Urban Campus Class Spotlight

Biology 172 - Restoration of Native Plant Communities

This class "lives" in the biology department, and is the latest addition to our course offerings in biology.

The past two terms, students taking the class have learned how to recognize native prairie and savanna remnants, identify the indicator plant species on the site, evaluate the quality of the existing plant community, identify and remove invasive plant species and finally, they learned the importance of prescribe fire in prairie and savanna restoration and how to write a prescribed fire plan. While not specifically mentioned in the course catalog, class members get plenty of fresh air, great tans and much stronger muscles after participating in the class.

Who takes Biology 172?

Biology 172 students (left to right) Joey Fagen, Megan Clark, Kate Solko, Merrilyn Kness and Nate Reiter helped remove dead trees and hand collected wildflower and grass seeds as part of the class project. The photo was taken in mid-December.

Joey Fagen prefers hands on learning so the class was appealing to her. She is undecided about a major but as a citizen, she thinks ecological restoration is very important.

Megan Clark wants to go into nutrition science with an emphasis on health foods, organic and herbal-based medicine. Caring for the natural world where many of the plant based medicines are found was of great interest to Megan. She was especially interested in the Native American uses of the prairie and savanna wildflowers that she studied this term.

Kate Solko will be going to Iowa State University in Fall '05. She is determined to work with alternative high school students and believes that the focus of outdoor learning will be helpful for them in overcoming some of the problems and boundaries placed on them in conventional high school classrooms. For Kate's final project, she ended up planning a native garden for the Nevada Historical Society, a group that is moving a very old building into the center of town because of the historic significance of the structure. Kate's master plan ended up being far more extensive than she anticipated... involving grant applications for funding, working with local nursery professionals to locate appropriate native plants, and .. making the initial argument/recommendation that the Historical Society should be using the NATIVE Iowa plants in their plan.

Merrilyn Kness is a retired school teacher, Master Gardener and Master Conservationist who could have taught the class, but chose to join the group because for Merrilyn, ecological restoration represents quality leisure time. During her distinguished teaching career, Merrilyn taught environmental ed. and is responsible for rescuing a beautiful native prairie. Since the land supporting the prairie could not be saved, Merrily convinced Loren Lown from the Polk County Conservation Board that the Prairie sod should be removed and transported to her elementary school. Willowbrook Elementary now has a very diverse prairie remnant at their site for students to enjoy.

Finally, but not least, is Nate Reiter. Nate will be going into the Natural Resource management field and has already moved to Missoula, Montana where he will be completing a 4 year degree in resource management. The prairie / savanna restoration class provided Nate the hands-on learning experiences that will help him in his future work. The other class members just pretended to be too shy to jump into the photo.

Click here for more photos from the class

For more information on Biology 172 (BIOL172), click here to read the course description.

DMACC offers a wide range of classes and degree programs. To find the one that's right for you, browse our program site at http://www.dmacc.edu/programs-a.asp or visit with a DMACC advisor or counselor.

For more information on Restoration, please visit the Society of Ecological Restoration http://www.ser.org/