Oakridge Research and Education Prairie
Encouraging conservation through the arts and sciences
For information: contact Lauren Sullivan (llsull@iastate.edu<mailto:llsull@iastate.edu>)
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The left panel shows the cornfield we will restore. In the right panel, Catherine Duthie, an ISU fine arts graduate student is capturing the land transformation process with oil paint.
The natural world is experienced and interpreted in countless ways. Some sketch and paint animals and plants; others quantify these organisms’ behavioral changes; still others write poetry or make documentary films. Scientists and artists each in their own ways explore, observe, and interpret what they see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. However, these interpretations are often compartmentalized by discipline, thus decreasing the diversity with which people experience a landscape. Because past experiences, accumulated knowledge and personal interests shape our impressions of the land, we strive to combine the arts and sciences in ways that increase the complexity with which people understand the land and its conservation.
We believe diversity in scientific and artistic expression should be preserved and nurtured. We also believe that conservation and environmental health can be achieved best through consilience, or the combining of disciplinary knowledge. This consilience is the pathway to discovery, understanding, and the restoration of common ground between the arts and sciences. More immediately, consilience is the pathway to increased conservation in Iowa and to reinvigoration of Iowa State University’s land-grant mission. For this reason, we seek to synthesize three oft-opposed approaches into holistic engagement at Ames, Iowa’s Oakridge Prairie:
Scientific Investigation
The scientific method is employed to investigate the process of tallgrass prairie restoration and how above- and below-ground factors influence this process in three main areas:
1. The effects of herbivores (e.g., deer, mice, voles, and insects) on plant establishment and diversity maintenance.
2. The influence of animals on the dispersal and establishment of plants from a source in order to aid in low budget, high diversity restorations.
3. The process of soil development with different plant diversities and animal presence.
Artistic Interpretations
Art in all forms—music, painting, photography, poetry, etc.—is employed to document Oakridge Prairie’s physical transformation from cornfield to tallgrass prairie and to express corresponding intellectual, emotional, and spiritual reactions to this transformation through time. To display these artistic interpretations, we will be hosting:
1. Conservation based writing contests to encourage developing writers in the public communication of a consilience mindset. Winners will be published in local conservation-based publications such as websites, newspapers and magazines.
2. A yearly symposium where all interpretations, both artistic and scientific, will be displayed to help synthesize our holistic approach.
Education
Using this consilience approach, we are educating and promoting the understanding of:
1. The natural landscapes of Iowa. This includes agricultural and human systems that together create and sustain the health of land and life in Iowa.
2. The historic and future importance of native tallgrass prairie.
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How you can be involved
0. Bring your classes to the site if possible.
>Some of you have heard about this and are already planning to be involved.
1. Participate in herbivore-exclosure fence construction (after March 24) and seed planting (March 24).
>These dates are semi-permanent, but will be determined by weather.
2. Volunteer to referee an undergrad writing contest sponsored by the Ames Tribune.
>Dates for this are not set as we are currently in the process of organizing the contest. It is quite flexible and there is room to improve, so give us your ideas too.
3. Have your own idea? We are happy to incorporate more creativity, so let us know!
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