Last week students, friends of CEES and concerned citizens gathered for a tour of the Lilly ARBOR project followed by a screening of Dam Nation hosted by the Student Sustainability Council. During our tour, we were able to look at the project with fresh eyes and noticed it had been some time since data had been collected at the site.
The trees that were installed in 2000-01 were monitored for growth and survivability over several years to determine the best method for reforestation of riparian areas. The location of these trees were recorded with GPS upon installation and tagged for future identification. Tree height and diameter were recorded over the next several years. These measurements were last taken was 2009 and we hope to update these soon. Several monitoring wells in the project area need to be cleaned and begin taking readings once again on a regular basis. While we are still working out the details, we hope these activities can accomplished through additional service learning projects and/or as a form of hands on learning in a related course.
We also noticed that Amur Bush Honeysuckle has begun to take over the edges of the riparian forest. This spring, CEES plans to host at least one service learning project to remove this troublesome plant. The service learning team will be out at the ARBOR this Friday for a stream cleanup and may attempt some removal at this time as well. If you would like more information about the Lilly ARBOR project or are interested in volunteering, please see our website.
