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The sustainable "green space" is located at the corner of
Smith and Henry Streets.
Click on Green Space to see a slideshow of photos from the project. |
Randolph-Macon College students recently completed the second phase of a year-long project that challenged them to design a sustainable “green space.”
On May 12, 2011, as part of their community service requirement, students enrolled in the
First-Year Experience (FYE) course “It’s Not Easy Being Green” planted a variety of indigenous plants at the corner of Smith and Henry Streets. FYE Professors Reber Dunkel (
sociology) and Brian Moores (
chemistry) joined students as they planted native perennial flowers and grasses, including wild bergamot, spiked blazing star, black-eyed Susan and switchgrass. The plants were designed to complement the native trees and shrubs, including sweetbay magnolia and blueberry, which Dunkel’s environmental sociology students planted in December 2010 in the first phase of the project.
Making Plans
The project came to fruition after the college offered the area for a “green project” that would serve as the east gateway entrance to campus. Following workshops conducted by Louis Verner, a terrestrial biologist from the Bureau of Wildlife Resources for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, students, divided into competing teams, designed landscape plans from a palette of native plants. “Students selected plants native to the Chesapeake Bay watershed based on seasonality, color scheme, height, clumping patterns and biodiversity values,” explains Dunkel. “The students relished the competition and took pride in knowing that they had created a site that would reestablish a natural landscape of the Chesapeake Bay area. The site also serves as an outdoor classroom, with minimal maintenance costs.”
The plans were then finalized by Verner. R-MC
English Professor Pattie Bland, head of the Hanover Master Gardener program, helped select the winning designs and organize the plantings. “Down the street from the new eco-friendly
Andrews Hall, the native plant green lot will provide a natural, low-cost, sustainable habitat that we hope people—as well as butterflies and hummingbirds—will visit often,” says Dunkel.
Seed Money After preparing a budget, students raised close to $1,000 to buy the plants. Ashland’s Colesville Nursery donated three trees and discounted the cost of all plants, and R-MC’s
environmental studies program, directed by Professor Michael Fenster, donated $250. In addition, May Sligh, the director of the York River and Small Coastal Basin Roundtable, donated $300, and faculty and staff contributed close to $500. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries contributed $200, and The Center for Sustainable Communities, a non-profit organization, donated the remaining $500 needed to complete the project. The combined classes raised nearly $2,000 for the project.
“We owe a special thanks to Ranny Robertson, the R-MC projects manager, and Tom Dwyer, director of the physical plant,” says Dunkel of the green initiative. “Nora Amos, director of planning and community development for the Town of Ashland, and Robert Patterson, R-MC’s director of corporate and foundation relations, were also instrumental in making this a viable plan. This project will grow and thrive because of so many helping hands.”