Developing institutional support for land stewardship at a Midwestern liberal arts college

Background/Question/Methods

Many liberal arts colleges own undeveloped land that supports the curriculum (for example, field labs in biology classes) and provides recreational opportunities and green space for the larger community; often, stewardship of these areas has enjoyed little institutional support.  What strategies can biologists use to attain the resources necessary to protect biodiversity in these areas, particularly at a time of tight budgets?  At Luther College, we used a variety of strategies to make the college administrators more aware of the benefits of active management in campus natural areas. These included student assessment of natural areas in an ecology class; a summer workshop for key faculty, administrators, and staff focusing on how land can play a central role in a community; carrying out high-visibility student service projects; and the development of a land stewardship plan.  At all points, we framed our arguments in terms of the college mission, the strategic plan, and the benefits to student learning.

Results/Conclusions

In turn, administrators at Luther have become quite interested in the role of land stewardship in providing valuable student internships as well as opportunities of service projects and place-based learning.  In four years we have gone from a culture of benign neglect of campus natural areas by the college (with the notable exception of many hours of stewardship work donated by biology faculty) to a program with a land stewardship plan, a part-time land steward, several student interns, and a small budget.