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My name is Remic Ensweiler
and I am the Outdoor Labs/ Program Manager in Biology.
This is a classified staff position whose chief role is the management
and restoration of 40 acres of campus natural area.
These natural areas contain native, Illinois prairie
wetland, woodland and other historic habitat.
Efforts to manage them, include weeding prescribed burning, cutting trees
and collecting, drying, processing, propagating
and spreading native seed.
Ideally, descendants of plants that compose the historic
habitats of Illinois would have propagated themselves for generations.
However, since settlers disturb the areas for farming and other uses,
typical prairie succession and regeneration ceased.
For example, if there is a disturbance amidst a vast, unbroken prairie,
first, early establishing and fast growing prairie species would come in.
And then in time, more precious or valuable
species would replace them and the prairie would regenerate on its own.
However, due to human forces of farming and development,
natural succession has stopped as we knew it.
So therefore, today dedicated people
have to go around and collect these prairie species
from particular seed sources in areas that weren't farmed or weren't developed.
And it's become increasingly difficult because there are so few left
as only .01% of the original prairie remains undisturbed.
So therefore incorporating the appropriate seed, contributes
greatly to the success or failure of trying to restore a prairie.
Because if you get species from a different geographic region,
then they can be not adapted to local conditions,
and therefore they can either not do well or they can do too well
and be too aggressive and kind of out-compete the plants that are good.
So it's very important when trying to reconstruct a prairie
or any other native Illinois habitat to really pay attention
to where the seed came from and make sure that it's a good seed source.
There are many things we can do to better take care of the planet.
In the realm of plants and plant habitat,
there are things that people can do at home,
such as converting turf grass
to native perennial Illinois habitat.
And this could be just one plant,
or it could be a little garden, or it could be your whole yard.
But it doesn't have to be intimidating.
Even just planting anything that is tall and where small mammals can forage
and birds can feed on the flowers is a good thing.
There are many particular benefits to this, such as the flowers
provide nectar and pollination resources to local insects
such as bees, butterflies, things like that.
Also, these little gardens
or plants, they provide much better stormwater and flooding
services or mitigation
because they can absorb water that runs off in a flooding event
or a rain event much better than turf grass.
Also, it creates a more esthetically pleasing habitat
as opposed to a flowerless turf grass lawn.
A garden just generally
tends to have more to look at.
Beautiful flowers, colors, things like that.
It also gets you out in nature and it improves you.
There have been many studies that show that it improves your mental wellbeing
to be out in nature tending to plants.
And then the last benefit, I would say, is that it
utilizes no herbicide or fertilizer as opposed to turf grasslawns
that often require a lot of these chemicals.
All I'll say is that COD natural areas has an online presence.
You can go to the website and search “COD natural areas” or “COD prairies”.
Also, you can go on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
and YouTube and find
awesome videos that the college has produced
and those are all kind of under the name “COD natural areas.”
And we're having volunteer events, tours, plant sales,
all sorts of fun things related to nature or ecological restoration.
So if you're all interested
in environmental science, I'd definitely urge you to to check that out.
Beyond the College of DuPage,
There are many non-profits that are quite helpful.
One in the area is the Conservation Foundation based out of Naperville,
the Morton Arboretum based out of Lisle.
But also governmental agencies such as your local city,
village, park district, or forest preserve district.
They usually have a steady, steady stream
of events, seminars, tours and other resources
if you're interested in any of these topics.
So I urge you to check them out
--Have you always been curious about the science around you?
Submit your question and it could be featured in one of our upcoming videos.
Visit cod.edu/stem and click on, “So That Explains It”.
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