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Dunn’s Woods Restoration Project Indiana University Office of Sustainability Summer 2012 Intern: Hayley Prihoda Mentor: Heather Reynolds I. Project Background Project Description The Dunn’s Woods Restoration Project aims to promote the cultural and natural heritage of Dunn’s Woods, an ~10 acre woodland at the heart of Indiana University Bloomington’s early campus. The project began in the spring of 2010, uniting individuals from a range of disciplines in the common goal of restoring and promoting the historic site. Team members include student, faculty, and community members with backgrounds in history, landscape history, ecology, biology, restoration, and conservation. The project has three main objectives: 1) Researching the cultural and natural history of Dunn’s Woods to gain a better understanding of the forces that have shaped the site 2) Mitigating invasive species and restoring native species through the application of ecological research and knowledge 3) Developing outreach, volunteer, and course partnership opportunities to reconnect students and community members with Dunn’s Woods A defining feature of the Dunn’s Woods Restoration Project is it’s multifaceted approach to education and outreach. The knowledge obtained through ecological and historical research is not only utilized to restore and preserve the woods, but to reintegrate the site into the community at large. One of the greatest threats to the biodiversity of Dunn’s Woods, and urban green spaces in general, is a lack of human understanding. Education is a powerful tool in combating human ignorance about the services provided by such spaces and the necessity of their preservation. Volunteer opportunities and course partnerships serve as a forum to teach and discuss ecosystem services, biodiversity, and urban green space. The information distributed through these outreach opportunities can then be integrated into participants’ daily practices and decisions. Project Partners The Dunn’s Woods Restoration Project is a partnership between multiple organizations in Monroe County, Indiana. Indiana University Bloomington, Monroe County Identify and Removal Invasive Species (MC-IRIS), Sassasfras Audubon Society (SAS), and Bloomington Parks and Recreation all play contributing roles in the success of the project. Project Members: Heather Reynolds, Associate Professor of Biology, Indiana University Roger Hangarter, Professor of Biology, Indiana University Jim Capshew, Associate Professor of History and Philosophical Science, Indiana University Jonathan Bauer, Ph.D. Candidate in Biology, Indiana University Mia William, Landscape Architect, Indiana University Anita Bracalente, Landscape Historian, Researcher Steve Cotter, Natural Resources Manager, Bloomington Parks and Recreation Ellen Jacquart, MC-IRIS Spencer Goehl, MC-IRIS Tony Minich, Environmentalist, Educational Researcher and Web Designer David Rupp, President, SAS Dunn’s Woods Dunn’s Woods formed the center of the second home of Indiana University Bloomington. Following a fire at the original site, known as Seminary Square, in 1883, the Board of Trustees elected to purchase a 20-acre wooded site, just east of the original location, from the Dunn family. With a $50,000 grant from Monroe County, Indiana University was relocated to the new site in 1884 and has remained ever since. The decision to preserve ~10 acres of the purchased site as a central wooded sanctuary offered a unique element in the design of the Indiana University campus. Dunn’s Woods served as the designated heart of the campus, with early structures surrounding it in a semi-circular shape known as the Old Crescent. Today, these original buildings, Maxwell Hall, Owen Hall, Wylie Hall, Kirkwood Hall, and Lindley Hall, still border the woods and additional structures, Swain Hall, the Law School, and Bryan Hall, have further encircled the site. II. Internship Introduction In the summer of 2012, the Indiana University Office of Sustainability Environmental Quality and Land Use working group elected to provide the Dunn’s Woods Restoration Project with a summer intern. The internship position was created to assist project members in their research and outreach efforts. More specifically, the internship had four main focuses – History, Ecology, Education, and Outreach. III. Internship Progress History Background The project’s Historian, Jim Capshew, and Landscape Historian, Anita Bracalente, have compiled an extensive number of resources related to the initial purchase of Dunn’s Woods, the preservation of the site, and Indiana University campus development. Findings indicate that the designation of Dunn’s Woods as a wooded sanctuary on the Indiana University campus set a precedent for the future treatment of green space in campus design. Further development was often influenced by a desire to retain as much of the original landscape as possible. Jim Capshew and Anita Bracalente are working on an article discussing how Dunn’s Woods influenced campus expansion and inspired similar preservation treatments around the country. Additionally, Anita Bracalente recently published an article about Dunn’s Woods in the annual publication The View. (Add a link to the article here) Internship Progress Over the course of the summer, I assisted Anita and Jim in their research on the cultural history of Dunn’s Woods. I specifically focused on identifying campus and community opinions of the woods and how these feelings have changed over time. My research included work in the Office of Archives and Records Management at Indiana University. In the archives, I was able to access the Indiana University yearbook, The Arbutus, from the years 1894 -1901. These primary documents provided important insight into students’ opinions of the woods during the late nineteenth century. The photographs, etchings, poetry, and articles during this period revealed that the woods and the natural setting of the campus were generally viewed with a romantic outlook. Looking forward, I also researched Herman B. Wells and the impact he had on the preservation of the woods. Wells made important contributions to the woodland setting of Indiana University by recommending the continued practice of naturalist landscaping as the campus expanded. The Campus Master Plan, published in 2010, provided additional insight into the future plans of the campus. This document labels Dunn’s Woods as a “Memorable Space” and a “One-of-a-kind Place”. My research has suggested that the preservation of Dunn’s Woods is a continuation of Indiana University’s tradition for protecting and promoting natural green spaces on campus. Research Bibliography: The Arbutus, Indiana University Bloomington (1894 – 1901) Campus Master Plan, Indiana University Bloomington (March 2010) Gallman, John, Rose Greene, Jim Weigand, and Doug Wilson, edit. Herman Wells Stories: As Told by his Friends on his 90th Birthday. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. Mincey, Sarah and Burney Fischer. The Woodland Campus. Indiana University Bloomington: A Historic Walking Tour. Bloomington: SPEA, 2009 A reissue of Weatherwax’s guide with updated environmental perspective. Weatherwax, Paul. The Woodland Campus of Indiana University. Indiana University Publications, 1974. Moving Forward During the academic year, I plan to use my research to publish an article about green space, on the Indiana University Bloomington campus, specifically highlighting Dunn’s Woods. I have been in contact with the Indiana Daily Student and Indiana University Alumni Magazine about submission details. This article will serve as important documentation on the development of the woods as well as a useful tool for marketing and distributing information about the project. I need to conduct additional research in order to write this article. I plan a target submission date of Month, day, year. Ecology Background Multiple members play an important role in the ecological portion of the Dunn’s Woods Project. Ellen Jacquart and MC-IRIS worked with project members to use geographic information system (GIS) technology to map out the most common invasive species in Dunn’s Woods. The maps revealed that over 50% of the understory in Dunn’s Woods was covered by the exotic invasive Purple Wintercreeper (Euonymus). Sixteen additional invasive species were identified, including Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), Japanese Bush Honeysuckle (Lonicera macckii), and Muliflora Rose (Rosa mulitflora). In collaboration with Bloomington Parks and Recreation, the project has been extended to Latimer Woods as well. Latimer Woods is an apt sister site, because it shares a similar age, history, and invasive status. For over a year, Reynolds’ lab Ph.D. candidate Jonathan Bauer has been conducting ecological research in the woods. His work studies the success of different control treatments (manual removal, mulch, and herbicide treatment) on Purple Wintercreeper. He is also analyzing native species recruitment dynamics in conjunction with these treatments. Propagation of native seedlings was undertaking in the Jordan Hall greenhouse, on IUB’s campus, to provide seedlings for ecological research and volunteer plantings. Research to date has shown that manual removal is an effective but slow removal treatment for Purple Wintercreeper, common native species struggle in drought conditions more than Purple Wintercreeper, and reintegrating native species is challenging because they are attractive to native herbivores and generally grow slowly. Internship Progress Rather than turning my attention to the invasive species of Dunn’s Woods, I focused on researching the native woodland species. This focus was directed by a desire to inform students, community members, and volunteers about some of Indiana’s native wildlife. I researched twenty-eight native woodland species that are being used in the Dunn’s Woods project. These species are: American Bellflower Blue Flag Iris Bottlebrush Grass Bushy Seedbox Calico Aster Calico Beardtongue Cardinal Flower Cutleaf Coneflower Downy Wood Mint False Sunflower Frank’s Sedge Fringed Sedge Golden Ragwort Gray’s Sedge Great Blue Lobelia Hairy Woodland Brome Hairy Wood Mint Hop Sedge Joe-Pye Weed Mistflower Orange Jewelweed Panicled Aster Spicebush Stout Wood Reed Thimbleweed White Snakeroot Wild Senna Wingstem I primarily used “Illinois Wildflowers” www.illinoiswildflowers.info/index.htm, “Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses” www.kswildflower.org/index.php, and Michael A. Homoya’s Wildflowers and Ferns of Indiana Forests: A Field Guide as my resources, however other sources were consulted as well. The information I obtained was then used to construct Native Species Information Cards. Each card features a picture and lists the species’ common name and Latin name, habitat, preferred conditions, basic description, flowering period, faunal associations, and a fun fact. These cards were printed and laminated, and the end product approximately the size of a 4 by 6 notecard. The Native Species Information Cards were used during volunteer workdays, helping to inform participants of the visual appearance of the species they were planting and the best soil conditions in which to plant them. The information included on the cards was also transferred to a “Meet the Plants” page under the Ecology heading on the Dunn’s Woods website. Both these resources, the physical product and the online copy, are intended to spread student and community awareness about the species native to their area. These tools will help the Dunn’s Woods Project achieve its aim of educating the community about the importance of planting natives. In this way, the project can expand beyond the Dunn’s Woods site and achieve lasting results in home gardens throughout Monroe County. Moving Forward As previously mentioned, a large focus of the Dunn’s Woods Project is to encourage natural and holistic practices at home. Through the production of additional resource guides and an increased effort to distribute these materials, this aim may be achieved. I plan to contact local nurseries to distribute information about native alternatives to exotic species and the detrimental effects of commonly sold exotic invasives. I also want to develop more ideas on how to make the Dunn’s Woods Project applicable to Indiana University students, many of who will not have home gardens. This could include connections with local food organizations, such as Bloomingfoods, the Farmer’s Market, or the Big Red Eats Green event to educate students about the life cycle of a plant, therefore encouraging active participation in the holistic aims of the Dunn’s Woods project at home. It is also important to continue to develop relationships with local newspapers or environmental magazines to spread the message of the project and develop a larger network or project participants. Education Background Dunn’s Woods is an important piece of Indiana University’s natural and cultural heritage. As such, the Dunn’s Woods Project hopes to increase student and faculty interaction with the site. During the late nineteenth century, the close proximity of Dunn’s Woods to academic and residential buildings meant that it served as a major crossroads and meeting place. Now that Indiana University has spread to over 2,000 acres, the attention Dunn’s Woods once attracted has somewhat dissipated. Education is a crucial element in countering this decrease and increasing student and faculty awareness of the heritage of the woods. This has been accomplished by partnering with a variety of courses across the IUB campus. Previous partnerships have been focused around service learning, research, or product-based assignments. The courses that the Dunn’s Woods Project has partnered with in the past are: HPS X223, Landscapes of Learning: Environmental History of IU Bloomington (Taught by Jim Capshew) COLL T200, Living a Sustainable Life (Taught by Christine Barbour) BIOL L350, Environmental Biology (Taught by Peggy Schultz) MUS Z120, Music in Multimedia (Taught by Kristen Bellisario) SPEA E527, Applied Ecology (Taught by Mikala Schmitt-Harsh) EDUC Q200, (Taught by Nicole Beeman-Cadwallader & Amy Trauth-Nare) The success of these course partnerships has led to additional courses joining the project for the 2012-2013 academic year. Internship Progress While extremely proud of the partnerships we have formed thus far, the Dunn’s Woods Project would like to extend partnerships to a wider range of disciplines in the future. With that aim in mind, I created a survey, entitled “Teaching and Learning Opportunities in Dunn’s Woods.” The survey was created to get preliminary feedback from Indiana University Bloomington faculty about their knowledge of Dunn’s Woods as a site, the Dunn’s Woods project, and their possible interest in partnering with the project. The online survey designer, SurveyMonkey, was used to create and send the survey. The survey was sent to two listserves: 1) The Campus Sustainability Advisory Board a. Number of emails on the listserve: 37 b. Sent by the Office of Sustainability c. Also sent to Emilie Rex and Bill Brown at the Office of Sustainability 2) The Biology Department Faculty listserve a. Number of emails on the listserve: 624 b. Sent by Hayley Prihoda c. [email protected] There were ten questions in the survey and respondents were told it would take less than 5 minutes to complete. The survey was divided into three parts. Part 1 – Basic Information: Teaching outdoors can offer powerful learning experiences for students. The Dunn's Woods Project is promoting Dunn's Woods as an outdoor classroom and living laboratory. Please take a few moments to answer 10 short questions that will help the Dunn's Woods Project, in partnership with the Indiana University Office of Sustainability, to develop teaching and learning resources useful to faculty across a broad range of disciplines. Part 2 – Your Familiarity With the Dunn’s Woods Project Part 3 – Teaching and Learning in Dunn’s Woods: Dunn’s Woods, a 10-acre woodland, has been the heart of Indiana University’s campus since 1883. Maxwell Hall, Owen Hall, Wylie Hall, Kirkwood Hall, Swain Hall, and the Law School now encircle this natural sanctuary. Question format varied from multiple choice, multiple choice with “other category,” fill in the box, and yes or no. The survey received 56 responses. Most responses were within the first 24-hour period of the survey’s distribution. Moving Forward The survey revealed some very important ways we could better target new courses. Results showed that respondents were not familiar with the objectives of the Dunn’s Woods Project and, at times, were confusing our restoration work with the construction that has taken part in the woods in recent years. Additionally, many respondents were unsure how their course could benefit from an outdoor-learning component. Thus, in the future, it will be exceptionally important to clearly outline the intentions of the Dunn’s Woods Project. This would include referencing our desire to turn the woods into a “living laboratory” where courses from all disciplines could utilize the space. I plan to look further into resources about the benefits of outdoor-learning and how this component can be integrated into a variety of fields. This information will be added to the “living laboratory” page under the Education and Outreach tab on the Dunn’s Woods website. It will then be important to not only update and add resources, but to also market the page as a knowledge base for faculty to use when establishing their curriculums. In the future, we would like to reach out to the Graphic Design department in particular to discuss a servicelearning opportunity to help create a logo or brand for the project. Outreach Background Last year’s intern, Nathan Wells, and Jonathan Bauer had hosted a dozen or so volunteer workdays prior to my work with the project. Volunteers included members from Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity on the IUB campus, students completing service-learning hours for course credit, Volunteers in Sustainability, and members of the Collins Living-Learning Center E-force. In addition to providing assistance in the manual removal of Purple Wintercreeper in Dunn’s Woods, volunteers worked with Jonathan in the Jordan Hall greenhouse to propagate native seedlings. Internship Progress It is the desire of the Dunn’s Woods project to expand our network of influence by not only targeting student groups and faculty members, but also members of the Bloomington community. This summer, I worked to spread our outreach program by increasing advertisement of our pulling and planting workdays. I did this by writing event summaries for local volunteer networks and newspapers, contacting organizations with a shared interest in sustainability, and utilizing social media to promote our events. Community organizations contacted: Bloomington Volunteer Network The City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Habitat Stewards Lawns for Life Monroe County Identify and Remove Invasive Species Sassafrass Audubon Society The Woods at Latimer Campus organizations contacted: 21st Century Scholars Corps Alpha Phi Omega Biology Club The Biology Department Listserve Biology Students for a Greener World Collin’s Living-Learning Center E-Force Environmental Management and Sustainable Development Association Greeks Go Green Hoosier Connection Office of Sustainability SPEA Undergraduate Student Association Student Sustainability Council Student United Way Volunteers in Sustainability In total, I held fourteen volunteer workdays throughout the summer, twelve at Dunn’s Woods and two at Latimer Woods. Dunn’s Woods workdays were held every Wednesday from 6-7pm, from May 30th to August 1st. Overall, we had 50 new participants, many of whom returned on a weekly basis. The majority of volunteers heard about the opportunity through the Bloomington Volunteer Network database or had been contacted by email. This summer, two of our largest sources of volunteers were Biology Students for a Greener World, with seven participants, and a group of employees from General Motors, with over fifteen participants. Volunteer workdays resulted in the clearing of about an acre of Purple Wintercreeper and the planting of 705 native species. In conjunction with an increased number of participants this summer, the Dunn’s Woods Facebook page has grown to have 44 “likes” and, at its height, has reached 1,046 people. This expansion was largely due to the distribution of Facebook invitations, continued publicity of the site, and the addition of new photographs documenting the progress of the project. Moving Forward Outreach efforts will continue to be a central focus of my internship during the academic year. At the beginning of the fall semester, I intend to re-contact the organizations we have worked with and will continue to look for new outlets as well. It is my hope that we will have even more success in this area as students begin to return to school. I want to set volunteer workdays a month or so in advance and will use the Bloomington Volunteer Network to publicize these events again. I will also be adding event updates to our Facebook page. I plan to target organizations on a more individual basis by setting up workdays specifically for their members. I plan to reach out to Greek houses (as I know they are required to fulfill a certain number of volunteer hours), residential complexes, and other organizations around campus and the community. This could include, but is not limited to, members of the Sassafras Audubon organization, the Bloomington Co-op, and residents of the Woods at Latimer. In addition to reaching out through email, I plan to create a poster that will be placed throughout Bloomington. Campus Garden Initiative Intern, Frannie Einterz, and I also plan to advertise our events communally, using our contacts and resources to increase volunteer participation in both programs. Lastly, I will further develop the “Get Involved” page on the Dunn’s Woods website, adding pictures of previous workdays, a calendar of upcoming events, contact information, etc.