Biological Preserve

0:04 >> [MUSIC] You walk down this little trail and then it kind of opens up into this space you would

0:08 never even realize exists when you're up sitting in a classroom on campus.

0:12 [MUSIC] It's just a great way for me to feel

0:19 connected and know that everything I've been learning in all my classes

0:24 has real-world implications and I can see that there's still good to be done.

0:29 There's important work that we can do and

0:31 there's a connection to be made with the natural world.

0:34 [MUSIC]

0:45 >> The bio preserve was set up for the purposes of research and education,

0:49 and it's about 110 acres.

0:52 It's broken up into two different allotments,

0:54 the Western preserve and the Eastern preserve.

0:58 It's a place to decompress.

1:00 It's peaceful, it's more quiet,

1:02 there's birds chirping, there's interesting beautiful things to look at.

1:07 There aren't really any other universities in Southeast Michigan that

1:10 have a nature preserve on their main campus.

1:13 It's really an island about diversity.

1:15 It's really surrounded by a sea of development,

1:18 of urbanization and sub-urbanization.

1:19 Just from the perspective of biodiversity,

1:22 it's wonderful to have this resource.

1:23 [MUSIC] So this whole area is consisted a fen,

1:32 and it's a special type of wetland and what distinguishes it from other types

1:35 of wetlands is that the water originates from groundwater.

1:39 So this is up-welling groundwater and because it spends so much time underground,

1:43 it has a really unique chemical constituency that reflects the local geology.

1:48 This creates very specialized plant communities in

1:50 these fens and is one of the reasons that it's such a unique ecosystem.

1:57 Historically, if you looked at this wetland,

2:00 it was a very open landscape.

2:02 It was dominated by grasses and other herbaceous vegetation.

2:05 But in the absence of fire,

2:07 what we have is woody encroachment from the perimeter that eventually

2:11 chokes out these wetland plants that would've been dominant historically.

2:14 One of the main goals is to get rid of these exotic,

2:17 invasive woody plants that have become so dominant.

2:20 [BACKGROUND]

2:35 >> We are gathered here today to witness

2:38 an iteration of a very ancient tradition among indigenous peoples.

2:45 The use of fire as medicine and as a way of caring for the land.

2:55 Prescribed burning has been the process of reintroducing fire

3:00 to the landscape in which fire has been a regular occurrence for thousands of years.

3:04 As a result the native plant species have become really

3:09 well adapted and thrive on the impacts of prescribed fire.

3:13 [NOISE] Wildfire can be damaging for sure but

3:19 the fires that we have here in Michigan are not like

3:23 the wildfires that we see images of out west.

3:26 Fire here is much lower to the ground

3:30 and it's much more well contained and especially prescribed fire.

3:34 It is really one of the essential tools for

3:38 most Michigan landscapes to really fully enhance the biological diversity.

3:43 [NOISE]

3:54 [MUSIC]

4:04 >> So today we're going to take soil samples from each of our control and

4:08 burn pots and then we will take them back to the lab

4:10 and analyze them for soil moisture content.

4:13 That's important because presumably the higher the water levels,

4:17 the more microbial activity and the higher the decomposition.

4:20 [MUSIC] It's really nice to come out here and explore.

4:27 Not only are we learning and carrying out our experiments but we also

4:31 get to see so much natural biodiversity that it has to offer.

4:35 Fen ecosystem down here also provides a lot

4:39 of species that are not found elsewhere in Southeast Michigan,

4:42 such as mink or flying squirrel.

4:45 It's our job to protect it and preserve it as much as possible.

4:48 A lot of the work that we're doing here is we're looking at the species that we have,

4:57 they are invading the area that's really an important one.

5:01 We're not the only location that has this problem,

5:04 but not all locations that have this problem have

5:07 the resources to do all the research and understand the situation.

5:10 So the goal with what we're doing is to understand this type of situation that exists all

5:14 over the world and be able to apply what we've learned to all sorts of new situations.

5:19 [MUSIC]

5:25 >> We are planting a whole bunch of

5:26 native plant species to fends and wetland prairies is to try to

5:31 learn more about management practices for those types of

5:34 ecosystems as well as boost up some of the floral species.

5:38 Then the last step is to stomp it.

5:43 So you want to stop it on all sides around there.

5:48 >> Without those floral species,

5:50 there are no flowers for the pollinators and without the pollinators,

5:53 there are no other species that rely on them to pollinate,

5:57 as well as for food sources in addition to that.

6:00 So it's just really important that we

6:01 out-compete some of these woody species with more flowers.

6:06 We hope that after planting a bunch of these native species and

6:10 following them for either a summer or a few summers that we will

6:13 Understand more about invasive species and fens and how those are

6:16 really affecting planting and restoration tactics.

6:19 [NOISE]

6:24 >> I hope this is the first step towards a lot of similar activities in the future,

6:28 we have a 110 acre nature preserve,

6:31 almost all of which needs some sort of restoration measure,

6:35 whether it'd be seed planting or prescribed burns or the like.

6:38 I'm hopeful that we'll do lots of this in the future.

6:40 [MUSIC]

6:45 >> I think if there's anything that climate change is teaching us today,

6:49 it is that we cannot colonize every square inch of space on

6:53 the planet for human use and still expect life to thrive.

6:59 We humans are not the supreme masters,

7:02 but interdependent collaborators in the bio-diverse community of

7:07 life whose intricate workings we're just beginning to wrap our heads around.

7:15 The bio preserves can be a school house for us in that regard.

7:20 [MUSIC]