A little update from Green Project intern Karin Costin, a senior at Augustana College.
Augustana College Ecology students led by Dr. Craig Spencer have made their mark at Newton Hills State Park. Over the course of the past semester, twelve students (including me) and one professor have made three trips to an area of Newton Hills in order to restore the prairie ecosystem.
“After studying and teaching about the decline in prairie ecosystems, I decided this year we would actually do something about it,” says Spencer, 48, a passionate conservationist and teacher. “If any group could begin this project it was going to be this group.”
Our group made up of ten males and two females has grown quite close over their many hours of classes at Augustana. Many of us have taken numerous biology and chemistry courses together, this course being the first where service-learning was incorporated into the curriculum. Service is one of Augustana’s five core values.
The problem was evident to the students in the class after studying the effects of invasive species within the larger context of a major theme in ecology known as ecological succession. Ecological succession is the process of one species replacing another species. Following a major disturbance such as an ice age or forest fires, species will regrow in a characteristic pattern. Due to the historical lack of fire, the forest ecosystem at Newton Hills is being overtaken by pioneer species of trees and shrubs such as Eastern Red Cedar. Native prairie grasses are quickly being replaced by the trees and other invasive species.
Current research is being conducted by USGS and Oklahoma State University to examine the effects of Easter Red Cedar on the water levels. Chris Zou, a professor in Natural Resource Ecology and Management states, “Using Oklahoma as an example, of the 17 million acres of rangeland including prairie, eight million acres are currently overgrown with Eastern Red Cedar. That number is increasing at an alarming rate equivalent to 762 acres per day.” The rate of change is astounding. If current trends continue, it is possible for the prairie ecosystems to disappear in the next couple decades. The Nature Conservancy estimates that only 4% of the original tallgrass prairie remains today.
These statistics are alarming and the group saw this as an opportunity that we could not pass up. Initially I was skeptical about what we would be doing and how much work there was to be done, but once we got to Newton Hills and everyone was working together, it really was amazing how much work can get done in a short amount of time. My work this past summer with the Sioux Falls Green Project has deepened my appreciation for conservation work and actually doing something about a foreseen problem was really rewarding.
The work included thinning out and eventually eliminating thick patches of Sumac, a flowering plant, by cutting the individual shrub-like trees and disposing of them in the forest downhill. A few students thinned an invasive species called Buckthorn by collecting the berries for disposal in order to prevent spreading. Other individuals working out at Newton Hills cut down large Eastern Red Cedars across a the ridgetop expanse.
The crew revisited the site the second time and this time we collected native tallgrass and forb seeds such as Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indian Grass, Switchgrass, and Milkweed. After filling 5 gallon buckets full of seeds, we spread what we had collected in patches across the ridge, focusing our efforts in order to halt the effects of succession.
The group seemed to enjoy the work as many found it enjoyable to cut down as many large trees as possible, always remembering that having a little fun makes service learning a lot more enjoyable. I think that getting out there, working with your hands, connecting to something in nature can be beneficial and even a therapeutic remedy that has the ability to counter the stressful academic load.
It was especially meaningful to do the work after we had learned about the issues, after our third trip to Newton Hills this fall. Students had visited Newton Hills earlier in the semester, obtained data on the current state of Newton Hills and tracked the change over the course of the last century.
Spencer plans to continue this work at Newton Hills in future ecology courses. “Service learning is a way for me to more deeply connect with the students and is something I really enjoy. I hope that future groups will be just as excited as this group was about the project. They really embraced it,” he said. He hopes to take the group there this spring to track the change.
With a little luck this spring and the continued efforts of Spencer and Augustana students, a portion of Newton Hills may begin to resemble the native grassland that existed a century ago across the Midwest.
Filed under: Education, Local Happenings
