“Simply moving across the slick, gloopy wetlands was difficult.”
So says an article about how Ohio Sea Grant- and CFAES-affiliated researchers are helping The Nature Conservancy to (1) improve water quality and (2) give homes to fish and wildlife by restoring a large marshland near Lake Erie. (Photo: iStock.)
Six senior students in CFAES’s Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, sponsored by the Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW), and with further support from a Coca-Cola Sustainability Grant — are helping restore a wetland in Ohio State’s Carmack Woods. It’s another good read on our new CFAES Stories website.
You can help plant trees there on Sunday, April 22 — Earth Day. Find out more.
Our college’s renowned Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, which opened its doors 20 years ago, is now in the process of opening them wider.
Also part of that EcoSummit 2012 wetland tour: The Olentangy River Restoration Project, which a press release last week calls “one of the largest efforts to return an urban river to a more natural state.” Previous posts on the project here, here, here, and here.
Here’s a look by the numbers at EcoSummit 2012, which is Sept. 30-Oct. 5 in Columbus and involves a number of CFAES scientists: 10 plenary presentations by some of the world’s top ecologists, environmental scientists, and practitioners. 21 forums and workshops on practical issues related to improving the environment. 600 presentations in 65 symposia. 850 general sessions and poster presentations. (Complete program here.) And 1,500 to 1,600 delegates from 75 countries. Ohio State is a co-host.
The transformation of the Olentangy River, which flows through our Columbus campus (and right past our football stadium) (including with not-infrequent black-crowned night-herons along its banks), has begun, notes yesterday’s (8/14) update from Jay Kasey, Ohio State’s senior vice president for administration and planning. There’s a project overview here, a graphic overview here (pdf), and a before-and-after comparison here (pdf). Environmental communications students in our college wrote about the Olentangy project on this blog in March.