Sustainability Beyond the Campus with Service-learning: Case Study with Village Street Trees

1. Sustainability Beyond the Campus with Service-learning: Case Study with Village Street Trees Timothy S. McCay Carolyn Fox Environmental Studies Program Colgate University Hamilton, New York

2. Service Learning – education in the context of performing a service to a community Colgate students working at a school in Kenya Colgate students cleaning up the Earlville Opera House

3. SL

4. Service Learning and Environmental Studies: A Natural Fit Teachingadvantage Integration of disciplinary information through application Interview, communication skills Team-building and cooperation Build sense of place Outreachadvantage Community partners almost always benefit Colgate student conducting a research project for a land trust on a bog near campus.

5. Challenges Additional costs and (often) instructor work load Resistance to applied subjects Faculty usually not rewarded for interdisciplinary expertise, or service to the community Student evaluation may be difficult because of group work Colgate students conducting a research project on water quality and disease in Uganda.

6. Colgate Model Upper-level for-credit course; part of the “capstone” experience Consultative Single problem or theme Venue alternates between On campus sustainability Off-campus environmental (community sustainability) issues Colgate student conducting a research project for a land trust on a conservation reserve near campus.

7. Partners Non-profit conservation organizations, land trusts Local governments State natural resource agencies

8. Benefits Provided by Public Trees in Hamilton, NYService-learning Project Autumn 2010Team of 5 studentsCommunity Partner: Village of Hamilton, New York

9. Goals • Estimate status and benefits of street trees in the village of Hamilton, NY • Determine changes since 2000 • Determine vulnerability to emerald ash borer • Provide a resource for village officials and public of the village

10. Methods • Visit each streettree in the village and… • Survey Street Trees for species, health and size • Collect GPS coordinates of trees • Map location of trees • Calculate benefits using iTree Streets

11. 25 streets including new development • 2 greens • 517 public trees

12. Payne: 43 trees University: 56 trees Madison: 44 trees

13. 2000

14. 2010 46 59 216

17. Benefits of Hamilton’s Street Trees

18. Emerald Ash Borer Threat • No evidence of EAB in Hamilton • 13 public ash trees (2.5% street trees) in Hamilton • Not a large threat

19. Project Outcomes • Estimated that Hamilton Street Trees provide $50,255 in annual benefits • Fewer trees in 2010 than 2000 (19%), but younger and in better health • Emerald Ash Borer is not a significant threat • Constructed user-friendly website for citizen exploration of the trees on their street

20. Benefit of Community Learning • We developed skills we may not have learned sitting in a classroom • Working as a group we learned from each other; huge project that we broke down into manageable sections • Satisfying to see that our findings may have a considerable impact in our college town