Lakeside News Fall 1999
Happy Birthday Lakeside: Ninety and Counting
Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Project
The Wehrspann Report
Friends of Lakeside Lab
Dream Niche Filled with New Summer Position at Lakeside
Public Programs Provided
Lakeside's Wish List
Katherine L. Gross, Ecological Society of America President 1998-1999
Happy Birthday Lakeside: Ninety and Counting
By Arnold van der Valk, Director
This summer Lakeside celebrated its 90th birthday. The birthday party, which was organized by the Friends of Lakeside Lab, was held in July. President Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Iowa was the guest of honor. Such milestones provide us a rare opportunity to reflect on the past, the present, and the future.
During Lakeside’s first summer session in 1909, 11 courses were taught in Botany, Geology, and Zoology and 13 public lectures were presented. These courses and lectures were given in what was called the H Laboratory, the only classroom building on campus. It stood where Faculty Cottage is today. Only 26 people attended Lakeside that summer. They were charged $25 for tuition and $4 per week for room and board. The students lived in tents and grew some of their own food in a garden. The only way to reach the campus was by boat. The entire property was less than six acres.
In 1999, 14 courses were offered, a couple with multiple sections, in a variety of subjects from Archaeology to Wetland Ecology and 14 public programs (six Sunday Seminars and eight Wild Wednesday programs) were presented. These courses and public programs were given in the five field stone laboratories and the two classrooms in the new Waitt Water Quality Laboratory. Over 180 people took Lakeside courses. Lakeside did not receive any tuition payments from these students--these went to the university through which they were enrolled, but those that stayed on campus were charged between $140 and $210 per week for room and board. None of them had to sleep in a tent or raise their own food. Today a state highway runs along the western side of the property, and it is impossible to find a shady spot in the parking lot. The campus is now about 143 acres.
In some ways, very little has changed over the last 90 years. Lakeside continues to do what it was founded to do--to enable university students and the general public to learn about nature directly from nature. But some things have changed. For the last few years, enrollments are the highest that they have ever been. Teaching, research, and housing facilities have proliferated; and there are over 40 buildings on the campus. The most profound change, however, has been the increased involvement of Lakeside with the local community. This resulted in the establishment of the Friends of Lakeside Lab, Inc. and in the building of the Waitt Laboratory with funds raised entirely from the Iowa Great Lakes community. Waitt is Lakeside’s first year-round teaching facility, and its first facility that is designed to be used for much more than teaching university summer courses. It houses the Bovbjerg Water Chemistry Laboratory and two environmental education classrooms. The former is being used to analyze water samples from the Iowa Great Lakes and other nearby lakes that are being collected by local volunteers (see articles by Steve Fisher and Jane Shuttleworth in this issue). The latter will be used during the academic year for new environmental education programs for local schools. These programs are being developed and run jointly by Lakeside, the Dickinson County Conservation Board, and Iowa Lakes Community College (see Barbara Tagami’s article in this issue for a description of the beginnings of this new program). In 1999, a whole new summer program was also developed for residents and visitors to the Iowa Great Lakes, Guided Nature Tours. This new ecotourism program provides people a change to experience the other Okoboji. In short, Lakeside is becoming increasingly a true Iowa Great Lakes institution.
One of the major determinants of what Lakeside will be like in another 90 years is the success that the Friends of Lakeside Lab will continue to have in raising funds to support Lakeside’s programs and other activities. The new summer and academic year programs that are being developed for the local community that make use of the Waitt Lab currently are being funded to some extent by user fees but primarily by external grants. Likewise, the operation of the Bovbjerg Water Chemistry Laboratory currently is funded primarily through grant support plus contributions from the lake protective associations. Inevitably, external support for these programs will become harder and harder to get. Private and public funding agencies quickly loose interest in established programs. Consequently, some type of endowment will be needed in order to ensure that these programs will survive and thrive. Without an endowment to underwrite these programs, it also will be more difficult to obtain grant money from outside agencies to help expand these programs or to develop new ones. Increasingly, grants require matching funds and, without an endowment, there will be no source of matching funds. In short, the future of many of the new programs that have been established in recent years will depend on establishing an endowment that is large enough to continue to fund them.
What will the future hold? If the first 90 years are any indication, Lakeside on its 180th birthday will still be offering university students, the general public and local school children an opportunity to learn about nature first-hand. The campus will be the same size, and summer enrollments will be comparable to those today. Some things, however, will be very different from today. Weekly room and board rates could exceed $10,000 per week. A variety of buildings, both residential and commercial, will have replaced the cornfields that border most of our property today on the west and north. With development will come significant pressure from our new neighbors to open parts of our campus for recreational purposes and access to West Lake Okoboji. Preserving the campus for teaching and research will need to become one of Lakeside’s highest priorities in the next 90 years. Hopefully, many improvements and additions will have been made to our physical facilities and in considerably less than 90 years. These should include (1) new student and faculty housing; (2) remodeled field-stone teaching laboratories that meet modern laboratory standards; (3) establish- ment of a retreat/conference center to accommodate small meetings and seminars; and (4) establishment of a regional nature center to introduce visitors to the natural history of the Iowa Great Lakes region.
In at least two major ways, Lakeside will hopefully be by its 180th birthday a very different institution than it is today. One, Lakeside will have become a major environmental education center that is providing a variety of innovative, informative, and interesting summer and academic-year programs for Iowa’s school children and for summer and year-round residents of the Iowa Great Lakes of all ages. Two, Lakeside will have become a major center for water quality research that has successfully helped to preserve the water quality of the Iowa Great Lakes during a period when increased development of the region resulted in a number of major threats to the water quality of its lakes. In short, Lakeside will have become a true Iowa Great Lakes institution that truly serves all the people of the region.
Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Project
By Steve Fisher
Iowa Lakeside Laboratory has been working with the Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Project (ClaMP). CLaMP is a citizen volunteer water monitoring alliance of lakes in the Iowa Great Lakes watershed, namely East and West Okoboji Lakes, Big Spirit Lake, Center Lake, Lake Minnewashta, and Upper and Lower Gar Lakes. Silver Lake volunteers are also doing monitoring even though their lake is not in the Iowa Great Lakes watershed.
West Okoboji Lake has six sample sites. East Okoboji and Big Spirit Lake each have five sample sites. Silver Lake has four sample sites. Center Lake has two sample sites. Upper Gar Lake, Minnewashta Lake, and Lower Gar Lake each have one sample site.
Iowa Lakeside Lab supplies the gear used in the lake monitoring: 1) a dissolved oxygen (DO) and temperature monitor for taking DO and temperature measurements, 2) a Secchi disc for taking water clarity measurements, 3) acidified plastic bottles for water samples that will be analyzed for nutrients, and 4) plastic bottles for water samples which will be analyzed for chlorophyll a. The volunteers pick up the gear at Lakeside and sample their lake using their own boats. At each site they take DO and temperature measurements, Secchi disc depth measurements, and water samples for nutrient and chlorophyll analyses.
The volunteers then return to Lakeside and filter each chlorophyll water sample. The filtration of the chlorophyll sample results in the algae in the sample being trapped on a filter. Steve Fisher, the lab technician at the Waitt Water Quality Laboratory, analyzes the algae on the filters for chlorophyll aconcentration and the nutrient water samples for nitrogen, ammonia, and total phosphorous and total nitrogen concentrations.
The chlorophyll aconcentrations of the samples and the Secchi disc depths are indicators of lake productivity and water clarity. The nitrogen and total phosphorous concentrations of the samples give an estimate of the available nutrients needed for algal growth. Total nitrogen can be used to estimate algal productivity while increased ammonia concentrations of the samples may indicate an algal die off and/or other types of organic pollution such as a sewage discharge.
Tasida Barfoot, a high school senior from Milford, Iowa, had been hired as summer help to work in the Waitt Water Quality Laboratory. Her duties included: 1) water sampling in the Iowa Great Lakes and the Iowa Great Lakes watershed, 2)preparation of chlorophyll samples for analysis, 3) analyzing the chlorophyll samples using a spectrophotometer, and 4) entering the chlorophyll data into a summary spreadsheet. Tasida has also been working on a historical database for the Iowa Great Lakes by using a scanner to digitize 1970's hard copy data.
The Wehrspann Report
By Mark & Judy Wehrspann
Another summer has come to a completion. We've enjoyed most of it without reservation. There was a period of 90 degree plus weather and 80%+ humidity that slowed all of us down, but that's Iowa in July. The season started in mid April for us as we prepared for weekend groups and workshops. By May 23rd we started with a huge influx of 30 students for three courses and 40 plus community college types in the Great Teachers' Workshop. First term brought new faces in faculty and, of course, the students. New professors included Dr. Paul Weihe of Central College in Pella who taught Ecology. Mr. Arthur Croyle of ISU taught a new two-week course in Sketching Nature. Mr. Don Holland taught a week session on insects for teachers later in the summer. All these new people left Lakeside and its population richer in knowledge; we hope they left Lakeside tired, but renewed and stimulated. During the third session, we also hosted the Adult Nature Weekend for 40 plus participants and faculty.
In July we enjoyed the efforts of the Friends of Lakeside Lab as they hosted a birthday celebration in honor of the 90 years of Lakeside's existence. Mary Jean Montgomery did a fine job bringing us mentally from 1909 to today--the one common denominator being students learning "nature in nature" as Thomas Macbride dreamed. It was also quite appropriate that all the faculty present that day were former Lakeside students themselves.
We have enjoyed having Jane Shuttleworth on staff leading many "Wild Wednesday" programs, numerous tours, kayak rides, and prairie/lake expeditions. We look forward to her return in the new century.
Barbara Tagami also ran the gamut of jobs this summer including the artistic replication in the Waitt Laboratory aquarium. Thank goodness for little feet and little people Mark's number 13's were a challenge inside the tank!
The AmeriCorp group from Iowa Lakes Community College worked on the shoreline four days in August opening up the understory. Many thanks to them and their crew chief. Dr. Michael Lannoo also utilized the resources of his Conservation Biology class to "whack back" a good area of sumac that was encroaching the open prairie areas. Lots of hours and sweat went into both projects, and we are extremely thankful for their efforts.
There is another tugboat on the Lakeside pier.A second Monark with cab was added this summer to our inventory. It, like it's cousin, Monark I are made of boiler plate aluminum and are useful sampling vessels and are solid in the wake. Neither one will win a beauty pageant, but they are sea-worthy.
Facility wise, the place has been used heavily. Immediately upon departure of our students, we began the parade of fall workshops, courses and field trips by various institutions. While Mark and I may grow a bit weary of the constant turnover, it is delightful to witness the excitement of young and old as they discover the Lab and all its potential for the first time.
Once again as we sit and evaluate the summer, we are reminded of the dedication of early scientists for the Lab and the many, many students who traversed these acres. But, it is you, the Friends of Lakeside Lab who we really treasure. You are the envelopes in the mail sending your support in the form of money to the Friends organization. You are insuring that the past 90 years will continue for a long time. For you, we are thankful.
Friends of Lakeside Lab
By Mary Jean Montgomery
What a summer for Friends of Lakeside Lab! When the summer began, the Friends Board had identified several goals for the Waitt Lab including implementation of a water quality monitoring plan and a comprehensive environmental education program. Within a few short months, much of that ambitious agenda was well under way and then some! The following summarizes some of those accomplishments thanks to additional staff, the leadership of Dr. van der Valk, the Friends Board and to your support.
Water Quality Activities
In June, a water quality design committee of Friends, Dr. van der Valk, and new staff person, Jane Shuttleworth, established a water quality- monitoring program which directs sampling at sites previously established by a well-respected study conducted 30 years ago. The new sampling and analysis began in July and continues to be implemented by an army of volunteers and coordinated and trained by our new Environmental Education Coordinator, Jane Shuttleworth. This program will not only systematize sampling protocols but will identify ecological changes in the watershed as well as strengthen public awareness of water quality issues. Steve Fisher manages the Water Chemistry Lab and conducts all water analysis.
Other water quality activities include: Reviewing OPA data, participating in discussions regarding a study on public water drinking supplies and assisting other lakes with water quality sampling and analysis.
Environmental Education Activities
In February, an area-wide strategic planning effort hosted by Friends and attended by community leaders, educators, and non-profit organizations identified a long list of strategies to maximize the educational uses of Waitt Lab. Implementation of many of those ideas is well under way.
Summer Environmental Education at Waitt
New program formats such as Wild Wednesdays and Nature Tours have given learning a whole new face! (It’s best to learn about the wetlands from the seat of a kayak!) Wild Wednesdays, in fact, have become popular for learners of all ages. This summer Wednesday programs at Waitt attracted participants from age 3 to 85 to examine aquatic plants, frogs, and fish. While Nature Tours did not start until mid-July, at least 40 Okoboji visitors were guided by Jane Shuttleworth via pontoon, by foot or by paddling a kayak to study wetlands, lakes, and prairies. Additional summer programs housed by Waitt Lab included science teacher training programs and the Eighth Grade Science Camps for Girls.
Year-round Learning at Waitt
Thanks to the completion of Waitt Lab, we can now support environmental education all year long. In fact, the environmental education sub-committee of Friends has been working on a number of strategies to involve school-age children at the Lab during the school year. For example, Jane Shuttleworth has designed field experiences to strengthen awareness of water quality issues for young learners. In addition, the Lab plans to work with local schools to augment existing curriculum and customize activities to meet local school districts’ goals. Local school districts will also be able to Rent a Lab if they need the Waitt facilities for their science activities. A brochure will be available this fall to inform area school districts of the opportunities at Waitt.
In August, Friends of Lakeside Lab and five local school districts supported a grant proposal submitted by Iowa Lakes Community College to the Kind World Foundation. If funded, this three-year project will allow area middle school students to participate in activities at Waitt Lab. Furthermore, this proposal will provide teacher training and curriculum development in environmental science for middle school science teachers in Dickinson and Clay counties.
Capital Improvement Projects
While the Waitt Lab is complete, we have compiled a wish list to maintain and enhance Lakeside Lab’s unique campus. Thanks to some extraordinary ‘friends’, we are pleased to announce two new projects for 1999-2000.
Thanks to a gift in memory of Irma and Allen Whitfield and given by Harley Whitfield and Lura Mae Johnson, the Friends will restore and enhance the original stone entrance to the Lab campus. This enhanced entry will assure visibility from Highway #86 and will greatly improve access to Lakeside Lab. When complete, this historic gate and additional signage will become the primary entrance to the Lab property. ISU assisted in the design, and Bill Eich of Eich Construction has donated contracting services. Restoration and construction will begin his fall.
A gift from the Anspach children in honor of their mother, Judy Anspach, will allow Friends to landscape the Waitt Lab and to construct a wetland adjacent to the entrance of Waitt. Complete with native plants, this aquatic habitat will expand the laboratory classroom outdoors! ISU Landscape Architecture Department will assist in the design.
Birthday Bash
The Lab turned 90 this year!…and Friends celebrated appropriately with cake, lemonade, faculty, students, and with friends like the President of The University of Iowa, Mary Sue Coleman. It is perhaps most remarkable that while many changes have occurred over the years that his unique educational institution continues to do what many institutions strive for and few can achieve. Lakeside Lab has established a model teaching and learning community for which we are very proud. Congratulations to Lakeside Lab for 90 years of educational excellence!
Partnerships/Collaboration
The Friends is particularly grateful for some additional “friends” this summer which have made it possible to work on such a diverse agenda. A special thanks goes to…
OPA for their contributions to support lab equipment, water quality monitoring analysis, and for providing monitoring volunteers.
East Okoboji Protective Association for their support of water quality analysis and for providing monitoring volunteers and to the Spirit Lake Protective Association for their support and volunteers.
Dickinson County Conservation Board , Rich Leopold, and Barb Tagami for their collaborative support of environmental education activities.
Dickinson County Conservation Foundation for involving “Friends” in their discussions about the shared concepts regarding an environmental education center.
DNR Commissioner, Joan Schneider, and Field Officer, Barb Lynch, for contributing to our meetings. And to Mark and Judy Wehrspann for making our ‘work’ a whole lot easier!
And to you—we value your support!! Don’t forget to attend the Annual Meeting on October 6, 1999, 7 p.m., at Waitt Lab. See you there!
Dream Niche Filled with New Summer Position at Lakeside
By Jane Shuttleworth
Ever since its founding in 1909, Lakeside Lab has attracted the interest and curiosity of more than just its students—local residents and summer visitors too have been intrigued with the goings-on at this seemingly mysterious, wild and unkempt portion of Okoboji shoreline. Often local folks have held the mistaken impression that the Lab did not welcome visitors. Growing up summers here as a child, I shared that impression (I thought the Mess Hall was the private mansion of a group of mad scientists!) until I became a student at Lakeside. I discovered Lakeside was a place of learning and wonder, and where I would also make lifetime friendships with students, faculty, and the resident managers, Mark and Judy.
As a student, I also realized Lakeside did maintain an open door policy to interested visitors, but that its staff and budget were prioritized towards running the Lab for students. I began to understand one of Lakeside’s growing pains was keeping up with the demand to provide programs oriented toward the general public. It became my dream to fulfill this niche and, at the same time, to integrate the resources of Lakeside into the local community and to reach out to non-traditional audiences. After about ten years of thinking about it, this dream finally became reality when this spring I received a three-year grant from a private donor to become summer environmental education coordinator for Lakeside Lab.
This new position includes several responsibilities. I run the “Wild Wednesdays,” which are public nature programs on topics ranging from algae blooms to fish and frogs. They attract audiences of all ages and are lots of fun. I also take vacationers on guided nature tours, which include hiking, kayaking, and boating options to area prairies, wetlands, and lakes. From these activities, I am developing educational curriculum for pre-college level students who now visit Lakeside and the new Waitt Classroom during the school year. Finally, with the construction of the new Waitt Water Quality Lab, a unified water quality-monitoring program has begun, called the Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Project. I recruit and train volunteers to collect water samples for lab analysis. This year we have 30 volunteers from seven lakes learning about lake ecology and how to be informed water quality advocates.
I also act as Lakeside’s liaison to the local lake protective associations and to the Clean Water Alliance, a group of governmental and non-governmental organizations originally established under an Environmental Protection Agency grant. Each of these organizations is dedicated to protecting the water quality and natural heritage of the Iowa Great Lakes region and has welcomed Lakeside’s involvement and interest in their organizations. My participation in all of them helps strengthen their communication and work on common goals. Currently, for example, we are working together on an education campaign promoting the use of phosphorus-free lawn fertilizer as a way to cut down on excessive nutrient runoff into the Iowa Great Lakes.
The greatest reward I get from this position is sharing with audiences of all ages and backgrounds what Lakeside inspired in me—fascination with and stewardship for the natural world we all share. This has been a great summer, and I am looking forward to even better years ahead.
Public Programs Provided
By Barbara Tagami
What a whirlwind of programs, tours, and school field trips? I started my job as a naturalist intern with Dickinson County Conservation Board/Environ- mental Education Coordinator with Iowa Lakeside Lab on January 5. By May 25 Rich Leopold, naturalist for Dickinson County Conservation Board, and I had given 116 programs!
The programs were given to the boy scouts, girl scouts, elementary, middle, and high school classes, senior citizen groups, and the general public.
The programs for the schools covered a broad range of subjects. With the elementary students, we had programs on “Animals in the Winter, ” ” Winter Birding,” an Ice Shack Field Trip program on “Air, Water, and Rocks,”“Water Cycle,” “Fossils,”“Earth, Moon, and Sun,” and a series of programs on amphibians, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Middle school students enjoyed presentations on “Iowa Geologic History,” and a “Wetlands Field Trip to the Silver Lake Fen and Trapper’s Bay State Park.”Some of the programs presented to high school students were “Envirothon Training – Forestry and Environmental Law Topics” and “Career Day – Marine Biology.” This is just a partial list of what we offered to the schools. All five school districts in Dickinson County were involved in our programs along with three other counties that also joined in at Lakeside Lab for programs.
The boy scouts and girl scouts had a variety of programs ranging from snowshoeing and animal tracking to programs that we designed for earning merit badges.
Other publicprograms consisted of bird hikes, nature hikes, native wildflowers of Iowa, a kayaking tour of Kettleson/Hogsback, and a Wednesday night “MicroOdessey” program at Lakeside Laboratory.
Public tour programs to the Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, Nebraska, and a tour to Grand Island, Nebraska, to view the Sandhill Crane migration were offered and well attended.
For Earth Day 1999, 1,082 children and adults participated in prairie restoration and tree planting at Kenue Park.
All in all, we had a total attendance of 738 adults and 3,778 children who participated in our programs!
These programs were fun and informative. They were designed to create more awareness of our environment and issues that affect all aspects of the delicate balance of our earth ecosystem. They promoted getting involved by doing a public service project such as the prairie restoration at Kenue Park.
I wish to thank Friends of Lakeside Lab, Dickinson County Conservation Foundation, Dickinson County Conservation Board, Dickinson County SWCD, and Pheasants Forever for their contribution in bringing this internship into reality. A special thank you goes out to Rich Leopold whose guidance and expertise made all these programs happen, Mark and Judy Wehrspann for their help, support, and patience, and Dr. Arnold van der Valk who, along with Rich Leopold, created this position. I feel fortunate to be able to serve as your first naturalist Intern/ Environ-mental Education Coordinator.
Lakeside's Wish List
As with many educational institutions, there is much that could be done to improve our facilities and programs, but no money to do them. In the last few years, a number of donations to the Friends have enabled us to remove several items from our wish list, including new signage for the main entrance, landscaping around the Waitt Lab, and gifts of a couple of used boats and cars. Below is our current wish list. If you would like more information about any item, please contact Dr. Arnold van der Valk, Director, Iowa Lakeside Laboratory (515-294-4374) or lakeside@iastate.edu. All donations to the Lab or Friends are tax deductible.
(1) Endowed scholarships for students . Students are finding it more difficult to take Lakeside summer courses because they need to spend their summers working in order to earn enough money to go to a college or university during the academic year. Consequently, small endowments ($5,000+) that provide enough annual income to fund named scholarships for Lakeside students are badly needed. Such scholarships would greatly help both Lakeside students by enabling them to take summer classes at Lakeside and Lakeside by helping to keep summer enrollments up.
(2) Improved student housing. Poor student housing has been identified for many years as a major problem at Lakeside. One affordable solution to this problem is the donation of cottages or houses to Lakeside and moving them to the campus to replace existing student housing units. Anyone in the Iowa Great Lakes region who is planning to replace their winterized cottage or house is urged to contact Lakeside about the feasibility of donating it to the Lab.
(3) Computers . The only computers available to students at Lakeside are hand-me-down machines that were given to us when they were replaced with newer computers on campus. With increasing use of computers by students in all courses and the development of new courses that will make extensive use of computers, acquiring new computers is becoming more of a necessity every day.
(4) Student lounge in Mess Hall . The second floor of the Mess Hall is currently unused. The renovation of the Mess Hall, which included installing an air conditioning and heating system, has made this space potentially useable as much needed lounge/recreational/study rooms for students. Currently, however, there are no funds to complete renovating the second floor and to furnish it suitably.
(5) Developing the area in front of the Mess Hall . Currently the sloped area from the Mess Hall to the shore of Little Miller’s Bay is a visually uninteresting area that is of little recreational value. Ideally this area should be developed as a combined natural and recreational area. Suggested improvements include landscaping part of it as a prairie or savanna, building a new volleyball court, constructing a gazebo or other structure along the shore, constructing a small outdoor amphitheater, and building a small dock on the shore of Little Miller’s bay for canoes, kayaks, and other small boats.
(6) Better lighting . Although “mushroom” lights have sprouted up in recent years along most of the major paths at Lakeside, there remain some areas that are still poorly lit at night. These include the road from the parking lot to the Waitt Lab and from the parking lot to the Office as well as most of the area around the Waitt Lab.
Return to beginning of this newsletter .
Katherine L. Gross
Ecological Society of America President 1998-1999
Reprinted from Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Volume 80, No. 3, July 1999
There was little in Kay Gross’s early childhood to suggest that she would ever be a field biologist. Growing up in the suburbs of Madison, Chicago, and other Midwestern cities, Kay was no budding naturalist. The only childhood story I have ever heard describing Kay’s early interest in biology was a tale her mother tells about Kay finding a baby robin and feeding it spaghetti because the noodles looked like worms.(Yes, the bird expired.) Maybe this childhood memory was also the reason that Kay did not follow through on her undergraduate ambitions to be a doctor. Actually, I know why Kay left the path of medicine and wandered into the field of ecology. It was the summer of 1974.
In 1974, Kay spent a summer at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory on the shores of Lake Okoboji. How many lives have been changed by a summer at a field station? Somehow, between days wandering the prairie in Bob Cruden and Bill Platt’s field ecology class, and evenings drinking beer with the graduate students, pinning butterflies, talking science, skinny dipping, and riding roller coasters. Kay found a life’s calling. At a summer field station, the boundaries between job, life, and biology sometimes disappear, and it was in this place that Kay decided to go to graduate school and study ecology. None of us there that summer would ever have guessed she would end up as ESA president.
The sketches throughout this newsletter were done by C. Arthur Croyle. He is an associate professor in the Art and Design Department at ISU. He also taught Sketching Nature at Lakeside this past summer.
