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Bakko sustains green perspective locally and globally

By Karen Hansen '77
November 21, 2006

BakkoHead
Bakko
St. Olaf Professors of Biology Gene Bakko and Diane Angell, along with St. Olaf student naturalists Amber Collett '07 and Willie Richards '07, and biology and environmental studies students Adam Thomas '07, Tim Mitchell '07, Jennifer Kanz '10 and Andrew Moe '08, recently were featured in a special Minnesota Bound segment on Minneapolis-St. Paul NBC affiliate KARE-TV.

Young people today hear much about global warming and environmental threats, but their physical contact with nature is rapidly fading or non-existent. Bakko and Angell and their team of student environmentalists are trying to change that. In October, Greenvale Elementary second-graders came to St. Olaf's campus where they were introduced to the college's natural lands. Minnesota Bound photojournalist Mike Cashman was on hand to capture the event.

Sustainability is a red-hot topic on St. Olaf's green campus. Bakko, who also is curator of St. Olaf's natural lands, is well known locally as one of the college's chief proponents of habitat restoration. His long-term global perspective on the environment is perhaps just as impressive. In 1984 he created for students the Biology in South India program, and in 1994 he established the Environmental Science in Australia program. Now, Bakko shares his firsthand knowledge of one of the world's most distinctive environments with alumni, parents and the public during a Study Travel program, "The Land of Oz: Environmental Diversity in Australia," which will take place Sept. 1-18, 2007.

Australia is the world's largest island and smallest continent. It also is one of the oldest, most isolated and driest of the continents. These characteristics have resulted in the evolution of some of the most distinctive living plants and animals in the world.

The first native people arrived 25,000 years before the last Neanderthals disappeared from Europe. When Captain Cook claimed the continent for England, 500 tribes were knowledgeable about and well adapted to their respective environments -- from the arid outback to the tropical rainforests.

Focusing on the Australian environment and the influence of Aborigines and Europeans, the Study Travel "habitats" include large cities, the subtropical rainforest in Lamington National Park, a safari-style camp resort in Carnarvon National Park in the remote outback and the Great Barrier Reef, reached via catamaran.

Always open to the public, St. Olaf Study Travel programs are for adults of all ages and teenagers traveling with adults.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.