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The Land & Water iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Friday, December 1st. The team discussed the meadow at Orchard Downs, revising the iCAP Land & Water objectives, and the development of an IPM plan for non-F&S areas. Meeting minutes are attached.
The Land & Water iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Friday, November 3rd. The team discussed permeable pavers at State Farm Center, the meadow at Orchard Downs, cover crops on the South Farm, and the iCAP 2025 rewrite of the Land & Water chapter. Meeting minutes are attached.
This project is in progress, with the primary challenge being the insufficient number of participants to maintain the meadow. One proposed solution under consideration is to engage students through fieldwork.
There is a prospect for collaboration between the iCAP Education and iCAP Land and Water teams to develop a course that would involve students in the maintenance of the meadow.
The Land & Water iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Friday, October 6th. The team reviewed the iCAP Land & Water objectives, discussed area/projects of focus for the year, and brainstormed next steps in relation to projects that are underway. Meeting minutes are attached.
Weekly Meeting between Sarthak and Hrushikesh on 7/5/2022. Sarthak gave Hrushikesh an overview of Campus Landscape Master Plan (CLMP 2022), Bike Audit, and Eco-Visio in order to work towards the 2024 Campus Bike Plan Draft.
The trees look great!
The following is an email sent by John Marlin on May 16, 2023:
As most of you know I am retired from campus and involved in other off campus conservation activities. I will no longer be overseeing the Burrill Hall native planting.
During the pandemic, maintenance at campus native plantings by volunteers was not allowed. This coupled with very dry conditions caused deterioration of several sites including the one at Burrill Hall. F&S bought the woodland wildflowers for the planting and the Entomology Department installed them and provided some maintenance in conjunction with some students.
Department head May Berenbaum has put together an effort to revitalize the planting and has some limited funding for some maintenance of the native plants. F&S plans to make some changes in part of the area and the path is to be restored. Daniel Bush will initially work with the native plants and supervise any students.
In the past weeds removed from the site were placed by the two square concrete benches and I notified Ryan Welch who had the maintenance crew remove them. I assume a similar arrangement can be made possibly with Mr. Dalby as the contact.
This site was quite popular with people walking past and provided a good instructional resource, especially the area near the sidewalk. I hope that this will continue.
John C. Marlin
Dennis Dalby replied:
Thank you John,
It was nice meeting you today to gain some of your tips and input regarding the planting and upkeep of this area. I’ve been working with Ryan Welch and SIB to get this area brought back up to its current level and look forward to its improved upkeep with the discussions that we had today. We’ll be working with Ryan to have a wood chip path added once again and will add a few small plants of our own within the areas that we (MCB) will maintain. SIB will maintain the areas of the native plants. It will look and function much better once all is in place.
Thanks again for stopping by to share your experience,
Dennis
On April 4th, the Land & Water iCAP team met to finish up two final recommendations for the year: State Farm Center Permeable Pavers and Paver Maintenance.
Meeting minutes are attached.
On April 4th, the Land & Water iCAP team met to finish up two final recommendations for the year: State Farm Center Permeable Pavers and Paver Maintenance.
Meeting minutes are attached.
Greetings, Colleagues,
I hope the start of 2023 is going well. I’m reaching out today to send you iSEE Quarterly update for Winter 2022 from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.
For more up-to-date news from iSEE, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.
IN RESEARCH
IN EDUCATION & OUTREACH
IN CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY
Thanks for reading, and best wishes for the remainder of the spring semester!
Best,
Madhu Khanna
Madhu Khanna
Pronouns: she, her
Alvin H. Baum Family Chair & Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment
ACES Distinguished Professor in Environmental Economics
Co-Director, Center for Economics of Sustainability
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1301, W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801
On February 17th, the Land & Water iCAP team met to discuss the details of a permeable pavers recommendation. The team then split off into breakout rooms to organize future soil and water committee initiatives.
Meeting minutes are attached.
Attached is the summary document for the total RECs retired for UIUC in FY22.
On December 13th, the Land & Water iCAP team met to discuss a new approach to crafting recommendations for next semester; including the creation of a land subcommittee and a water subcommittee.
Meeting minutes are attached.
Several students apart of the Sustainability Living-Learning Community attended the 2017 AASHE Student Summit and participated in a Bee Campus USA workshop. These students decided that the University should obtain Bee Campus USA Certification for UIUC. Displaying signage focused on pollinator conservation was one of the requirements for this certification. Four signs were installed, and since their installment UIUC is a part of Bee Campus USA.
Attached is the full report.
On November 7th, the Land and Water iCAP team met to review the results of the Milkweed survey, make final edits to the Monarch Butterfly recommendation, and discuss new recommendations inspired by the Campus Landscape Master Plan.
Meeting minutes are attached.
Attached is the "Save the Date! March Monarch Meeting" invitation:
Information about how commercial bee keeping functions and its impact to overall bee populations was inquired about by Brent Lewis, Landscape Architect. Below is the response from Adam Donzel, an Assistant Professor in Entomology.
'Hi Brent,
Yeah, there is work on that. Here are links to couple studies about it:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep32023
https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/22/1/17/6523145
Basically, yes, there are some stresses involved with migratory beekeeping but sedentary colonies can also have similar issues. In some scenarios, migratory colonies could be healthier as they are moved to areas with good nutritional resources all the time, while those left in place have to deal with times of low food availability. In reality, though, migratory colonies do undergo a lot of stress as they are used to pollinate crops and a lot goes into that - the stress of confinement, heat, exposure to agrochemicals, etc. From a beekeeping perspective, this is calculated into the fees charged for pollination (to some extent at least). Right now, beekeepers charge about $200/hive to pollinate almonds for example (the most lucrative pollination event). Big beekeepers manage 20,000-50,000 hives! "Small" commercial beekeepers usually have 2-5000.
Migratory beekeeping uses about 85% of the managed colonies in the USA (incredible!). One big issue with this is that, if a new pest or pathogen is introduced, it will be spread throughout the country very fast. And in big pollination events, like almonds, hives are concentrated at very high densities, which does present a lot of opportunities for spreading diseases. They do mitigate this to some extent, however, as there are health checks required to move bees across state lines, and almond growers usually require checks of colonies to make sure they are healthy.
Hope this helps - always happy to answer questions when I can!"
The follow is a MassMail sent by Dr. Ehab Kamarah.
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MASSMAIL - Inaugural Campus Landscape Master Plan The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign landscape contributes powerfully to the character of the campus and its excellence as a land grant institution with global impact. Through thoughtful planning and design guidance, the first-ever Campus Landscape Master Plan (CLMP) ensures our treasured landscape will thrive for many years. The CLMP will shape the vision of a future outdoor environment that will protect natural heritage, strengthen ecosystems, enhance shared experiences and learning opportunities, and provide a welcoming experience for students, faculty, staff, alums, community members, and guests. An executive summary of the CLMP and a video of the plan's concepts and designs are available on the Facilities & Services website. We strongly encourage you to share these items with others to help them know about this inaugural effort. The plan builds on concepts developed in the Campus Master Plan and Resilient Landscape Strategy and implements sustainability objectives established in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) to meet the Climate Leadership Commitments, including being carbon neutral as soon as possible and building resilience to climate change in our community. Thank you to all contributors who helped develop the CLMP: core committee members, unit stakeholders, and the many individuals who guided us and provided feedback during the various input sessions and public forum. We also want to thank the plan consultants, Design Workshop and their project team, for their hard work and dedication throughout the process. As you read the CLMP and view the district recommendations, please remember the plan will be a living document that immediately serves as a foundation to help guide the projects and initiatives that will shape the future of our campus. Ongoing collaborations and partnerships are critical to preserving, maintaining, and improving our campus landscape moving forward. If you have suggestions or questions, please contact University Landscape Architect Brent Lewis bcl@illinois.edu. We are excited to begin incorporating the CLMP strategies into ongoing work and turn these ideas into reality. Sincerely,
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On October 4th, the Land and Water iCAP team met to make final edits on the Campus Sustainability Celebration slides, review the Campus Landscape Master Plan, and discuss regenerative agriculture research on the South Farms.
Meeting minutes are attached.
On September 16th, the Land & Water iCAP team met to identify projects that need to be wrapped up, review the key priorities document, and discuss recommendations to be completed in the short term.
Meeting minutes are attached.
