For many Ball State students, finding the transportation and thetime to explore Indiana's natural environment can be difficult.Many are unaware, however, that they can take a walk throughIndiana woodlands, wetlands and even prairies without ever havingto set foot off campus, John Taylor, land manager of Ball State'sField Station and Environmental Education Center, said.
The center comprises five properties on and near the Ball Statecampus that serve as an outdoor teaching laboratory for students.Totaling 450 acres, the habitats represent key landscapes of eastcentral Indiana and the Midwest, helping to enhance students' senseof place and appreciation for natural heritage, Taylor said.
"[Students] start to understand where they live," Taylor said."The plants and animals reflect hundreds of years of progress andchange, and you can't learn about them in a lab. You have to be outin the field."
Taylor said the Field Station and Environmental Education Centeroffers a class through the biology department in wildlandfirefighting. The class gives students the opportunity to getcertified to fight western forest fires, Taylor said. Ball State isone of a few colleges that offer the course for credit.
Kem Badger, director of the Field Station and EnvironmentalEducation Center, said the National Science Foundation awarded athree-year grant to the center in 2003 . The grant allows graduatestudents in the sciences to partner with K-8 teachers inIndianapolis public schools, he said.
One of the grant's major components is the GLOBE program, whichBadger helped to initiate four years ago to provide students withhands-on scientific experience. GLOBE is a worldwide hands-on,primary and secondary school-based education and science program.Ball State students who take a course in Biological Concepts forTeachers have a chance to be certified in a component of theprogram, he said.
Hugh Brown, chairman and associate professor of NaturalResources and Environmental Management, said several departments oncampus such as the Natural Resources and Environmental Management,Biology, Geology, Geography and Landscape Architecture departmentshave been pivotal in helping with the Field Station andEnvironmental Education Center, which strives to continue promotingcollaboration among university departments.
"We're trying to manage our properties more cooperatively andmake this broader to appeal to more groups on campus," Brownsaid.
Taylor said of the center's five properties, the area moststudents are familiar with is Christy Woods, an 18-acre propertylocated on the southwest corner of campus. Christy Woods hasvarious ecosystems, including mature forest land that covers aboutthree-fourths of the property and includes a mixture of oak,hickory, ash, walnut, hackberry and maple trees.
Taylor said Christy Woods also houses an orchid greenhouse and ateaching greenhouse that contains plants from around the world.Christy Woods, free to the public, is open Monday through Fridayfrom 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30p.m. between April and October.
The other four properties in Ball State's Field Station andEnvironmental Education Center are geared primarily toward researchand are open to classes or area groups, such as the Boy Scouts, hesaid. Groups must schedule tours a few weeks in advance through thebiology office.
The largest of the properties is the Ginn Woods, with 161 acresthat contain three contiguous parcels of land and support thesecond-largest tract of old-growth forest in Indiana. The woodsprovide diverse plants and animals for student and faculty researchprojects. In 1998, Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, ajournal dedicated to promote scientific research, recorded thatGinn Woods contained 384 species of vascular plants, Taylor said.About 127 of the plants had not been previously recorded inDelaware County. Taylor said more species, probably another 50,have been added to the list since the journal's publication.
The Juanita Hults Environmental Learning Center, willed to thedepartment in 1987 by Juanita Hults Maley, is a 99-acre farmincluding a wetland, a tailgrass prairie, a hardwood forest,agricultural areas and fields undergoing natural succession, Brownsaid. Classes and area groups engage in several activities at Hultsincluding wildflower identification, aquatic insect identificationand soil and water quality testing.
Laura Fridley, a graduate assistant in the Natural Resources andEnvironmental Management department, said she enjoyed taking awetlands course during the summer in which she looked at vegetationand soil in the wetlands near the Hults center, she said.
"You could just go out and dig and look at the plants," Fridleysaid. "That was good hands-on experience. "
Taylor said Ball State also has a Cooper/Skinner Farm. Accordingto its Web site, Ball State's Cooper Field Area comprises twoproperties: the Cooper Woodland Area and Cooper Natural Area. Theareas include microenvironments that provide biological habitatsfor field research and environmental education. Taylor said 40acres of prairie land have also been established on the property,several grasses of which are able to grow 10 feet tall.
The center's Donald E. Miller Wildlife Preserve, located on thenorth bank of the White River, is approximately 16.42 acres and isa remnant of White River bottomland that was isolated when the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers straightened the river channel and built alevee, according to the site. Turtles and amphibians inhabit thepreserve's oxbow pond, which was created when the old river channelwas isolated by the levee. The preserve also includes a maturebottomland forest primarily consisting of sycamore and hackberrytrees, the site said. The property serves as a site for naturestudy, scientific research and environmental science fieldexperiences.
Badger said he hopes each of the properties in the Field Stationand Environmental Education Center will continue to benefitstudents this year by exposing them to diverse ecosystems andsimply acquainting them with the natural environment aroundthem.
"It's a good place to get away from the fluorescent lights," hesaid. "I go there sometimes to get away for a quick outdoorexperience. It has real value to the university and community, andwe're trying to collaborate efforts to utilize the resources and tostudy the environment even more."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
