Prof Says Progress Comes With Environmental Price

Students may see the recent construction on campus as progress with an economical strain; however, one USA professor has noticed an ecological cost.

USA Biology Professor Dr. David Nelson came to the USA campus more than 30 years ago and remembers seeing “beautiful sand hills and beautiful wildflowers, and a lot of frogs, snakes, lizards, and turtles.” However, in those 30 years, he’s seen a lot of development and watched plants and animals disappear.

“A natural concomitant of development is habitat destruction,” Nelson said. “You lament the loss of something that was once very beautiful. On the other hand, the University has grown, we have more facilities. All those things are necessary.”

Even with the necessary development, Nelson wishes to see good environmental stewardship.

“It is a matter of balance. There are those who are completely against development and that doesn’t make sense, but neither can you be oblivious to what you’re doing [with construction].”

Nelson said he’d like to see green zones, areas that are left as a natural habitat that can be managed and maintained. The ravine between the Humanities Building and the library is one such place. It’s a wetland that contains salamanders and max myrtle, which is native to the Appalachian Mountains but can be found on campus.

Managing a natural habitat requires background knowledge on environmental preservation, a skill USA’s Grounds Department doesn’t look for in its employees, according to Director of Facilities Management Chris Willis. Nelson recalled a time when Grounds people were cutting down dogwood trees, an evergreen understory tree that doesn’t grow to be very tall.

“I had a squabble with them and told them they were a flowering plant and provided fruit for birds,” Nelson said.

The dogwoods, which bloom white flowers in the spring that turn into red berries in the winter, were cut down, but some were left.

“We need people who are more well-trained in maintaining a natural environment,” Nelson said.

Willis said that the department looks for people with experience in lawn care, such as mowing and weeding. They don’t look for specialties in environmental preservation.

Nelson said he worries more about the natural habitat on campus, because it serves as a learning tool for his classes.

“It’s a natural laboratory. I take my students out there, and we catch some animals, observe them, then set them free,” Nelson said.

One place Nelson is especially fond of is a deep ravine on the road to Hillsdale that has “nifty salamanders.”

“The message of ecology is that plants, animals, and humans are all interrelated. We need each other and were created as an entity,” Nelson said. “We need plants because they produce oxygen and we can’t poison the oceans [with herbicides that seep through the soil because that will] kill the algae which produce 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe.”

Nelson believes it would be wise and efficient to keep natural habitats. Trees provide a buffer for sounds, while allowing wildflowers and grass to grow would be pleasing to the eye, as well as economically sound and easy to maintain. There are native plants, such as max myrtle (also an evergreen), which grow with almost no effort, and are places where birds nest.

“Let Mother Nature keep it going. Just maintain it by taking out diseased trees, and thin it out when it becomes too thick,” Nelson said.

Nelson added that, in college and today’s stressful society, natural habitats “could be a place where students can go and enjoy.”

Nelson would like to see green zones protected, especially since he hasn’t seen gray foxes, minks, or harmless black pine snakes on campus in 20 years.

There has been construction of buildings with the natural habitat in mind. The Mitchell Center has a “green parking lot,” according to Public Relations Director Keith Ayers. The lot wasn’t fully developed and was kept small. It was also built so the water from rainfall doesn’t rush off the asphalt.

Ayers said while there is no environmental committee to advise the University on development, USA is governed by the state building code and follows federal regulations that drive construction sites and designs.

The new Shelby Engineering and Computing Sciences Building, for example, was designed to protect the trees in the area, even though it slightly “drove up costs,” Willis said.

Though the University tries to keep the natural habitat in mind, there is constant construction that results in the destruction of nature.

If it continues, “everything will be grossly artificial,” Nelson said.

A question Nelson thinks the University and everyone should keep in mind is, “How much is it worth sacrificing and is it worth keeping some [of the natural habitat]?”