THE CURRICULAR
USE OF NATURAL AREAS ON THE WELLS COLLEGE CAMPUS
AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR THEIR PRESERVATION
By
A. THOMAS VAWTER
MARGARET FLOWERS
LINDA SCHWAB
and
NIAMH O’ LEARY
WELLS COLLEGE
22 October 2001
At the request of Dean Ellen Hall, an ad hoc
committee composed of Wells College faculty from Biological and Chemical
Sciences and Environmental Policy, Science and Values reviewed the status
of the woodlands on the Wells College campus and assessed their current
use in Wells courses and other activities and their potential future value.
Although not pristine, these woods retain many natural
qualities essential for use in field biology and a number of other courses.Their
loss or significant reduction of their area will adversely affect a number
of Wells courses and impair other curricular and co-curricular activities.
The committee also makes recommends that the very
real costs of impact on the curriculum be weighed in any plan to expand
the existing parking lot or to undertake other construction in the area.Alternatives
to expanding the “Woods Lot” should be sought.
The committee further recommends that the teaching
and learning value of these woods could be improved by certain kinds of
management.
Finally, the committee recommends that the college
consider acquiring other natural areas adjacent to campus or Wells properties
in Aurora.Especially important among
these is the Lyons property along Paine’s Creek at the south end of the
village.
Issue and Charge
Plans to expand the so-called “Woods Parking Lot”
on the Wells campus across the drive east of the Barler-Campbell complex
and Long Library have raised the issue of a potential conflict with academic
programs, especially in biology and environmental studies, that use these
woods and other Wells College natural areas.Dean
Hall has charged this committee with describing current and potential future
academic use of these areas and potential conflicts with the expansion
of the parking facility or other modification.
The Areas of Concern
The natural areas of immediate concern are the woods
bounded on the north by the drive adjacent to the Farenthold Center and
the Athletic Association Field House; on the east by the Wells College
Golf Course; on the west by the drive behind the Barler-Campbell complex
and Long Library; and on the south by Macmillan Hall and the gorge immediately
below it.
In addition to this stand of hardwood forest on gently
sloping ground, are two steep, wooded gullies containing intermittent streams.One
of these , originates in the Wells College Golf Course and descends immediately
to the south of the main campus, and another, commonly called Fry Gully,
lies farther south, between the campus and Poplar Ridge Road.
Present Uses of Wells Natural Areas
A number of Wells College classes use the woodlands
around the campus as a teaching and learning resource.Nearly
all of these activities take place in the woodlot around the parking log
being considered for expansion.The
gorge immediately to the south of Macmillan and Pettibone is also heavily
used by some of these courses.
Wells
classes that use the woodlot near the parking lot regularly
Biol. 152L (The Biology of Organisms)
Biol. 213L (Ecology and Evolution)
Biol. 304L (Vertebrate Zoology)
Biol. 305L (Plant Systematics)
Biol. 324L (Animal Behavior)
Biol. 363L (Forest Ecology)
BCS 395(Medicinal Botany)
ENVR 101L (The Rules of the Game I)
The woodlands are also used for research and independent
study by Wells students, including senior theses (BCS and ENVR 301, 302,
401, 402), Independent study (BCS, BIOL, CHEM and ENVR 399, etc.), and
a number of non-credit-bearing activities (e.g., the Annual Wells Bird
Count).Outdoor recreational activities—birding
and other nature study, cross-country skiing, and walking—are also regular
activities that depend on the natural condition of the woods.Finally,
fragments of woodland are valuable habitat refuges for woodland migratory
birds.The woodlands in and around
the Wells College campus play a role in preserving local biodiversity among
species of this important group of animals.
Present State of
the Forests on the Wells College Campus
Pursuant
to the consideration of expanding the “woods” parking lot,the
faculty and students of Biology 363 (Forest Ecology) conducted asurvey
of the hardwoods stands between the road east of Barler and Long Library
and the golf course.A vegetation
survey prepared for Holt Architects, P.C., by Ichthyological Associates
covers some of the same area.
The
small area of woods immediately south of the parking lot is ecologically
similar to that directly east of the current parking lot.Dominant
species here are basswood (Tilia americana) shagbark hickory (Carya
ovata),pignut hickory (Carya
glabra),members of the white
oak (Quercus alba) group, and members of the red oak (Quercus
rubra) group.These species are
rarely found as young trees; sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is most
plentiful in this age class, indicating a successional trend in this area.All
of these species are virtually absent in the sapling and seedling classes,
which are primarily comprised of white ash (Fraxinus americana).
The
woods to the immediate north of the current parking lot contain the same
dominant species, as well as sugar maple and black cherry (Prunus serotina).Notable
in this area is the presence of mature trees of flowering dogwood (Cornus
florida), a species, which is at or near the northern extension of
its range.Beyond the old service
road to the water tower is a mature stand of trees dominated by sugar maple.
In
addition to these natural hardwoods areas, the northern portion of the
planted pine stand has not been maintained as a park-type area.The
absence of undergrowth clearing in this area makes it a valuable study
site for ecological study of the early stages of forest succession.
The gorges on campus are generally in natural condition,
and those that are easily accessible (e.g. the gorge south of Pettibone
and Macmillan) are heavily used at all levels of biological instruction.Although
the gorges are less accessible than areas on gentler slopes, their natural
condition and the presence there of habitats varying in slope and aspect
make them valuable teaching and learning assets.
Educational Consequences of Reducing Woodlands
on Campus
Disturbance of these forested sites endangers their
educational usefulness.Reduction
of the size of the area can be expected to decrease the biological diversity
represented there.One can predict
that his will happen relatively quickly with mobile animals—birds, small
mammals, amphibians, and insects and other arthropods—and more slowly for
plants—trees, shrubs, herbs, ferns and non-vascular plants.In
addition to the decrease in biodiversity directly related to the decrease
in area, the proportion of the forest subject to “edge-effects” from surrounding
developed areas will increase and have greater impact on natural communities.
This reduction in biodiversity will make the woodlands less useful as a
teaching and learning resource.
Disturbance within the forest also has adverse effects.For
example, for purposes of detailed ecological analysis, the forest area
now occupied by the “ropes course” (south of the site map in the Ichthyological
Associates study) is no longer a viable campus study site for the Forest
Ecology course (BIOL 363L), and is only minimally useful for Plant Systematics
(Biol 305L).It should go without
saying that forested areas are not appropriate dumping locations.The
refuse currently in the forests should be removed immediately, and steps
should be taken that there is no recurrence of this practice.
Because of its relatively rich soils Cayuga County
is heavily farmed and there are fewer areas of natural or semi-natural
vegetation and fewer public lands suitable for field biology studies than
there are in counties to the south.There
are, therefore, fewer local options for field biology study sites located
convenient to Wells College, making the on-campus resources that much more
valuable in this regard.
Recommendations
In the short and intermediate term, the teaching and
learning value of the natural areas in and around the campus should be
preserved and enhanced.Expansion
of the present parking lot or incursion into the woodlands of new construction
will have a negative impact on these values, and should be undertaken only
after these costs have been weighed against potential benefits and after
genuine consideration of alternatives.Any
plans that affect campus natural areas should be made in consultation with
faculty from Biological and Chemical Sciences (BCS) and Environmental Policy,
Science and Values (EPSV).
Some actions could be taken soon to improve the teaching
and learning value of these natural areas. The draft report (dated 5 July
2001) prepared for Holt Associates, P.C,. by Ichthyological Associates
notes the presence of the alien buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) as
a component of the forest community.While
this plant is invasive in areas of higher light intensity, its presence
has a positive effect on the regeneration of the forest.An
important component of the forest community is that of the macrofauna;on
the Wells campus (as is true generally in Cayuga County) an explosion of
the deer population has created heavy feeding pressure.Browsing
damage is clearly evident on virtually all plants in the seedling and sapling
class of trees.An exception to this
is in the buckthorn areas.In these
areas, and only in these areas, young plants in the seedling, sapling,
and young tree classes of the dominant species are evident.An
additional pressure on forest regeneration results from the unusually large
squirrel population: although the oaks and hickories are prolific seed
producers, the destruction of the seed population is nearly total.Until
the squirrel and deer populations on the campus are significantly lowered,
the buckthorn represents a refuge for the dominant species and should not
be disturbed.
A significant threat to the forest canopy, however,
is presented by the presence of lianas, which grow to the top of the canopy
and significantly lower the light intensityfor
the host trees.In the Wells forests,
the principal plant for concern is poison ivy (Rhus radicans).In
the areas adjacent to the current parking lot and in areas of treefall
in the forest where higher light intensities are present on the forest
floor, extremely large specimens may be found, and damage by these plants
to the forest canopy is evidenced in some locations by tree death.Removal
of the poison ivy from the forest (by cutting the lianas at the base and
continued vigilance) will have a beneficial effect on the forest structure.
A major threat to any forest is human activity.Steps
should be taken to ensure that no further construction or disturbance of
the campus forests occurs without the knowledge and approval of the BCS
faculty, who rely on these areas to implement the curriculum that has been
approved by the college faculty.This
would include construction of new paths though the forest such as the “Ropes
Course”, part of the curriculum never approved by the faculty.Maintenance
of
existing paths (e.g. retaining accessibility of the Macmillan
gorge path and the existing perimeter trails) would be desirable.
In the long term, Wells College should consider acquiring
additional natural areas.Directly
adjacent to Wells’s land at the south end of the Village of Aurora is a
large property constituting an important such area, the Lyon Estate on
Paine’s Creek.This forested area
incorporates some striking old-growth forest as well as a variety of other
environments, including the only perennial stream in the area.The
area also has two potential archaeological sites in areas that are less
ecologically distinctive, south east of the water plant and on the “flats”
on the north side of the creek.(Adding
to the overall historic importance of the area is the grave of Roswell
Franklin, Aurora’s first White settler.)These
features make this property a potential educational resource of unusual
value in several areas of study and research at Wells.Development
of the property, as apparently is being planned, would be especially tragic.The
college should consider acquiring this property or participating in its
acquisition and care by an appropriate entity (e.g., The Fingerlakes Land
Trust).