetland,'' Trisha said.

Hickory Life Science teacher Chris Straw was on hand to help the students, as was Nancy Bires, Hermitage Elementary's gifted teacher, who helped to coordinate the workday.

"They can sit and read about wetlands all day and still not have a good idea what it is,'' Mrs. Bires said. "This way they actually get to create a habitat.''

But the real strategists for the day were Dan Wallace and Brian Pancher, co-owners of Ecological Specialists Inc. Among the specialties of the Hermitage environmental consulting firm are creating and saving wetands for developer, local and state governments and federal agencies.

On the previous day, the two-man team stood in a classroom, giving an overview of the importance of wetlands.f wetlands. The field work with the men complemented the learning experience.

Both are former employees of engineering and consulting firm Michael Baker Jr., outside of Pittsburgh. They found themselves in heavy demand there when companies sought advice on saving and generating wetlands.

"Nobody else wanted to do the work,'' Wallace said.

Pancher, a biologist, and Wallace, a civil engineer, formed their company about a year ago.

"You seldom see these two professions work together,'' Wallace said.

Once thought of as worthless, wetlands have been found to perform the critical task of replenishing and filtering aquifers, in addition to being home to countless animals and plant life.

Between 1790 and 1990, it's been estimated 221 million acres of wetlands in the lower 48 states has been destroyed, more than half of what originally existed, Pancher said.

Since the mid-'80s federal and state regulations governing wetlands have gotten stricter. Developers are required to produce at least an acre of wetland for every acre they consume.

"The idea behind that is to make sure there is no net loss of wetlands,'' Wallace said.

Even so, the federal Environmental Protection Agency says 58,000 acres of wetlands are destroyed annually.

Creating a wetland plan for Universal Development required approval from the Department of Environmental Protection, the state agency which oversees environmental regulations.

Like an architect constructing a 20-story building, creating a wetland requires painstaking planning, the two men say.

There are three types of wetlands

» Emergent -- which shows the starting water and plant foundations.

» Scrub-shrub -- where shrubs have been established along with grasses.

» Forested -- the most mature variety which contains trees.

Manmade wetlands fall in the first two categories.

"You just can't go out and make an instant forested wetland,'' Wallace said. "That takes 30 years to create.''

Rather than a farmlike method where plants are equally spaced in tidy rows, Ecological Specialists uses the shotgun approach of planting a shrub here and there.

"Our goal is to make it look like it was never created, to make it look like it's always been here,'' Pancher said.

On the Hermitage Hills project, the topsoil was removed to produce better conditions for plants and to allow water to spread out properly to prevent the land from drying out. A spring was diverted to ensure water would be readily available for the site.

To enhance the area's vegetation, a special $100-a-pound seed mixture was used for grasses and plants naturally suited for wetlands. DEP requries the area be monitored for five years to ensure it continues to thrive.

Currently, Pancher and Wallace are designing a wetland and stream-restoration project for a nature trail behind Delahunty Middle School in Hermitage. The project is being funded by a $23,000 "Growing Greener'' state grant, secured by Mrs. Bires. Field work on that project is expected to begin in the fall and students and parents are expected to participate.

As for the Hermitage Hills wetland, students said getting their hands dirty was a true learning experience.

"I liked being able to see what a wetland habitat is like,'' said Drew Pickman, who is off to Penn State in the fall to study wildlife and fishery science.

However, there was one downside to the project: "A lot of people lost their boots'' in the calf-deep mud, Trisha said.