Ever Green!

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“We Got to Get Dirty”

Brady Markell, a junior from Marshall, MN, is just one of the students poised to major in environmental studies. Like many students, he came to Saint John’s with an interest in environmental issues but no real plans on how to integrate that into his studies. Then he joined the Environmental Studies Learning Community (ESLC) in the fall of 2001. Funded by the Bush Foundation, the ESLC provided an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in environmental issues for a semester. Seventeen students took the same four classes; the courses were team taught by biology, chemistry, economics, management and history/environmental studies faculty members. The students and faculty spent a month off campus conducting research at the Cloquet Forestry Center and the Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station. “The ESLC exposed us to real life situations—we got to get dirty. We looked at the economic impact of real projects,” recalls Markell, who is earning a second major in business.

Brady Markell, a junior management major from Marshall, MN, bud caps a white pine seedling while working on a service learning project in the Arboretum.

Central to the ESLC experience was a research project. Markell and his classmates designed an environmental studies building incorporating the most innovative ecological materials and practices. “Straw bales, composting toilets, fuel cell energy, recycled PVC pipe … we included everything,” he says excitedly. The project helped Markell fulfill the class requirements and find a direction for his life. “I can see myself working with building companies as a buyer, helping them meet environmental regulations,” he says.

Fueled by that experience, Markell came back to campus and began an independent study project with Professor Diedrich, looking at the recycling possibilities for the campus. “Those experiences are preparing me for the real world,” says Markell.

Living the Questions

The “real world” is quite real to Amy Fredrigill, ’97, who serves as a legislative correspondent on Iowa Senator Tom Harkin’s agricultural committee. Fredrigill majored in economics and minored in environmental studies, worked for the Isaac Walton League upon graduation and then went on to earn a master’s degree in public policy from George Washington University. As a staffer on the Senate’s agricultural committee, she is balancing her own beliefs and ideas with the needs of the Senator’s farming constituents. But it’s a challenge for which the CSB/SJU environmental studies program prepared her well.

To complete her environmental studies minor, she chose a project dealing with solid waste at Saint John’s “We dug through the garbage (which was disgusting!) and then analyzed it—what could be composted, what was recyclable and what should go into a landfill. I made recommendations—but I learned that solutions can take many years.” From that experience, she discovered the path she wanted to follow to address environmental issues. “At CSB and SJU I learned that I wanted to work within the system to find sustainable solutions,” she testifies.

Working within the system is important to Ken Virnig ’00 too. The Pierz, MN, native grew up milking Holsteins twice a day on the family farm. He earned a major in peace studies and a minor in environmental studies at Saint John’s and has proceeded to Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark in Portland, Oregon, the top environmental law program in the U.S. “I want to get an education that will help me protect the places I love,” says Virnig. His interest in the environment stems from his rural roots, from an internship with the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and from his interest in justice, which was fed by the Peace Studies program. “Why, for example, are landfills located in low income communities? We need to answer these questions,” says Virnig.

Exploring the boundaries between environmental issues and other disciplines—economics, humanities, social science, natural science, philosophy and religion—excites Virnig. These disciplinary intersections are also where the heart of the CSB/SJU program lies. “To work for the Sierra Club or the Forest Service or any other organization, you really need a broad understanding of the issues,” says program director Larson. “We seek to graduate well-rounded, academically prepared students who have skills to fit in any number of places.”
 

Indeed, CSB/SJU graduates do fit a variety of niches—from creating organic topsoil out of waste (Eric Hansen ’00, general manager, Mississippi Topsoils) to helping state and local governments purchase products that are better for the environment (Mike Liles ’00, Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance).  Larson has created a broad vision for the program that he says rises organically, so to speak, out of the history and tradition of the universities. He’d like to create a permanent learning community model akin to the ELSC program, one that would include a plethora of outside-the-classroom activities. He’d also like to incorporate more service learning into the program and explore the possibility of a concentration in environmental education. But most of all, “I’d like us to become known as a place for the study of the nexus of religion and the environment.” Larson points to the strong scholars who are already teaching in that area; theologian Bernie Evans teaches a “Theology and the Environment Course” and philosopher Joe Desjardins teaches an “Environmental Ethics” course.

Larson’s colleague, biologist Gordon Brown, agrees. “What we have at Saint John’s that is entirely unique is the juxtaposition of a spiritual community and nature. You can go to lots of colleges and have an outdoor research experience—but where else can you go and watch people living the question, ‘Why should someone want to care for nature?’”

Dr. Derek Larson bud caps a white pine—to protect the tree from deer browsing—during an Arboretum service learning project.

Protecting the Neighborhood

While alumna Fredrigill helps shape the nation’s agricultural policies and alumnus Virnig gains the legal education he needs to protect the state he loves, back home in Collegeville, two graduates are helping to protect the natural learning lab and its environs. 

Tim Haeg ’94 didn’t earn an environmental studies minor, but he paved the way for others to do so. “I was the guinea pig, patient zero—they tested the minor on me,” he says, laughing. Haeg, who grew up across the footbridge from the campus, came to Saint John’s to study engineering. But then several of the biology faculty nabbed his imagination. “[Biology Professor] Nick Zakowski required us to know the Latin names of plants—Acer Negundo— box elder. My personal creed became ‘Acer Negundo no more-o,’” he quips.

Haeg helped with Fr. Paul’s wetlands and prairie restoration projects and upon graduation joined a company that restores prairies. Then he was hired by the Stearns County Environmental Services department and began doing well and waste water testing. Today he owns his own company, Watab Diversified, which does water testing and other engineering, and has built a passive solar home on Fruit Farm Road on the edge of the campus. He has taken what he learned from Fr. Paul to convert a cornfield into a 15-acre blue stem prairie. “The wild turkeys love the native grasses,” he says.

Growing up in the shadow of the bell banner, Haeg was greatly influenced by the Benedictines in seeing his place in the world. “We share a mutual respect for the land,” he reflects. The monks come over every spring to help their neighbor burn his prairie. In turn, he buys their biosolids to fertilize his land. “It’s a symbiotic thing— we see the benefit of one another,” says Haeg.

Protecting the fringes of the campus is a hot topic these days in Collegeville. Richard Bresnahan, ’76, SJU’s artist-in-residence and director of the pottery program (see sidebar, page 14), who owns 120 acres within a few miles of campus, is active on area planning boards. “There are only 3,700 acres of red oak forest left in all of Stearns County,” he says, noting that his and abbey lands form a good chunk of that acreage. He says that within that eco-corridor, there are nine endangered plant species and two endangered mammals; in addition, two species of birds are categorized as “special concern.” He says curtly: “We get all bent out of shape about the Brazilian rain forest while ignoring our back yard.”

Bresnahan is militant about defending the Saint John’s neighborhood against development. “People want to be around any temple or sacred place,” he observes. “The greatest fear is that in 25-30 years, Collegeville will turn into a high-density living environment.”

The potter isn’t the only one who’s worried. “We don’t want to be an island of green surrounded by golf courses, condos and mini-developments,” says Arboretum Director and Land Manager Tom Kroll. “What’s beyond these 2,400 acres really matters. We want to keep the ecological integrity intact.”

To promote a healthy neighborhood, many faculty have turned their attention to projects near home. In 1995, S. Phyllis Plantenberg founded the Common Ground community garden, a sustainable, subscriber garden. She also co-founded the St. Joseph Farmers Market. In conjunction with economist Diedrich, Management Professor Jamie Partridge wrote a manual of case studies of environmentally sound companies in Central Minnesota. Partridge and Arboretum staffers are leading the development of a new Geographical Information Systems lab so that students can use the software applications to map such things as local wetlands areas. Diedrich has his fingers in lots of local pies—a wind power project, garnering “Tree City” designation for St. Joseph, launching a sustainability float (from which students threw packets of wildflower seeds) for the St. Joseph Fourth of July parade … the list of his endeavors goes on and on. Diedrich, who has inspired dozens of students to live responsibly and devote their lives to environmental issues, lives in an energy-efficient home and even drives a hybrid car.

Program director Larson says that future learning communities will focus on local issues. “We are rich in opportunities to make a difference right here,” he says.

Students Promote Campus Sustainability

The greening of the ivory tower—often called “campus sustainability”—is one way to make a big difference “right here,” to use Larson’s words. And several CSB/SJU students, with the encouragement and guidance of faculty, are leading that charge.

In the summer of 2001, Karolanne Hoffman, from Lacrosse, WI, and Paul Hansmeier, St. Cloud, MN, under the supervision of professors Diedrich and Partridge, began collecting baseline data for an environmental audit. That research project, funded by the National Council for Undergraduate Research and the Lancy Foundation, morphed into a campus-wide sustainability working group. “Everyone was thinking about sustainability, but we weren’t thinking together,” says Hoffman. CSB/SJU are one of only four schools in the nation to receive Lancy Foundation funding.

In recognition of her achievements related to sustainability, Hoffman won a coveted $5,000 Udall Scholarship. Only 80 students nationwide receive that honor each year. Before she leaves campus and pursues a career in environmental issues or Native American affairs, Hoffman hopes to see a sustainability plan in place. “Not a covenant or a contract,” she qualifies, “but a commitment to a path of sustainability.”

Hoffman is surprised at her “change agent” status. “I didn’t have any idea that I would be this involved and have this much impact as a college student,” she says. “That’s precisely the kind of experience we want to give students,” says Diedrich, who has championed sustainability on campus for nearly two decades. “We want them to feel as if they can change the world.”

An environmental audit of both campuses will be published in spring 2003.

Research Opportunities Abound

As early as their first year, CSB/SJU students can taste environmental studies research.

Students in Mike Ross’s “Introduction to Environmental Studies” class take water samples from Lake Gemini to assess the influx of phosphates and nitrates into the Watab watershed. “By doing these kinds of experiments,” says Ross, “students are realizing that environmental research is not about quick answers.” They also come to realize that their personal choices—biodegradable soap? recyclable containers?—have real world consequences.

Upper-division students have even more sophisticated research options. Gordon Brown took students on a paleoecology journey during last summer’s Lancy research program. “It was a scary and fun research project,” Brown recalls. “Scary because I learned everything I know about paleoecology a semester before I taught it. Fun because students felt they were a big part of the discovery process.” Using special equipment, Brown and his research crew drilled down into Lake Hillary, a campus lake, and found 60 types of fossilized pollen grains from 12,000 years ago. This microscopic evidence proved that dramatic changes have taken place on the abbey’s 2,400 acres in 120 centuries. Today’s oak savanna was once a spruce savanna with widely scattered low vegetation such as sage. “That means the climate was once colder and drier here,” he says. “Looking at the biological past teaches you that the way the land is today is relatively new and probably fairly temporary.”

Brown relishes teaching and doing research using the Arboretum as his blackboard. Students in his general ecology class have done a survey of oak regeneration after a prescribed burn and an evaluation of the invasive wormwood sage plant in order to determine whether it’s worth trying to eradicate. “Research isn’t an abstract exercise here,” says Brown. “Student research has real implications for the Arboretum, and that makes it more meaningful.”

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