Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week, scheduled for April 1–8, has inspired faculty, staff and the Kalamazoo College Climate Action Plan Committee to conduct a series of campus events that will target environmental awareness as students return for spring term.
Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week is a global initiative sparking real dialogue on climate and justice on campuses and in communities around the world. Here’s what the campus community can do to participate.
All day Monday, April 1, is Meatless Monday at Welles Dining Center. Plant-based proteins are a promising alternative to traditional meat products because they impact the environment about 50% less than real meat. Explore a variety of proteins that you can integrate into your diet to determine what might work for you.
Fight climate anxiety from 5–6 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, at Bissell Theater by becoming an agent of progress against climate change. Participants will talk about the overwhelming feelings some have over environmental concerns. Discover how to channel anxiety into positive action and contribute to a more sustainable future.
Journey through K’s green spaces with a scavenger hunt from 11–11:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 3. Explore locations such as the Hoop House, Jolly Garden and the Grove. Gather stamps at every stop to track your path before heading to the Environmental Stewardship Center to redeem a reward. Prizes are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Also Wednesday, from 4:15–6 p.m., follow trails and get a guided tour of K’s Lillian Anderson Arboretum. Meet at Red Square for transportation to the arboretum.
At 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Dewing Hall Commons, discover K’s array of student organizations dedicated to environmental sustainability in Klimate Fest. Connect with like-minded individuals seeking a sustainable future and learn about their initiatives aimed at fostering a greener campus and community. Afterward, stay for popcorn and a film screening of Inhabitants: Indigenous Perspectives on Restoring our World beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Conclude the week with a climate conversation in Friday’s community reflection from 11 a.m.–11:45 a.m. at Stetson Chapel. K students, faculty and staff will share experiences and discuss climate solutions in a collaborative gathering to foster understanding and dialogue while reflecting on everyone’s role in a sustainable future.
Kalamazoo College’s Hoop House will be one of three sites on campus utilized in a scavenger hunt from 11–11:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 3, during Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week.
K’s Lillian Anderson Arboretum has recreational trails and is a great place for students to perform environmental research. Learn more about the arboretum in a tour from 4:15–6 p.m. Wednesday, April 3. Meet at Red Square for transportation.
For more information on these events, email the Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center at EnvironmentalStewardship@kzoo.edu.
Aerin Braunohler ’24 (from left), Ava Loncharte ’25 and Mellon Fellow for Experiential Learning Amy Newday set up fencing for grazing sheep arriving at Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
Sheep from Tending Tilth LLC, a local contract sheep-grazing business, arrive at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum in Oshtemo Township.
Sheep from Tending Tilth LLC begin grazing at Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
If you’re not sure about the benefits of replacing mowing with grazing in some agricultural applications, don’t knock it until ewes try it.
Two Kalamazoo College students, the Department of Biology and the Tending Tilth LLC farm brought sheep into the Lillian Anderson Arboretum this month in the first part of a study to see whether grazing, controlled burning or a combination of the two could help pare back the need for mowing, thereby reducing the use of fossil fuels and trapping carbon.
Such a practice would be an example of regenerative agriculture, a rehabilitative approach to food and farming systems that is gaining steam through research at K. It focuses on resisting climate change while strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil and the water in it.
One of the students, Aerin Braunohler ’24, is working on the project as part of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP); the other, Ava Loncharte ’25, is the Seminary Hill Sustainability intern with Tending Tilth through the Environmental Stewardship Center. They are working alongside Tending Tilth owner Lauren Burns and Professor of Biology Binney Girdler.
Burns connected with Professor Emeritus Paul Sotherland last year when she was working on another project through Oshtemo Township. In talking with Sotherland about her goals for her contract sheep-grazing business, which included teaching young people about her industry and developing more science on grazing, he recommended involving K students including those working on their SIPs. The idea thrilled Burns who enjoyed having interns when she worked as a zookeeper at Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek and Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
“I enjoy sharing my knowledge of conservation and regenerative agriculture with young people,” she said. “I also enjoy hearing about what they’re learning. It’s been exciting to see Aerin learning some new techniques for soil sampling and GPS plotting, and Ava learn more about farming in general and what we can do to take care of the land. They also ask me questions that help me think more about my business long term and the effects we’re having on the environment.”
On June 8, Braunohler, Loncharte, Burns and Girdler, along with a team of Center for Environmental Stewardship employees and volunteers, set up electrical fencing to lead Burns’ sheep from a trailer unloaded at the Batts Pavilion, through the Not So Magnificent Pines and to the Powerline Trail.
Sheep are ushered in to the Powerline Trail area of the Lillian Anderson Arboretum for grazing.
Ava Loncharte ’25, an intern at Tending Tilth LLC, sets up fencing to lead grazing sheep to the Powerline Trail at Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
Sheep from Tending Tilth LLC are empowering student research that is examining whether grazing, controlled burning or a combination of the two could help pare back the need for mowing at places such as Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
After about a week of grazing under the power lines, the sheep were removed so Braunohler and Loncharte could collect soil samples and more to measure the benefits of having the animals there. Braunohler now is splitting her time this summer between the arboretum, a Dow Science Center lab, the Gilchrist Rehabilitation Center near Three Rivers, and the Tending Tilth farm to continue the study.
“There’s a lot of research that shows how the action of sheep grazing, through the pressure of their hooves and addition of waste to a landscape, can have regenerative effects on the soil in comparison to mowing as a means of land management,” Braunohler said. “Controlled burns, rooted in indigenous knowledge, are also known to regenerate soil, but there’s not a lot of data that shows the impact of these three practices—mowing, grazing and burning—side by side. I’m excited to see what we find.”
A childhood interest in farms is leading Loncharte, a biology major also considering an environmental studies concentration, toward her own career path in regenerative agriculture. That path flows from her participation in the College’s Just Food Collective—a student-led, sustainable-food systems program available through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement. She also tends to crops at the hoop house, a greenhouse on campus that allows students to grow produce year-round.
Tending Tilth LLC owner Lauren Burns leads her sheep to the Powerline Trail at Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
Loncharte said that her internship through Tending Tilth so far has taught her that grazing doesn’t provide an exact alternative to mowing as the practices have different outcomes. Instead, mowing provides a short, even cut, while sheep are selective with what they eat, occasionally leaving the grass and plants up to a foot tall. However, grazing provides ecological benefits and soil health as the sheep fertilize, trample and aerate the soil.
“Everything I know about sheep, I’ve learned in this internship,” Loncharte said. “I’ve learned a lot about grazing as a method of regenerative agriculture and how it builds soil health. I’ve also learned about animal husbandry. We just had to treat a sick sheep that has a joint infection, so I learned about giving antibiotics and electrolytes to a sheep that’s limping. And I’ve learned about the business side of being client facing, seeing properties and learning how to make a name for yourself in the community.”
Research will likely need to be repeated and continued over the course of several years to ultimately prove that grazing has the conservation benefits Burns, Braunohler and Loncharte suspect it does. But their patience and continued efforts would pay large dividends in their fields of work.
“I’m really interested to show sheep grazing can help sequester carbon and retain water in soil,” Burns said. “I think evidence of that, climate change-wise, is important. Most businesses want to be able to say that they’re carbon neutral. I think if we prove that we can help in those goals, it would be great for our business and really great for our planet. If we can prove that the plots that are grazed by sheep versus mowing are helping to store more carbon and nitrogen in the soil without having to apply outside fertilizers, that would be a huge step in the regenerative agriculture world.”
Braunohler (third from left), Loncharte (fourth from left), Burns (fifth from left) and Professor of Biology Binney Girdler (third from right), along with a team of Center for Environmental Stewardship employees and volunteers, set up electrical fencing to lead Burns’ sheep from a trailer unloaded at the Batts Pavilion, through the Not So Magnificent Pines and to the Powerline Trail.
Ava Loncharte ’25 (from left), Aerin Braunohler ’24 and Katie Rock ’23 help usher sheep to the Powerline Trail at Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
After about a week of grazing under the power lines at Lillian Anderson Arboretum, the Tending Tilth LLC sheep were removed so Braunohler and Loncharte could collect soil samples and more to measure the benefits of having the animals there.
City businesses and officials are taking note of a Kalamazoo College student’s Senior Integrated Project (SIP), which quickly has made her a recognizable local voice in sustainability.
Since 2021, Lauren Crossman ’23, a political science major, has worked at Bee Joyful Shop, a store on Kalamazoo’s downtown walking mall that features locally made, zero-waste products for homes, kitchens, baths and beauty routines. She got the job after interviewing women who opened businesses during the pandemic for a journalism class, including the owners of Mason Jar Plant Shop, Colors and Cocktails, Kalamazoo Fashion House and Bee Joyful.
Through Bee Joyful, Crossman developed a passion for sustainability; however, by the time she realized that interest exceeded her love of political science, it seemed too late to change her major or add an environmental studies concentration. That’s when Jeanne Hess—a Bee Joyful customer and city commissioner who retired in 2019 from K as a physical education professor and volleyball coach—planted an interesting idea. She suggested that Crossman create her own internship based on sustainability at Bee Joyful, an idea that also provided a formative plan for Crossman’s SIP.
Bee Joyful owner Jessica Thompson provided enthusiastic approvals and a few ideas on how that internship would work.
“Jessica said she had actually been thinking about creating a week of sustainability events, or I could go talk to other businesses on the mall and see if we can get them to be more on board with different ways to reduce waste and make them all greener,” Crossman said.
Crossman started the internship by researching environmentally friendly business practices involving ideas from cocktail straws to packaging materials. All of it had the potential to help businesses reduce waste and save money. Yet then came the tough part: Crossman began to cold call and visit 22 small businesses in Kalamazoo to discuss their environmental practices, present an environmental report card, and help them create sustainability-related goals.
“It was something that was way outside of my comfort zone,” Crossman said. “I remember talking to my family and friends and saying, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this.’ I had this feeling that no one was going to take me seriously because they didn’t know me. I was this random student from K College who wanted to talk about the environment.”
Regardless, Crossman pursued the work and said the conversations generally went well.
“A lot of those businesses at first said, ‘I’m just trying to keep the lights on and pay the bills,’ so there were uncomfortable points,” she said. “Others thought it was a nice conversation to have, but it might not make a difference. But I was surprised at how many of the business owners appreciated just starting the conversation.”
As those conversations developed, business owners began to see that even small gestures could make big differences as Crossman provided resource guides, viewable through the Instagram profile link @sustainable.kzoo.businesses, that were specific to retail stores, restaurants, salons, brick-and-mortar locations and online businesses.
“I was trying to highlight that there are so many ways businesses can be sustainable, in big ways or small ways, down to the type of tape they use to ship out boxes,” Crossman said. “It all can make a difference. I brought all those guides with me to each of the businesses and shared that information, and we worked through the eco report cards that had around 20 business practices. I got down to fine details like having LED lights or asking vendors to ship products without plastic, so they could see a wide variety of what they could do.
“The eco report cards were helpful because businesses could use them as a starting point to say, ‘we’re doing a lot of really good things, and there are ways we can improve,’” she added. “I feel putting that information together grounded me so I could go in and talk to the business owners.”
With happy business owners starting to save money and be more sustainable, Crossman presented her work at the Kalamazoo State Theatre in March during Green Drinks Kalamazoo, a monthly networking event of city businesses and friends that addresses sustainability. At the event, Professor of History Charlene Boyer Lewis, serving as Crossman’s SIP advisor, spoke up to let Crossman and the crowd know that Crossman had earned honors on her SIP. And next, Crossman plans to offer her report to Hess, who regularly attends the city’s environmental concerns committee, to ask for her opinions.
“We have opportunities in Kalamazoo that aren’t being seized and I think there’s so much potential for impact and people are already willing to make changes,” Crossman said. “But nobody’s holding them accountable. I think that was the biggest part of the critique. I think it’s important information for somebody to see, because the businesses are willing to make changes, but what’s the city’s role now and what are they doing, too?”
In the meantime, Crossman can provide a sustainability leader’s view of Earth Day, celebrated every April 22, the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
“I feel like there’s a lot of good that can be done on Earth Day, but we can’t forget about the rest of the days of the year,” Crossman said. “I don’t want people to think that if they say no to a straw one day of the year that they’re doing enough. Helping the environment needs to be a lifestyle change. We can’t just talk about climate change one day of the year. It must be a pressing conversation all the time, because it’s a pressing problem all the time.”
Lauren Crossman ’23 works at Bee Joyful Shop, a store on Kalamazoo’s downtown walking mall that features locally made, zero-waste products for homes, kitchens, baths and beauty routines.
Crossman presented her work at the Kalamazoo State Theatre during Green Drinks Kalamazoo, a monthly networking event of city businesses and friends that addresses sustainability.
Bee Joyful owner Jessica Thompson enthusiastically approved of Crossman’s ideas for an internship based on sustainability at her shop.
Seed stewardship lies at the heart of two summer Environmental Stewardship fellowships at Kalamazoo College’s Hoop House this summer.
Maeve Crothers ’23 and Nora Blanchard ’23 are completing fellowships through the Larry J. Bell ’80 Center for Environmental Stewardship that will form the basis of their Senior Integrated Projects this fall.
An online seed stewardship course is helping the students develop skills crucial to their projects. Crothers is part of a seed collaborative’s efforts to create stable tomato seeds, while Blanchard is cultivating corn gifted from the Wixárika community in Mexico to Cyndy García-Weyandt, assistant professor of critical ethnic studies.
“A big part of what we’re learning this summer is how to be good seed savers and seed stewards,” Blanchard said.
The course, Seed Seva, is designed and taught by Rowen White, a member of the Mohawk community called Akwesasne, with traditional territories in what is now New York state and Canada. White lives in northern California, where she runs Sierra Seeds.
“We’re thinking about how our relationships with plants are so intertwined,” Crothers said. “Plants adapt to the environment and the conditions we put them under, but Rowen has also talked about how humans have been adapted by plants to take care of them. It’s very much a symbiotic relationship.”
Summer Fellowships at K
Several Kalamazoo College students are completing summer 2022 Environmental Stewardship fellowships through the Larry J. Bell ’80 Center for Environmental Stewardship and we are featuring some of their projects at kzoo.edu. Read on to learn about some of the environmental fellowships making a difference in the local community.
Open-Source Tomato Seed Initiative
Maeve Crothers ’23 is completing a summer Environmental Stewardship fellowship and a fall Senior Integrated Project on a collaborative tomato growing project with a local seed company.
This is the second year Crothers has participated in an open-source tomato seed initiative with Nature & Nurture Seeds for an Environmental Stewardship fellowship. The project is an Organic Research and Education Initiative grant-funded collaboration between the Organic Seed Alliance, the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative and Seedlinked.
Her advisor, Mellon Fellow for Experiential Learning Amy Newday, connected her with the project to de-hybridize Juliet tomato seeds.
While hybrid plants are not inherently bad, Crothers said, their seeds are unstable because of the mix of genetic material. If you save the seeds and replant them, you may end up with very different and unpredictable produce the following year.
“We’re working to create a stable variety of Juliet tomatoes that can be planted and grown by everyday people, by home gardeners,” Crothers said.
Erica Kempter of Nature & Nurture Seeds performed the initial cross of the tomato varieties Maeve is growing. The Seed to Kitchen Collaborative is managing the collaborative trials and collecting both the data and the seeds from the plants that are selected for advancement to the next generation.
During summer 2021, Crothers was growing the third generation of the plants. She grew 15 different plants, and selected the best three—based on a combination of health, productivity, disease resistance, taste and appearance—to return to the project.
“We had some weird tomatoes last summer,” Crothers said. “We had 15 of the plants and they all grew completely different tomatoes. Some of them were small and round. Some of them were long and yellow. Some of them were striped; some weren’t. And they had very different tastes. Some of them were really good. Some of them were mealy and gross.”
The Seed to Kitchen Collaborative grew a fourth generation in greenhouses over the winter, and this summer, Crothers is growing a fifth generation. She has five plants each of three different varieties, of which she will pick the best to send back. Since there is still a fair amount of variety in the plants, Crothers expects the project will need a few more generations before they have a stable variety of seeds that can be planted and saved year after year.
Crothers’ work is part of a community-based seed project, with other growers throughout the Midwest taking part in the same work with tomatoes. The project is key to food justice efforts, as communities that strive for food sovereignty and independence from large food systems require reliable seeds. The fellowship has also been a learning experience for Crothers.
“I came into this fellowship last year with basically no gardening experience other than my couple months that I had worked with the Just Food Collective in this space, because we didn’t really ever have a garden growing up or anything,” Crothers said. “I have learned so much about what plants look like and what to do for them and how to tell if a plant is struggling, has disease or nutrient deficiency or anything. I’ve definitely learned a lot about nature and how healing it can be to work with plants and work in the dirt and just be.”
Corn Cultivation
Nora Blanchard ’23 is cultivating corn gifted to Cyndy Garcia-Weyandt, assistant professor of critical ethnic studies, from the Wixárika community in Mexico, for their summer Environmental Stewardship fellowship.
Amy Newday also advises Blanchard and encouraged them to apply for a fellowship to support their work with corn gifted to Cyndy García-Weyandt, assistant professor of critical ethnic studies, by the Wixárika community in Mexico.
“That was a tremendous, amazing gift that was given to us,” Blanchard said. “We now have the responsibility of caring for this corn and doing the best that we can to build a relationship with what we call Our Mother Corn now that she’s here.”
There are five different varieties within the corn—multicolored, yellow, sweet, white and blue—and their arrangement and cultivation are significant for the Wixárika community.
“Not being a part of that community, it’s been really important for me to become familiar with those traditions” with a lot of help from García-Weyandt, Blanchard said. “That’s what the corn is familiar with and needs. We’re learning how Our Mother Corn grows here and I’m learning how to communicate with her and become really observant about her needs.”
García-Weyandt led Blanchard in a traditional seed-planting ceremony and blessing of the seeds in the spring. Blanchard is also learning different techniques, such as hand pollination, and keeping the Wixárika community informed about how the corn is developing.
The hope is that the plants will produce ears of corn. Although they have not yet formed a tassel and silk, which normally would happen at this time, Blanchard remains hopeful.
“Sometimes when you grow a plant that’s from southern areas in the north, the pollination date can move into fall,” Blanchard said. “This could be something that is going to take a while.”
The interaction between culture and cultivation fascinates Blanchard, who marvels that you could find one variety of multicolored corn grown all across a country, yet in different areas, people will have selected for different colors, flavors, sweetness and use.
“That’s why it’s so important to understand and be willing to learn about the community this Mother Corn is coming from,” Blanchard said. “When you look at this corn, the colors and everything are because of the community that has selected for it, and it tells you something; it tells you a story, and it’s amazing. I can’t wait to get different ears and see all the colors and what they look like. I’m excited for that.”
Blanchard plans to hold a harvest festival for the corn in the fall.
Nora Blanchard ’23 and Cyndy Garcia-Weyandt, assistant professor of critical ethnic studies, held a spring planting ceremony following traditions of the Wixárika community in Mexico, which gifted the corn to Garcia-Weyandt. The corn is central to the Wixárika culture and the focus of Blanchard’s summer environmental fellowship and fall Senior Integrated Project.
Senior Integrated Projects
Blanchard and Crothers will be writing fall SIPs based on their summer growing experiences.
“I want it to be the documentation of the agency of Our Mother Corn throughout this experience this summer, helping her grow,” Blanchard said. “I also want to do a personal side of that, too, where I’m also documenting my own growth and change over the summer in relation to the corn.”
“Community is something I’ve been thinking about a lot this summer and how that’s a really big part of the work we’re doing and food justice,” Blanchard said. “How do we meet other people who are doing the work we’re doing, and how do we build relationships with them and learn about these structures and people and movements within our own community that we can support or that can support us? This corn is a result of her culture and that’s a really wonderful thing. It’s such an important thing to maintain. What does it mean for the corn to be growing on this land in Michigan and how do I maintain this relationship with the Wixárika community in the future?”
“I’m also interested in the legality of it, like how can you put a patent on a living thing and call it intellectual property?” Crothers said. “People can get in trouble for growing their own corn next to genetically modified corn; if it pollinates their corn, they can get sued for growing corn they don’t have the right to. I’d like to dive a little deeper into that and also how we can work together to save seeds and create new varieties that can be available for everybody.”
Both students have found a passion for food justice and food sovereignty through their involvement with the Just Food Collective and the Hoop House.
“Those considerations are what drew me to the Hoop House in the first place,” Crothers said. “Then I fell down the rabbit hole of realizing it’s such a complex problem; it’s related to seeds, to income inequality and housing inequality and so many things. There’s so much to unpack. Seed saving has its own complexity, but for me, it’s been an element of food justice to focus on that has helped me learn more about the bigger picture.”
“The way I approach and understand food sovereignty and food justice are always changing,” Blanchard said. “I don’t know how you would do this work without having that be the forefront of what you’re thinking about and considering all the time.”
Eli Edlefson ’23 identifies daisy fleabane at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum, where he is surveying plants and pollinators for an Environmental Stewardship fellowship and his Senior Integrated Project. Although most flowers have seven petals at most, daisy fleabane can have between 30 and 100 petals per flower.
Environmental Stewardship Fellow Eli Edlefson ’23 identifies wild indigo, a native plant that is flourishing in one area of the pollinator rehabilitation project at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum. The wild indigo has distinctive flowers and heart-shaped pods. Edlefson is surveying plants and pollinators along the Powerline Trail for his fellowship and his Senior Integrated Project.
Biology and physics dual major Eli Edlefson ’23 is surveying plants and pollinators along the Powerline Trail in the Lillian Anderson Arboretum for his summer Environmental Stewardship fellowship and his Senior Integrated Project.
Eli Edlefson ’23 would like to apologize to his elementary school science teachers for doubting them.
“In elementary school, teachers would say, ‘Science always starts with observation,’” Edlefson said. “Then you form a question. I was like, ‘I don’t really know how true that is. You’re just walking around and notice something?’ Then I got out here, and that is absolutely all I’m doing is walking around and noticing, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ ‘Why is that there?’ ‘This plant has only interacted with this insect species; I wonder why.’ So I would like to apologize to all my teachers.”
“Here” is the Lillian Anderson Arboretum, and while it’s not entirely accurate to say that all Edlefson does there is walk around and notice things, it is a crucial piece of his Kalamazoo College summer fellowship and Senior Integrated Project.
Edlefson is continuing a native wildflower rehabilitation project begun by Professor of Biology Ann Fraser in 2019, which aimed to promote insect pollinator populations by planting a diverse mix of native plants. In 2019, Amy Cazier ’20 completed her SIP by conducting a plant survey and observing and recording plant and pollinator interactions.
WildflowersProject One of Several Fellowships
Several Kalamazoo College students are completing summer 2022 Environmental Stewardship fellowships through the Larry J. Bell ’80 Center for Environmental Stewardship and we are featuring some of their projects at kzoo.edu. Read on to learn about one of the environmental fellowships making a difference in the local community.
Environmental Stewardship fellow Eli Edlefson ’23 explains how blue vervain blooms over time from the bottom of the spike to the top. Edlefson is surveying plants and pollinators along the Powerline Trail in the Lillian Anderson Arboretum as part of a pollinator rehabilitation project.
For a summer Environmental Stewardship fellowship and Senior Integrated Project, Eli Edlefson ’23 is surveying plants and pollinators along the Powerline Trail in Lillian Anderson Arboretum. With almost no botany experience, Edlefson had to learn to identify all the flowering plants in the area with the help of a wildflower guide, Professor of Biology Ann Fraser and local botanist Russ Schipper.
Eli Edlefson’23 uses the Seek app from iNaturalist to identify a plant in the Lillian Anderson Arboretum. Both the Seek and iNaturalist apps have proven valuable tools in Edlefson’s Environmental Stewardship fellowship and Senior Integrated Project this summer, surveying plants and pollinators along the Powerline Trail in the Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
Now, Edlefson is following in Cazier’s footsteps, while occasionally forging his own path, as he surveys the plants and pollinators to assess how successful the biodiversity efforts have been. By summer’s end, he intends to have a comprehensive survey of which plants are growing along the Powerline Trail, where they grow, and which pollinators interact with which plants, along with a comprehensive recommendation for what work is needed to improve the biodiversity of the area.
“I’m comparing what Amy saw to what I see,” Edlefson said. “What’s taking hold? What did we put in the seed mix that I haven’t seen anywhere? Or, is this still a problem plant, like the invasive spotted knapweed?”
Edlefson has also made it his goal to collect a sample of every plant specimen he finds and create a wildflower guidebook.
“I’d like to have some details on the family and species, and some fun facts about it so you can actually connect to the life around you,” Edlefson said. “It’s so easy to walk by, like, ‘Oh, a flower,’ and keep going. I was guilty of that before. Now I know that this is a Deptford Pink, and if I tried really hard, I might be able to pull up a Latin name. When you know more, you appreciate being outside more.”
Learning an interesting fact about a plant makes learning botany more engaging for Edlefson. For example, Native Americans made tea using a small, hanging orange flower called spotted touch-me-not or common jewelweed, which they used as a cure for laziness.
A biology and physics double major who takes pride in having enjoyed “a charcuterie board” of classes in 11 different departments at K, Edlefson originally sought a research experience involving coastal or marine biology for his SIP. After meeting with Fraser, his class’s SIP coordinator, she connected him with the native wildflower rehabilitation project.
While Edlefson has loved bugs his whole life, he had no formal entomology training and very little botany knowledge when he began the project.
“In high school, I was in Science Olympiad, and every time the entomology event was open, I would hop on that,” Edlefson said. “It’s been nice getting a more formal identification process, having Dr. Fraser, who’s like our resident entomologist, and having it be my job to go and collect bugs. I’ve learned a lot already. I never knew how to distinguish wasps and bees besides just eyeballing it; now I know the bees have hairs that are feathered so they collect more pollen, so when you look at them under the microscope, it’s very obvious which one is which.”
Similarly, when he began the project, “I would never have been excited about a plant,” Edlefson said. “If you had said, ‘What’s that flower?’ I would have been like, ‘Yellow.’”
Edlefson has learned a lot about the plants along the Powerline Trail with the help of Fraser and local botanist Russ Schipper. About every other day, Edlefson drives out to the Arboretum on West Main Street and spends the morning surveying his area, which is about 750 meters long and encompasses all the meadow space on either side of the powerline. Initially, his surveys covered little ground, as he had to look up every plant.
“My first day, Dr. Fraser was out here trying to teach me how to use my handy dandy wildflower guide,” Edlefson said. “Of course, she knew everything that was out here, and she was just patiently waiting for me to flip through all the pages and try to figure out what I was doing.”
Now, he can cover his whole territory in a morning. Some days, Edlefson takes notes on what plants are blooming where and collects specimens to press. Other days, he conducts pollinator surveys, either walking 15-minute transects, recording what he sees and occasionally using a vacuum tube to collect specimens, or with a focal survey, sitting in one place and observing a specific plant for 15 minutes to watch for pollinators interacting with the plant.
Sometimes Edlefson uses a camera from the lab to take clear photos of plants for identification. He also uses the iNaturalist app, and the related Seek app, to identify species, learn more and contribute useful data.
Before the project ends, he hopes to conduct night surveys to see if the pollinator landscape is different at dusk.
In the afternoons, Edlefson processes and examines his specimens and organizes his data in the lab.
“The end goal is my candid suggestion about what looks good and what could be improved,” Edlefson said. “The goal of my project is to see if we’re bringing more pollinators in and supporting more of them; I’m looking for better quality and quantity.”
Throughout the course of the summer, Edlefson has learned that he also has a series of deadlines to contend with as various flowers bloom and die.
“If I want to look at a plant, I need to do that before the flowers go away,” Edlefson said. “Sometimes I realize a flower might not still be there next week, so I need to get out there and get a sample before then. It’s not something that I was expecting, to get an idea of what the bloom periods are, when plants are coming and going, and what I should be expecting to see. I’m learning more than I thought I would.
“I’m very much enjoying my time out here. It is a million times better than sitting in an office or just the lab all day. I’m very lucky. It’s a great job.”
Shannon Bell, Larry Bell ’80 and Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez
Kalamazoo College announced today it has received a $5.25 million gift in support of its Brighter Light Campaign from alumnus Larry Bell ’80.
This transformative gift will establish endowed funds to support the Center for Environmental Stewardship, a distinguished chair in American history, and food justice and sustainability programming. Additional funds will support both the Larry J. Bell ’80 Endowed Scholarship, which was established in 2017, and the Kalamazoo College Fund, which provides immediate funding toward financial aid and the student experience.
“I am proud to support Kalamazoo College with this gift and I look forward to seeing the resulting positive outcomes for K’s students,” Bell said. “I hope that the coming Larry J. Bell Library Foundation can be a help and resource to the history department in the future, and having an endowed chair there will elevate and strengthen this part of the College.”
As a student at K, Bell majored in political science before going on to found Bell’s Brewery Inc. in 1985. Since then, Bell’s has grown into one of the largest craft breweries in America, distributing to 43 states, in addition to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. In November 2021, Bell reached an agreement with Lion, an Australian-based brewer, for the sale of Bell’s. The move will see the Michigan-based craft brewer come together with Colorado’s New Belgium, which Lion acquired in 2019, aligning two great American craft brewers. Bell officially retired from the helm of Bell’s Brewery at the end of 2021.
Bell has long been an active supporter of the College. Along with the scholarship he established in 2017 for students with financial need, in 2006 he contributed to an endowment named for his friend and mentor, Paul Todd ’42. His funding to support K’s food justice initiatives over the last decade has been crucial to the College’s student-led programming through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement, allowing the center to maximize the impact of this programming in the Kalamazoo community.
“Larry’s investment in Kalamazoo College has supported and will continue to support the College’s experiential education offerings, as well as faculty teaching and scholarship for years to come,” President Jorge G. Gonzalez said. “His gift to endow and name the Larry J. Bell ’80 Center for Environmental Stewardship, for example, will help us enhance the curriculum, integrate these curricular initiatives with student organizations and provide new ways for students to engage in environmental leadership efforts on our campus and throughout the greater Kalamazoo community. We are so grateful for Larry’s generous support and commitment toward expanding opportunities and access for our students.”
About Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo College, founded in 1833, is a nationally recognized residential liberal arts and sciences college located in Kalamazoo, Mich. The creator of the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College provides an individualized education that integrates rigorous academics with life-changing experiential learning opportunities. For more information, visit www.kzoo.edu.
The Brighter Light Campaign is raising $150 million to provide endowed and annual support for students, faculty and staff, curricular and co-curricular activities, athletics and campus facilities. For more information, visit the Brighter Light Campaign page: www.kzoo.edu/brighterlight
Natalie Barber ’22 was among the 20 juniors who missed out on study abroad this fall because of the pandemic. Instead, she worked in one of the environmental internships made available at the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council. In that position, she researched fresh water mussels like these.
An additional group of students, whose interests could be connected with environmental opportunities, worked with the Center for Environmental Stewardship and Director Sara Stockwood.
“I think it’s been a valuable experience for everyone, even if they didn’t go on study abroad,” Stockwood said of the students who worked for organizations such as the Kalamazoo Watershed Council, the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association and Sarett Nature Center.
The Michigan Lakes and Streams Association was one of three local organizations that helped four Kalamazoo College students earn environmental internships this fall.
“The students I’ve talked to said they’ve wanted to get an internship before, they just weren’t sure how to make it fit in their academic plan,” she said. “But when this class came up it fit well and it matched their class schedule. It was a challenge for them to figure out how to work virtually, and some of them felt a little lost at first, yet they gained the skills they needed to figure it out. I think that will help them in their classes and future jobs, especially if they have virtual components.”
Amanda Dow, a biology major, worked with Melissa DeSimone, the executive director of the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association (MLSA), which is a statewide nonprofit that unites individuals; lake, stream and watershed associations; organizations; and corporations that share an interest the preserving inland lakes and streams for generations to come. Her work experience included writing newsletter articles highlighting the organization’s virtual convention this year, contributing to its printed articles, and reformatting and updating several brochures.
“I have a background in writing so this was a good chance for me to practice in different mediums,” Dow said. “I wrote a review of the convention sessions along with a biography of myself for the newsletter. They also come out with a newspaper and the biggest chunk of my internship went to updating and reformatting their brochures. It helped a lot that when I first got there I could choose what I wanted to do.”
Asylum Lake served as a socially-distanced meeting point for Amanda Dow ’22 and Melissa DeSimone, the executive director of the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association, as Dow served in a virtual internship.
Andrew Wright, a German and biology major, said he felt a little directionless with where he wanted to apply his majors professionally after graduation, until he interned with the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council. The organization aims to protect, preserve and promote the Kalamazoo River and its tributaries for current area residents and future generations.
“Through developing a new interactive digital dashboard with the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council members, my work will help users see the different types of chemical contaminants in the Kalamazoo area and how they affect the types of fish here,” Wright said. “Following the motto of the Watershed, we want to make that information as accessible as possible so people can learn how their communities’ ecosystems have been impacted. The Kalamazoo River has unfortunately suffered its fair share of PCB runoff from paper mills and oil spills, and we want to create ways for people to be knowledgeable and be mindful of how we affect our surrounding environments.”
Natalie Barber, a biology major and psychology minor, joined Wright in working for the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council. She researched fresh water mussels, which filter small organic particles such as bacteria and algae out of lakes and streams, naturally purifying them. Part of that environmental research involved interviewing Daelyn Woolnough, a Central Michigan University biology faculty member and freshwater mussels expert, leading to website content and social media posts for the watershed council.
Asylum Lake in Kalamazoo served as a socially-distanced meeting point for Amanda Dow ’22 and her internship supervisor this fall.
With K’s academic schedule, it was important to Barber that she could undertake the internship as a part of her term and she hopes more students at the College will have the same opportunity.
“It’s important we know the effects of global warming and climate change and how they threaten mussels,” Barber said. “We especially have those threats in Kalamazoo because we had the paper mills that put all the PCBs in the water, plus we had the 2010 oil spill. Just knowing about those bigger issues, and also the lesser-known issues like invasive species, which is a big deal to freshwater mussels. Things the general public might not realize are such a big deal like moving boats from lake to lake without cleaning them, that’s important information we should share so we can protect the organisms within our areas. I felt like I was doing something positive toward my career goals. I think these internships should be offered every term because I thought mine was that useful.”
To conclude the class and their environmental internships, each student provided a final visual presentation with screenshots and pictures from their projects. Stockwood said students each had about three minutes to present what they did, what they learned and why it matters.
“They took it very seriously and it was fun because the students didn’t fully know what everybody else was doing,” she said. “They found a lot of similarities in their experiences over time with being lost in the beginning, independently working and having some ownership by the second half of their projects. I hope something like this will continue. It’s important to recognize that it’s not study abroad, but I think the experience was valuable, and I think the students feel it was valuable, too.”
Environmentalism and environmental justice, involving the deepening and healing of our relationship with the land while acknowledging injustices within our current systems and trying to envision and embody alternatives, are important for students such as Orly Rubinfeld ’20. Rubinfeld sees Earth Day, celebrated every April 22, as a day to reflect more deeply on why our reconnection to the land is so important and why we work for change.
Housemates Orly Rubinfeld (top left), Aiden Voss and Maya Gurfinkel; and Yasamin Shaker (bottom left) and Madeline Ward display some of the plants they’re growing in Kalamazoo.
“Earth Day is an opportunity to re-center on our values,” said Rubinfeld, an independent interdisciplinary major in Environmental Studies. “But we have to remember we have only one Earth and we’ve been pretty unkind to it. If we only pay attention one day a year, we won’t solve our environmental problems. And not just planetary problems but how climate change and other environmental injustices are disproportionately impacting Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities.”
This year, though, is adding a few challenges to K’s environmental efforts. For example, one way that students engage with food justice is through K’s gardens, including the hoop house. A hoop house, a little like a green house, is a year-round environment for growing vegetables, flowers and other cold-sensitive plants. With distance learning keeping students away from the campus hoop house, students are finding ways to bring that experience home.
Megan VanDyke ’22 assembled a cold-frame hoop house at her home in Seattle. The temporary structure stands just a few feet high, yet provides a similar environment to the hoop house at K.
Nora Blanchard ’22, is tending to plants at her home this spring in Traverse City.
That’s where Rubinfeld and several students like her come in. She is one of eight housemates living in Kalamazoo’s Vine neighborhood this spring, sheltering in place together through Michigan’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order and continuing the work they began at the hoop house, a facility raised in fall 2018 through the Just Food Collective. The student organization, an effort of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement, wants to increase student awareness about the challenges and inequities within the food system. This is done while targeting nutritional inequities, climate change and other environmental injustices.
A plant begins to sprout at Megan VanDyke’s home in Seattle.
“Food insecurity has always been a problem,” Rubinfeld said. “But in this unique moment, well-resourced people are paying attention at unprecedented levels so I think that’s something we should try to take advantage of as we search for systems that allow people to have more sovereignty over their food systems.”
Rubinfeld and her friends, who all lived together in an environmental justice Living Learning House on campus their sophomore year, have taken on the responsibility of bringing home the lessons they learned at the hoop house to pots and planters on their porch and in their home.
“Our goal was to do something small where we are in our urban space,” Rubinfeld said.
And the Vine neighborhood roommates aren’t the only students planting this spring. Nora Blanchard ’22, is tending to plants at her home in Traverse City. Plus, Megan VanDyke ’22 assembled a cold-frame hoop house at her home in Seattle. The temporary structure stands just a few feet high, yet provides a similar environment to the hoop house on campus.
Efforts like these might seem small, but they represent how the spirit of Earth Day, a time to demonstrate support for environmental protection and environmental justice, endures for the K community.
“I can’t imagine a large-scale effort until I’ve seen it on a small scale,” Rubinfeld said. “How can we expect large change until we see small changes? If my seven housemates and I can do this, imagine what could happen if everyone in our neighborhood could do that. We could be in a very different type of place. I think if everyone had access to the means to grow own own food, we would be much closer to individuals having sovereignty over what they put in their bodies and having access to just, local, and sustainable food for humans and the land.”
Gabrielle Herin ’18 in her K summer internship at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
[By McKenna Bramble ’16]
With a major in biology and a concentration in environmental studies, Kalamazoo College student Gabrielle Herin ’18 is interested in all of us – individuals and institutions alike – reducing our environmental impact. In order to learn more about the processes behind environmental laws and policies that can help with this, Gabrielle is completing an internship this summer with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
Gabrielle has spent her summer collaborating with more than 20 other college interns and their supervisor, MDEQ Environmental Education Coordinator Tom Occhipinti, on seven projects, four of which she heads as project manager.
One project is publishing the first edition of the Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) “Friends Newsletter.” Gabrielle says working on the newsletter has not only provided her the opportunity to research the goals and projects of the MDNR, but has also allowed her to develop some practical and organizational skills.
“My work on the newsletter has made me see how my writing abilities have improved since being at K,” she says. “Tom even complimented my writing in the newsletter. I feel a lot more confident that in the future, if I were to be asked to write something like this, I could definitely complete it.”
Gabrielle is a rising junior at K who plans to study abroad in France in spring 2017.
She’s also looking at life after K. Because of her K internship and the exposure she’s had to the work of the MDEQ’s Water Resources Division and Environmental Education Division, she said she is interested in exploring both as possible career options.
“Interning here is prepping me for what I would do in a potential career,” she says.
McKenna Bramble ’16
McKenna Bramble ‘16 graduated from Kalamazoo College with a B.A. degree in psychology and currently works as the post-baccalaureate summer assistant in the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development. She enjoys writing and reading poetry, hanging out with friends and eating chocolate. In the fall she plans to apply to M.F.A. degree programs for poetry. This is one of a series of profiles she is writing about K students and their summer internships.
