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

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

SL

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

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.

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

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

Benefits Provided by Public Trees in Hamilton, NY Service-learning Project Autumn 2010 Team of 5 students Community Partner: Village of Hamilton, New York

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

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

25 streets including new development 2 greens 517 public trees

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

2000

Benefits of Hamilton’s Street Trees

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

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

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