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 Tuesday, July 22, 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."
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 pictures from the trip, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/07_24_03_arboretum/index.html