Laura Fog, USF&W and John Kiger, Reynolda Gardens staff with seeder

In partnership with CEES and a host of other university affiliates, the Reynolda Gardens Meadow project launched this spring with a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  The idea for the project came out of a joint workshop with Reynolda Gardens and CEES two years ago and it is now becoming a reality with the planting of several prairie flowers and grasses this season.

The project establishes 16.1 acres of the Reynolda property for prairie plants and animals to inhabit. Using this small portion of the estate’s 126 acres, the project aims to grow more native forms of plant and animal life that existed in the Piedmont area before being developed and transformed by humans.  The process will ultimately help grow some of the 700 species of plants now considered extremely rare in North Carolina.

Significant research led to the development of the Reynolda Gardens Meadow. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, several factors have led to the decline of biodiversity in the Piedmont’s prairie land. These include fragmentation of the landscape, the alteration of hydrology, the introduction of invasive and exotic species, and the decline of large grazing herbivores such as bison and elk. The most significant factor, however, is the suppression of naturally occurring wildfires. A significant amount of North Carolina’s plant species are dependent upon a natural fire regime. Since converting to predominantly agricultural growing practices, wildfires which helped these species flourish have been kept at bay.

This has led to prodigious growth in invasive species at the expense of native plants and greater biodiversity. One of the projects initiated by the University, the small remote sensing platform DeaconEye Terra, helps to map out the plant and animal diversity in the Gardens area.

In order to overcome these problems, the Reynolda Gardens Meadow Project has set out to plant native plant species back on the meadow. New seeds were shipped and planted this spring for the following plant species: Big Bluestem, Virginia Wildrye, Purple Lovegrass, Poverty Oat Grass, Switchgrass, Little Bluestem, Indiangrass, Purpletop, Partridge Pea, Lance-leaved Coreopsis, Purple Coneflower, and Black-eyed Susan. The wildflowers will help to attract moths, butterflies, and native bees. The prairie grasses will help restore carbon to the soil that has been depleted over the years by agricultural practices.

The meadow project will also serve as a learning laboratory for the University and its affiliates on the project. The project is partnership of Wake Forest University, the Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (CEES), the Department of Biology, Environmental Studies, Reynolda Gardens, the Piedmont Land Conservancy, Audubon Society of Forsyth County, Carolina Butterfly Society, the Garden Club Council, and Nature’s Select Inc. Wake Forest students will be able to participate in research, experimentation, and upkeep in the following courses: Ecological and Evolutionary Biology (BIO113), Ecology (BIO347), Community Ecology and Global Change (BIO377), and other independent studies course. Additionally, the meadow will be a major component in the Reynolda Gardens Education Programs for school children and adults.

The directors of this project, Reynolda Gardens Director Preston Stockton, Laura Fogo of the USFWS and Biology Professor Miles Silman, hope that this kind of experiential research can create a new learning model for ecological education. The work of prairie restoration represents a significant step in itself in repairing and preserving the native habitat around the university. That faculty, students, staff, and community members can use it as a way to learn more about positive ecological practices reveals how this kind of project can create symbiotic learning relationship with exponential benefits for all.

As the prairie grow over the years, the meadow will become a lush field of wildflowers blooming throughout the year, making the project much more than a science experiment. It will add to the overall appeal of the gardens, making them an attractive spot for study, leisure and enjoyment as well.

To learn more about this project and others at Reynolda Gardens visit http://www.reynoldagardens.org.

The forum opened with each panelist responding to traditional understandings of self-interested economies from the perspectives of their unique fields. The panelists then looked at the pressing needs of our current economic and ecological crises to offer some insights that may point the way forward. “Can capitalism be fully ecologized?” Rasmussen pondered. The conclusions of the panelists leaned ‘no.’

But in surprising ways, the panel pointed to ways in which communities and local economies are paving a way into the future through communal sharing.  Julia Agyeman offered Zip Cars and neighborhood tool sheds as examples of how local communities are embodying the values that can bolster economic and ecological values. Communal acts such as these not only serve the self-interests of the individual but also better the community and the common good.

Read here for a detailed write-up from the Office of Sustainability.

The Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (CEES) announces funding opportunities for research, scholarship, and working groups related to energy, environment and sustainability as broadly defined.  The grants seek to provide new opportunities for research and scholarly activities at Wake Forest. Though the center was formed with core groups in Renewable Energy Research, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and Policy, Enterprise, and Markets, we support all areas of scholarship, and actively encourage new groups of scholars—faculty and students—dedicated to addressing problems related to the center’s mission of building a community dedicated to effecting meaningful change in the areas energy, environment, and sustainability.

What We Fund: Seed Grants, Research Opportunities, and Research Support. CEES is funding seed grants in multiple areas: (1) competitive seed grants for research, (2) competitive seed grants for research engagement or re-engagement in interdisciplinary research related to energy, environment and sustainability, (3) funds for half-day or full day meetings centered on developing or finishing proposals for external funding (see overview below).

Funding Levels: $1000-$3000 (Target, other amounts entertained)

How to Apply:  Click here for the application for funding.

Deadlines: Applications are due by 5pm Friday, April 19, 2013.

If Selected:  If selected as a recipient of a grant, grantees are required to provide progress reports and updates to CEES at the midpoint of the project and at the completion of the project.  A report template will be given to the grantee.  Additional communications about the project may also be necessary.

Overview of Support:

1. Research Grants for Wake Forest scholars to address questions that result in tangible outcomes in energy, environment, or sustainability.  Preference is given to multidisciplinary groups or activities.

2. Engagement and Re-engagement Grants are designed to integrate junior faculty into existing research teams and opportunities related to energy, environment, and sustainability, or provide opportunities for senior faculty to participate in multidisciplinary research related to CEES’s focus.  The first two years of grant-making activities will pay particular attention to integrating the humanities, social sciences, divinity, law, business, and medicine into the community of scholars addressing environmental issues.

3. Get Away Fund. There is no substitute for dedicated groups of scholars convening to work on proposals in isolation from normal daily activities and focus entirely on grant writing.  The get-away fund supports full and half-day grant writing workshops for multidisciplinary groups submitting proposals.

For more information on the funding opportunities, please contact Tiffany White at cees@wfu.edu or 758-CEES (2337).

In the talk, Bahnson shared his journeys from the garden that he helped start outside Mebane, North Carolina to the many faith communities he has now visited around the country, all making similar connections between the foundations of faith and the work of the land. Fifteen years ago, upon graduating divinity school, Bahnson found himself in a congregation not of people but of plants.

Partnering with a local Methodist congregation, Bahnson founded Anathoth community garden to be supported by and to provide food for the local community. ”We saw planting gardens and seeking peace as really symbiotic activities – exactly what the church should be doing,” Bahnson said.

This symbiosis carried over to the church and strengthened relationships within the community. “We brought the gifts of the garden to the church…and we brought the gifts of the church to the garden,” he noted. Community members came to the garden to get their hands dirty, to participate in some of the educational activities, and to attend bi-weekly potlucks.

This connection between soil and sacrament, between the earth and the divine love, led Bahnson on a quest to connect with other communities who were linking faith with farming. ”Around the country, there’s really a movement, a food and faith movement,” he discovered. This search for other groups in the movement is the inspiration for his new book. A Benedictine monastery, a Pentecostal coffee shop, a Jewish organic farm – these are just some of the examples of the way this movement is spreading all over.

On his journey, Bahnson garnered many insights from other leaders in the movement. Brother Dizmas, one of the Benedictines, declared, “I came to the monastery because I wanted to learn to put the faith in my hands.” Nigel Savage, director of Hazon - the largest Jewish environmental group in the country, offered this insight: “Sabbath shouldn’t just be for Jews – the world needs a Sabbath.”

From his interactions with other faith community leaders he offered these three lessons: 1. Put the faith in your hands. Don’t let it just stay in your head. 2. Support leadership from the margins – those most wounded by the systems of oppression and degradation. 3. The world needs a Sabbath – a rest from over-tilling and overuse. These principles now guide Bahnson in his writing and his teaching at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

Watch the full TEDx Talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suna6LDOv_8 

Associate Dean of the Wake Forest School of Law, Richard Schneider, opened the event by introducing the organizing topic of the panel: nutrient management strategies for the Yadkin River.  Such strategies involve state- and local-level guidelines that are tightly coupled to land-use planning.

The evening centered on a keynote presentation by Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, Director of North Carolina State University’s Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology and Department of Plant Biology.  Dr. Burkholder presented the science behind nutrient pollution, that is, the addition of nitrogen and phosphorus to waterways by human activities, which accelerate natural processes and, under the right conditions, may trigger toxic algal blooms and fish kills.  Dr. Burkholder outlined specific management strategies for High Rock Lake on the Yadkin River, while emphasizing the national scope of the problem, as nutrient pollution has degraded at least one-half of the freshwater lakes and streams in the U.S.

Following the keynote talk were brief presentations by other panelist who represented several perspectives related to the implementation of nutrient management strategies in Yadkin River watershed.  Cy Stober, Water Resources Manager with the Piedmont Triad Regional Council, discussed challenges to local governments; Andy Miller, Director of the Davidson Soil and Water Conservation District, discussed implications for agricultural communities; and Dean Naujoks, Director of the Yadkin Riverkeeper, discussed community advocacy and monitoring efforts in the Yadkin watershed.

The presentations touched on various issues concerning sources of nutrient pollution, specific management strategies to minimize nutrient run-off, and the socially complicated consequences of curbing nutrient pollution.  Among themes to emerge were the challenges of management, enforcement, and clean-up, especially given the diverse and diffuse sources of nutrient pollution and the very high cost of stream remediation.  However, the discussion also mentioned the potential economic benefit of maintaining clean waterways through promotion of outdoor recreation and tourism, particularly in rural portions of the watershed.  The evening wrapped up with a Q&A session with the audience.

Dr. Mason says, “I realized…to get a sense of what’s going on, you can use fairly simple math.  I decided that would be a great place to bring in students, to give them the confidence to apply straightforward mathematics to analyze complex situations.” In the class, students learn to investigate the practicality of alternative energy sources in order to discover if they really do save energy, money, and resources using basic functions such as addition, multiplication, and division.

At the end of the semester, each student writes a final paper justifying if these alternative energy sources are a feasible option for Wake Forest University. If they believe it is feasible, students must write a convincing energy plan for the university. If they do not, they must write a new plan for ways to reduce energy consumption.

This type of hands-on and practical education shows how CEES Faculty seek a convergence between the reality of sustainable practices with their own conceptual fields.  How math is related to energy, the environment, and sustainability is just one facet of this growing synthesis of research fields. Read more on Dr. Mason’s work on Faces of Sustainability here.

Think Outside the Sink: Threats & Strategies for the Yadkin River

 Celebrate World Water Day!!!  Learn about issues facing the Yadkin River!

When:  Friday, March 22, 2013, 7:00 – 8:30 pm 

Where:  Kulynych Auditorium, Byrum Welcome Center, Wake Forest University

Join us for an engaging discussion on the wise use, management, and protection of our drinking water supply.  The evening will begin with a keynote speech on the science behind clean water, followed by brief panel presentations on local government challenges, agriculture practices, and community advocacy related to the Yadkin River watershed.  There will be ample opportunity for the audience to interact with the speakers.

Keynote: Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, Director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology at NCSU

Additional panel members:

Cy Stober, Piedmont Triad Regional Council (local government implementation)

Andy Miller, Davidson Soil & Water Conservation District (implications for agriculture)

Dean Naujoks, Yadkin Riverkeeper  (community advocacy)

Moderator:  Professor Richard Schneider, School of Law, Wake Forest University

Sponsored by:  Wake Forest University, Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability and Yadkin Riverkeeper

Parking Map

Directions to campus

“Things like gas stations and parking lots are lit now 10 times as bright as they were just 20 years ago,” told Celeste Headlee, weekend host of All Things Considered.

Commenters from a variety of fields weighed in on the variety of issues connected to this increase, including deleterious effects to a person’s health and sleeping patterns. Some researchers have found increased exposure to artificial light is even connected to the production of melatonin in the body, which can lead to cancer.

Dr. Bogard received his B.A. from Carleton College in Religion, an M.A. in English from the University of New Mexico and his Ph.D. in English, Literature, and Environment from the University of Nevada at Reno. He began teaching at Wake Forest University in 2010 and has written many reviews, articles, and books, including his edited anthology Let There Be Night: Testimony on behalf of the dark and his forthcoming book End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light.

Read more on the story here.

“Human rights and the environment are not only interrelated, they are also interdependent,” Knox stressed. “A healthy environment is fundamentally important to the enjoyment of human rights, and the exercise of human rights is necessary for a healthy environment.”

The forum took place February 18-22 in Nairobi, Kenya. Knox also convened a consultation from February 22-23, with both events leading up to the presentation of a full report from the U.N. Independent Experts in March. Read more about his presentation here.

CEES also featured Professor Knox earlier in the year, highlighting the importance of his work in this area.

A group of Wake Forest students, including graduate students in the School of Divinity and undergraduates from the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC), joined 40,000 others at the National Mall in Washington D.C. for a rally intending to move President Barack Obama forward on issues related to climate change. The Forward on Climate Rally, believed to be the largest gathering of its kind, took place on February 17th. Caleb Pusey, a student at the divinity school, reflected on his attendance at the rally in the divinity school student newspaper, The Tablet. Read more here.