8. Maintain and restore natural landscapes for both practical and aesthetic reasons.

The St. Olaf grounds. photo by Lauren Anderson '06

Campus lands

Anybody who has seen the St. Olaf campus knows that it's beautiful. Anyone who's seen the oldest photographs of the area knows that not all the beauty is natural. For most of the twentieth century, John Berntsen was the chief steward of the St. Olaf campus, serving St. Olaf for 52 years, most of it as Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings. "I want to make St. Olaf so nice," Berntsen said, "[that] no student will ever have to apologize for it." These days, the campus depends on the work of Jim Fisher and his grounds crew. They use craft and culture (and sweat) to keep the campus looking (and functioning) as well as it does.

The campus lawns, for example, look natural to prospective students. But they involve a lot of work. They involve seeds and herbicides and fertilizers and diesel-powered mowers. They even involve decisions about how much campus land to keep in lawns. In the past 15 years, the grounds crew has let about 75 acres of turf "go natural," cutting down on chemicals, fertilizers and fossil-fuels burned to power the mowers. We currently cut about 175 acres of lawn, and a lot of that is athletic fields, our students' playground.

In the past 15 years, too, lawn care has evolved on campus. The college used to do lawns the American way, with a generous regimen of fertilizers and herbicides and a "crew cut" at 1 ½ inches. These days, we only use fertilizers on the athletic fields, and we don't use chemical fertilizers. Instead, we use Sustane, an organic fertilizer made in Goodhue County from droppings gathered on Rice County turkey farms. People still complain a lot about weeds (especially dandelions), but we restrict ourselves to one application of broadleaf control a year. And, except for the athletic fields, we cut the grass at 3 inches, which makes for a healthier turf.

Trees are the dominant feature of the St. Olaf green, and we think of them as natural-and, of course, they are. But they're not accidental, and Jim Fisher is making sure that the canopy remains when today's older trees pass on. He plants four or five new trees every year, looking for native species that will flourish in the understory of the taller trees. This year, he's planning on planting a variety of elm recently developed at the Morton Arboretum, an tree which is both disease-resistant and shaped like classic American elms.

Sidewalk near Mellby Hall. photo by Lauren Anderson '06

Sidewalks cross the lawns between buildings, and provide a solid surface for the 3000 pairs of feet that cross campus each day. They're designed to get people from place to place, but they're also designed to provide spaces for conversation and contemplation. This year, the Grounds crew placed recycled Adirondack chairs (crafted from the old Skoglund Hall bleachers by college carpenter Gregg Menning) on the circles that connect the primary paths on campus. And while our sidewalks need to be convenient, they can't compromise the lawns that function as students' front yards in the Fall and Spring.

During the growing season, flowers provide a grace note to the campus, but there too, practices are changing. We used to plant as many as 7500 annuals a year, but these days that number has been reduced to about 500, as the crew concentrates on perennial beds, many utilizing native prairie plant materials. The garden in front of the President's house is the latest example of a perennial garden.

Gingko tree near Holland Hall. photo by Lauren Anderson '06

When snow falls on the campus in the winter, the sidewalks are a site of snow removal, mainly by plows powered by diesel engines. All of the college tractors are powered by a 20 percent biodiesel fuel. Sand and salt help melt the ice and provide traction, but they also increase clean-up inside buildings and wear-and-tear on carpets. This year, therefore, Jim is exploring the use of a liquid de-icer made from corn byproducts in Iowa.

Natural lands

The St. Olaf Natural Lands. photo by Gene Bakko

In 1988, St. Olaf enrolled 22 acres of farmland into the USDA's Conservation Reserve Program, and planted native hardwood trees to "restore" the woodland that existed in Minnesota at the time of white settlement. Since that date, the college has planted more than 40,000 trees on farmland, as well as converting many acres of mowed grass to hardwood trees.

In 1989, the college started a prairie restoration project on a couple of acres of land also enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. The first two acres were planted with five species of native grasses and 20-25 species of forbs, with Gene Bakko and Kathy Shea broadcasting the seed in wide arcs over the cultivated ground. Subsequent plantings were contracted to Prairie Restoration, Inc. And students and faculty have also collected prairie wildflower seed from local native prairies to start potted plants in the campus greenhouse that could be replanted on the prairie in spring and early summer. Finally, we have also planted a few bur oaks on the prairie to re-create the prairie-oak savanna that preceded agricultural settlement of the area.

photo by Gene Bakko

Beginning in 1993, the college started to restore wetlands on campus. Helped by a grant from the US Fish and Wildlife service, Gene Bakko and others identified wetland sites that had been drained in the past, cut the field tiles, and erected dikes. These sites range in size from small temporary wetlands to nine acres, and have provided migratory rest stops for more than 30 species of waterfowl, ranging from ruddy ducks to tundra swans. The main nesting inhabitants are mallards, wood ducks, and blue-winged teal, often with 10-15 broods among them in a season. We have also welcomed nesting green herons, hooded mergansers and pie-billed grebes.

Bluebird nest box. photo by Gene Bakko

Currently the natural lands include 45 acres of original woodland, 80 acres of restored woodland, 145 acres of restored native prairie, 14 restored wetlands, a bluebird trail with 60 nest boxes

The natural lands are a classroom for the college, used by many classes in a wide range of departments on campus. Science classes and Environmental Studies classes include the introductory Biology classes, Conservation Biology, Introduction to Environmental Studies, Ecology, Field Ecology, Campus Ecology, Vertebrate Biology, Aquatic Biology and Environmental Chemistry. Other classes include courses in art, philosophy, English, psychology and physical education.

The trail system on the natural lands has come to be known as one of the best cross-country running courses in the Midwest. We host the Minnesota State Cross-Country championship every year, and we hosted the NCAA Division III championship in 2002.

Numerous tours of the natural lands have been conducted over the years, interpreting this treasure for entering students, alumni, local public school students, special guests and invited speakers.

In addition, a wide range of students and local townfolk use the natural lands for recreation and aesthetic enjoyment.

Farmland

Liberal arts colleges are always devoted to the analysis and transmission of culture, but not always involved in agriculture. St. Olaf has been involved in both for a long time.

Harvest on the St. Olaf farmland. photo by Gene Bakko

In 1904, the college purchased the 22 acres of hilltop where Thorson Hall currently stands, and erected a barn at about the site of the current Dittman Center. They also paid $150 for a prime Holstein, with the idea of building up a dairy herd. Until the mid-1960s, the college operated its own farm, providing meat and dairy products for its students. Since then, the college has leased its agricultural land to local farmers, who have cropped it in mostly conventional ways. ¹

In 1993, under the direction of Gene Bakko, the college converted 44 acres of farmland to a more sustainable agricultural system that employed a 5-year/4-crop rotation of corn-soybeans-oats/alfalfa-alfalfa-alfalfa.and began a research program funded by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to compare it to conventional farming inputs and outputs. Since then students have explored questions of soil quality, soil organisms, crop production, economics and energy efficiency. ²

In October 2003, St. Olaf's Regents approved new leases for the college's 350 acres of farm land that would require farmers to comply with conservation tillage practices to reduce erosion and improve soil quality using both no-till agriculture and crop rotation starting in the 2004 growing season.

¹ Shaw, Dear Old Hill , pp. 79-80.

² Incorporation of alfalfa - a perennial legume - helps reduce erosion, runoff, and leaching by covering the soil and protecting it from wind and rain. A lfalfa also restores nitrogen to the soil because it harbors nitrogen-fixing bacteria in its roots. Using alfalfa in the crop rotation decreases the amount of fertilizer that must be applied to obtain good yields, thus decreasing nutrient inputs to the watershed.