SOUTH HADLEY – Before restoration work began on the wetland on the Mount Holyoke College campus some four years ago, many people didn’t even know there was a stream weaving through the 2-acre site.
Now, however, not only does the stream have a name — Project Stream — but the entire wetland is a living classroom that Assistant Professor Kate Ballantine uses to teach students the ins and outs of restoration ecology.
The founder and director of the college’s Restoration Ecology Program, Ballantine, an assistant professor of enviornmental studies, and her students have spent the last four years restoring the stream and its surrounding wetlands located not far from a small walking trail on campus that circles a pond and is popular for passive recreation.
That work has entailed both the research and the sweat equity needed to create the outdoor classroom, from initial research to rooting out invasive species and replacing them with native flora. And perhaps the most visible change to visitors is construction of a boardwalk for the public to use.
“Kate has made a phenomenal contribution to our programs,” said Jon Western, the college’s vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty. “This is a real gem of the institution.”
Walking along the new, handicap-accessible boardwalk one day last month, Ballantine’s enthusiasm for her field is evident. Excitedly talking about the work her students have done and the future of restoration ecology, Ballantine’s smile rarely faltered even when acknowledging her field could be depressing at times for students.
“You’ve been learning about the devastation that humans have racked on the planet,” she said. “That can be distressing, disturbing, disheartening and disempowering … They get into restoration ecology and I think part of the reason they connect so well with it is that they long for purposeful engagement in the world.
“They want to do great things. They just haven’t necessarily figured out how and what to make the greatest impact with their interests and skills,” Ballantine continued.
“Restoration ecology shifts that narrative because one of underlying attitudes is that, yes, humans can wreak havoc on the planet but we can also care for the things that we love,” she said.
Shovels, bulldozers and the crew to go with it began the restoration work in August 2015, but Project Stream has actually been ongoing for years. In the spring of 2013, students started the first phase of the restoration project by analyzing the lakes system on campus and identifying the need for restoration of the stream, according to work by student Emily Donaldson.
The following spring, the second phase required the class to design a comprehensive monitoring plan. The class followed that up in the spring of 2015 by designing the restoration site, according to Donaldson.
The wetland is about a 10-minute walk from the college’s science building, something Weston sees as a great advantage. With the site so close, students don’t need to get in a car or a bus to actually engage in the science, he said.
The site not only serves as a research laboratory and an outdoor classroom, but it’s also a place for the community to come and engage. Recently, the South Hadley Bike-Walk Committee made one of its monthly treks to the site. Interpretive signs around the site inform visitors about the science and the work that has been ongoing.
Although the 2-acre wetland may seem small, it’s part of a restoration effort nationwide that occurs on public and private land.
Giving tours, Ballantine said that when she asks visitors if they have ever been to a wetland restoration site before, few hands are raised.
“In fact, everyone has seen restoration sites if you’ve been hanging out in America for very long. They are everywhere,” she said. “There’s mitigation sites and restoration sites of all types. The problem is that no all of them are very well done and very few are well studied so we don’t often learn from our past projects.”
That’s because of a lack of money, time and expertise, according to Ballantine.
For Ballantine, Project Stream and her Mount Holyoke program is about improving the field of restoration ecology as well as giving students the opportunity to develop lifelong habits.
“By putting out this message of the science, the practice and the social dimensions of any project are equally important and they are mutually informing,” Ballantine said. “That is something that we’re doing (and) that I want to contribute to the field.”
Through the program, Ballantine also works to find ways for students to work on a variety of different projects. Some have traveled to Port Angeles, Washington, to help with a dam removal and restoration project along the Elwha River. Others, like recent graduate Erin Pierce have gone to Tidmarsh Farms, a retired cranberry farm in Plymouth.
Pierce majored in environmental studies with a concentration in ecosystems science. While in her junior year, she took Ballantine’s restoration ecology course and then stayed for the summer to help conduct research.
“I think it was the most influential piece of my Mouth Holyoke experience in many ways,” Pierce said of the course. “It’s a really remarkable opportunity. I got hands-on field experience in a way many undergraduates don’t.”
Many students interviewed spoke highly of the course and Ballantine.
Nia Bartolucci, a senior from Washington, said the program has shaped her college experience.
“I’m very grateful for this experience. I think it really has shaped my future path,” Bartolucci said. “Now I’m sure that I want to go into an environmental science field.”
Growing up near the Taunton River, recent graduate Carley Przystec said she went into college with the idea to learn how to help communities like her own.
“When I first started college, the narrative was making sure water that was clean didn’t become polluted. It’s great and important work but doesn’t do much to help communities that have already been affected,” she said. “There is all this area with a lot of potential if we can put it back on its natural trajectory or a path that makes it more productive … that idea of restoration was really attractive.”
Przystec now works in Boston at consulting firm in which she does water quality design work.
“All of that was a direct result with my experience with Kate and the people she introduced me to and how rewarding and exciting the field seemed when I was in college,” she said.
Others have noticed Ballantine’s work, including Clean Water Action, a national enviornmental group that recently chose her for its Enviornmental Ground-Breaker award. The group funded part of Project Stream through a grant.
In announcing the award, Sarah Moffett, a community organizer at Clean Water Action, said in a press release, “We wanted to call attention to work that is both ground-breaking in the sense that it is cutting-edge, and also in the literal sense that it is hands-on work that has literally changed our environment.”
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com