The Environment Center Challenge

The Environment Center is a 10-acre area on Elizabeth Campus with distinct habitats: a meadow restoration, storm water swales, a suburban woodlot, a rain garden, and mowed lawn. It is a living laboratory where people learn about a wide range of environmental topics. It is used for college classes, environmental outreach, and research.

The Environment Center has numerous unique attributes and many ongoing projects. In this challenge, you will seek out locations and make discoveries about the history of the site, restoration efforts, and research projects. If you choose to accept this challenge, you will gather information from each location, and put it all together to reveal 1) the Environment Center's past, 2) how we are improving ecosystem functions and, 3) how we are building future environmental leaders.

To begin, use the map below to navigate to as many locations as you can in the allotted time. Look for the red numbered blocks that mark each location. Then, read the information about that location below.

Be Careful as you explore. The terrain is uneven. There is poison ivy, thorns, and ticks. Take the precautions that you feel are necessary. Stay on established trails. Do not disturb plants, animals, markers, equipment, sensors, etc. Protect the on going research. Have fun.

• Ecosystem functions are attributes of ecosystems derived from species interacting with one another and species interacting with the abiotic components of an ecosystem.
• Ecosystem services stem from ecosystem functions and provide important amenities and resources to improve and sustain human life.
• Environmental restoration is  the process of reclaiming habitat and ecosystem functions by restoring the lands and waters on which plants and animals depend.
• Invasive species are non-native species that thrive and change ecosystem functions.
• Non-native plants are species that evolved in a different part of the world and humans have moved them here.
• Species diversity is the number of different species in an area.

Restoration increases soil ecosystem functions and species diversity

In 2014, the college took down Bowmen Hall, a residence hall on our main campus to make room for the Cregger Center. They put the rubble here and made a landfill. The building rubble caused the soil to be highly compacted and nutrient poor. The vegetation was sparse and dominated by non-native, weedy species. These species do not provide good-quality habitat for animals.

From 2022-2023 we did restoration on the soil by loosening the soil and mixing in compost. In the fall of 2023, we planted more than 20 species of native plants. Over time, native plants will become established and thrive as we continue to remove non-native plants. We are monitoring the species diversity of the plants and animals to see how species diversity and abundances changes in the future.

Notice the four sets of instruments in the meadow. These are data loggers measuring air and soil temperature and soil moisture. Along with the weather station we will use these instruments to monitor how the establishments of native plants will improve storm water absorption and reduce run off.

Solitary bees reproduce in bee boxes

Did you know there are two important groups of native bees: leaf cutter and mason bees?  They are more important for pollination than honey bees.  Females are solitary.  Individual females build nets and lay eggs in small cavities in wood.  This bee house is a perfect place for these bees to build nest right near their food source – the flowering plants in the meadow.  These bee boxes are an important part of our restoration efforts because they support bee reproduction.   

Recovering Pavers for Reuse

Before the meadow restoration, the college used the landfill site to store top soil and decomposing leaves removed from campus, and pavers that were removed from campus during construction events. The top soil and decomposing leaves became compost that we spread on the site before planting. Student volunteers have been stacking these pavers so that they can be reused for projects on campus and here at the Environment Center.

Enhancing bird habitat

We have installed eight bird houses like this one at the Environment Center. Song birds use these boxes to raise their young. While adult song birds may specialize on eating seeds or other foods, all song birds feed their young insects. Therefore, song birds catch a lot of insects including those that are pests to humans. Providing birdhouses gives song birds an important component of their habitat that otherwise might be missing

This birdhouse is along a fence row. Peer through the trees and look for the old fence, which is a remnant from when this area was farmed. Trees grow up along old fence rows providing important cover habitat from many wildlife species including song birds.

This area collects rain run-off and provides wildlife habitat

You have just walked through a line of trees making up a fence row. You are now standing in a storm water swale that was created when the landfill above was established. This area is designed to collect rain runoff and channel it be absorbed into the ground. Due to the low level of human activity here, the swales provides a safe area for wildlife to use as a corridor, to forage, to nest, and to rest. Look around for large holes in the ground. Who do you think lives in down there?

Urban woodlots provide ecosystem services to suburban residents

We are studying many aspects of this woodlot. Check out the tags nailed to the trees. We have identified these trees and measure their diameter every couple of years to see how these trees are sequestering carbon. As trees grow they pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turn it into wood and roots. Therefore, conserving suburban woodlots could be one way that we combat climate change. We are also examining soil decomposition. Woodlots in suburban areas often have higher rates of decomposition compared to large forests just outside of town. We have buried tea bags to understand the speed of decomposition. We are studying the earthworm abundance and diversity at this site because of their important role in decomposition and the food web. Lastly, we are examining how the trees buffer temperature in the air and soil of the woodlot with temperature dataloggers. Taken all together, we are exploring how woodlots in suburban landscapes are impacted by and impact the surrounding area.

Old foundation gives clues about site history

What aspects of the house are still visible at this site? The house was likely removed 30 to 40 years ago. The forest you are standing in was a lawn back then. Due to the absence of human activity, the grassy lawn has turned into a woodlot. Take a look at the trees, shrubs, and ground cover. Can you find any that might have been planted by the owners as ornamentals?

Screech owl box for nesting and roosting

The woodlot is perfect hunting grounds for the Eastern Screech Owl.  This small owl with short ear toughs eats small birds, rodents, earthworms and other invertebrate.  Providing the owl box gives screech owls a place to nest in the summer and roost in the winter.  The American Kestral (a small hawk) will also use boxes this size.  By providing habitat for nesting, we are supporting predators and the food web.

The woodlot is essential habitat for suburban wildlife

Smile! You are on camera!

We have deployed wildlife cameras to assess the wildlife that use the woodlot. We have gotten photos of opossums, raccoons, foxes, house cats, ground hogs, rabbits, a bunch of species of birds, and so many white-tailed deer and squirrels! Many of these species have dens or nests in the woodlot and move into the neighborhood at night to find food.

The Rain Garden restores soil ecosystem function and reduces run off.

Environmental Studies Seniors built this rain garden in the fall of 2023. They researched the what, where, when, and how of rain gardens. They did the planning, ordering of materials, building, and planting.

Rain gardens are areas where storm water is absorbed into the ground because the soil has been amended. In doing so, chemicals such as fertilizers or pesticides stay in the soil here rather than getting into our rivers and streams.

The plants in this rain garden are native ornamentals. This means that they are native species that have been bred to be more attractive to humans. Most are also still attractive to native animals. Therefore, these plants are better food sources for the herbivores and pollinators than non-native plants typically are.

The weather station is an integral part of on going research and restoration monitoring

What is up on that pole? Look at the different components.

This weather station is constantly measuring temperature, relative humidity, amount of rain fall, wind speed, and wind direction, among other metrics. The information is available in real time on a website anyone can access. We use the weather station data in conjunction with out other work to better understand the patterns we see.

For example, we can look at how different amounts of rain fall impacts the soil moisture in the meadow (from the moisture sensors that are in the ground there). Over time, new plants growing in the meadow will elongate their roots through the buried rubble and loosen the soil increasing rain water absorption. We can better understand the soil restoration process using the rain fall data from the weather station.

Also, weather station data informs our biodiversity research. We are assessing the diversity and abundance of many different animal groups (birds, butterflies, wildlife, etc.). Weather greatly impacts how active animals are. Therefore, weather data can help us interpret our diversity data.

Bats will roost, raise young, and hibernate in bat houses.

As the meadow restoration progresses, more and more native plants will take hold. This increase in plant species diversity will fuel the food web increasing the abundance and diversity of insects. Therefore the meadow will be a great feeding grounds for bats. Bats are voracious insect eaters and they contribute to the ecosystem services of pest control that these species provide will extend beyond the meadow and into the neighborhood. There are several species of bats here. The most common ones are the big brown bat and the eastern red bat.

These American Chestnut hybrids are resistant to the blight

Look at the mountain view. Before 1930, many of the trees on the top of that ridge were probably American chestnut trees. They produced many nuts every year which fed the wildlife. By 1950, almost all of the American chestnuts in our area had died due to a fungal pathogen which was first seen on American chestnut trees in New York around 1900. The fungus still persists in our forests so American chestnut trees cannot return. Today the trees on the mountains around here are mostly oaks. Oak trees produce acorns that wildlife feed on, but they usually only produce bumper crops every few years.

Scientists and horticulturalists have been working together for decades to develop a line of hybrid trees that have almost all of the genetic material from American chestnuts along with some genes from Chinese chestnuts, which confers resistance to the fungal pathogen. These small trees here are hybrids between American and Chinese chestnut species. They were planted by the Environmental Studies seniors in 2012. So far so good because these trees look healthy. Look on the ground do you see any spiky chestnut nuts?

Hundley Hall represents the past and future

Before Roanoke College bought this property, this was the Lutheran Children's Home of the South. Children lived in the buildings behind you and Hundley Hall was the dining hall. The flat land down in front of the building was farmed to support the people who lived here.

Today, we are using this space as studio for researchers to do lab work and sort samples, as well as a place to gather when we do community events. Look out the windows - what a view

The EC Challenge explored three themes: history, research, and restoration.

1. Name three ways that the history of the Environment Center site is still visible today
2. Name three on going research projects
3. Name three ways we are restoring the site

Got Questions? Contact us at environmentcenter@roanoke.edu Check out  our webpage  Subscribe to  our YouTube channel  to see all our content See the weather at  our weather station dashboard 

The Environment Center has been funded via:

The Community Conservation Grant Program from the Virginia Environmental Endowment (#22-604) which supported the meadow restoration, Environment Center Scholars program, environmental literacy outreach events (2022-2025)

A Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom College and University Grant Program (NWF ID #: 2402-017) which supported an Environment Center Scholar, Suburban Wild outreach event (June 24), and the bee, owl and bat boxes (2024)

Generous gifts from John and Ann Campbell, David Guy, and Helen Whittemore

Other support has been provided from the Environmental Studies Program, the Biology Department, and the Academic Dean's office