|
Construction of the Arboretum at Penn State on the University
Park campus may be a few years down the road, but it's already
being used as a classroom.
About 43 Biology 110 (Basic Concepts and Diversity) students
hopped buses Wednesday, July 23, to see what’s happening
at the Big Hollow site. The students are part of LEAP, the Learning
Edge Academic Program, a bridge program for incoming freshman
that allows them to get a summer start at navigating the University.
“Why wait until it’s built?” asked Jim Minesky,
biology instructor. “The land’s here. There’s
a rich biology here. Nature’s already built the classroom.”
 |
Source: Greg Grieco
Thousands of seedlings like these will
eventually be infected with the chestnut blight in order
to identify those one or two that carry the highest resistance
to the disease. |
Students got a first-hand look at research aimed at reforestation
of the American chestnut, information on the University’s
wellfields, a look forward at a rails-to-trails project and a
trek to the Air Quality and Learning and Demonstration Center.
Kim Steiner, professor of forest biology and director of the
arboretum, gave the students a quick overview of what’s
planned for the $40 million project on a 400-acre site that starts
with the Mitchell Tract along Park Avenue. The mission, he said,
“is to teach by example how to preserve and create natural
beauty in an urbanizing environment.”
Steiner pointed out acreage where 200-year-old trees grow undisturbed,
a plot where a graduate student is researching prairie vegetation
growth and another area where a wetlands will be constructed.
Then, the students climbed into buses to tour Big Hollow where
the first stop was a horse pasture where two plantations of chestnut
seedlings grow. The students, clad in T-shirts, shorts and sneakers,
voiced their dismay over hiking through a muddy, weedy pasture
filled with fresh horse plops. “Suck it up, you’re
biology students,” they were told.
Sara Fitzsimmons, tree-breeding coordinator for the northeast
region of the American Chestnut Foundation, told them, “We’re
one step away from getting a completely blight-resistant American
chestnut.”
She explained the seedling breeding process, relating it to the
Mendelian genetics that the students had heard about in class.
She noted that the seedlings were hybrid crosses with Chinese
trees that had a high resistance to the blight that decimated
chestnuts from their native range in eastern American woodlands.
The trees growing there contain about 95 percent of the characteristics
of American chestnuts as a result of the crossing and backcrossing
program. Reforestation is about 10 years away, she estimated.
The students walked across the University’s wellfield where
John Gaudlip, engineer from the office of physical plant, discussed
the University’s water system with them. He explained that
the 10-acre Big Hollow site was one of two wellfields the University
owned — the other is located in Houserville. About 2.7 million
gallons are pumped daily. Gaudlip noted that the source is all
ground water running through limestone and dolomite geology. He
explained the geology of sinkholes to the students and showed
them the paths of run-off that he said was a result of development
through the area.
The proposed Bellefonte Central Rail Trail runs right through
the wellfield. Rick Gilmore, assistant professor of psychology
and a volunteer with the Centre Rails-to-Trails Association, gave
the group a little history of railroad traffic through Centre
County and updated them on the progress of the trail, which is
converting the track path into a 1.3-mile hiking and bike trail.
Construction is expected to begin next spring with completion
planned for a year from that.
The proposed trail piqued the interest of several students who
brought their bikes from home. “It was unique,” said
Justin Sandherr, 18, of Pittsburgh. “Maybe I’ll come
back and ride my bike sometime.”
The group focus moved from underground to the air above when
they visited the Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center.
The site features a pavilion and tables for classes, several experimental
plantings of bioindicators and a small meteorological building
housing sensitive equipment monitoring several air pollutants.
The information from the monitors will be streamed into a Web
site to make it available to the public, according to John Skelly,
professor of plant pathology.
Skelly used the site’s view of Mount Nittany as a touchstone
presenting slides showing the area with the mountain invisible
in the haze. “When, they say it’s a hot, hazy day,
what they really mean is it’s a hot, polluted day,”
he told them. “Humidity doesn’t affect visibility,
pollution does.”
Skelly’s presentation may have closed the field trip, but
it didn’t end the teaching process. When Nicole Bloom, 18,
of Montoursville, asked Minesky on the bus trip back, “does
ozone smell?” the professor was off and running. He whipped
around in his seat and started a mini lecture on the pollutant’s
effects on humans and the atmosphere, proving that a teachable
moment can happen anywhere.
For more information about this story contact
Gary Cramer
gwc104@psu.edu
http://live.psu.edu/
814-865-7517
| 
