FYI Below is the registration link for the upcoming Service Learning day for Earth Day 2014. There are places for students (grad and undergrad) to get involved or to involve students in your courses if you are faculty. https://purdue.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_egpgKqyYUFQrFWJ Earth Day Service-Learning Event Purdue University / NICHES Land Trust Tuesday, April 22, 2014 8:00am - 12:00pm in Pfendler Hall Dean's Auditorium, Room 241 12:00 - 4:30pm Bus travel to site location and back Background: The holiday that we now celebrate known as Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970. In the 1960s events like the fire on Cleveland's Cuyahoga River and the publishing of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" began creating an environmental fervor. Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson was inspired by these events to create a holiday that would focus on mobilizing the public. More than 40 years later we are still celebrating this holiday in a time when 'sustainability' is more important than ever. Here at Purdue we have many events tied to community engagement and education on Earth Day. Purdue staff, faculty, and students are all encouraged to participate. Overview: This year the events are focused on invasive plant species and deer management. The service-learning aspect of the day will be pulling the garlic mustard plant at a NICHES site in order to restore the area back to a more original and healthy state. Our plan is to do this pull several years in a row, so students and staff that participate each year, will be able to see an improvement in the health of the area. More details are listed below. Schedule: 8:00 - 8:45 am (Pfendler Hall, Room 241) Bob Easter, stewardship manager for NICHES, (Northern Indiana Citizens Helping Ecosystems Survive) will be speaking about what NICHES is, how it was formed, and what its goals are. 8:45 - 9:30 am (Pfendler Hall, Room 241) Mike Mycroft is the Resource Management Coordinator for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. His topic of discussion will be deer management. In 2013 Indiana actually held deer reduction hunting because of the necessity of controlling the deer population to maintain the environment. Mycroft was involved in this event and will be speaking about the damage that can occur because of deer and what efforts can be taken to prevent this. 9:30 - 10:15 am (Pfendler Hall, Room 241) NICHES' executive director, Gus Nyberg, will be speaking about the use of controlled burns/fires. These are commonly used as a natural means to maintain the landscape. You will learn about how this is done and how grassland areas benefit from this practice. 10:15 - 11:00 am (Pfendler Hall, Room 241) A Purdue alum, Tom Swinford, will be speaking about relationships between governmental/non-governmental land management organizations and private land owners. His talk will be about how these groups can work together with the common goal of focusing on funding necessary programs. Tom works for the IDNR and is on the advisory board for NICHES. 11:00 - 11:45 am Lunch will be provided. 12:00 - 5:00 pm (Bus Trip to Niches Land Trust Location) The afternoon events will begin by having volunteers load the buses at the Pfendler dock. Volunteers will be taken to a NICHES location where a site leader will discuss the history of the natural area. This will transition to a discussion of the environmental challenges created by invasive plant species and white tailed deer. Volunteers will be shown an area that is functioning properly and has the desired levels of biodiversity, then they will be taken to an area facing invasive species. Here the volunteers will spend time pulling the invasive garlic mustard plant to help improve the area. At 5:00 pm buses will have volunteers dropped back off at Pfendler Hall. Linda S. Lee Purdue University, Department of Agronomy, Professor of Environmental Chemistry, Associate Head Ecological Science & Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Program Head, www.purdue.edu/ese<http://www.purdue.edu/ese> Division of Environmental Ecological Engineering, Affiliated Faculty 3-363 Lilly Hall, West Lafayette, IN 47907; Office: (765) 494-8612; Cell (765) 414-3086; lslee@purdue.edu<mailto:lslee@purdue.edu>