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Welcome Dr. Gillespie!
Our new Assistant Director of the ERC
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 We are happy to announce that Dr. Robert Gillespie will be joining us at the Environmental Resources Center this year as our new Assistant Director! Dr. Gillespie, a professor of biology at Purdue University Fort Wayne has been a long time collaborator of the ERC, as well as a member of the faculty council.
Gillespie shared, "I am very excited about becoming the Assistant Director of the Environmental Resources Center at PFW. In addition to helping the team with day-to-day operations, I look forward to strengthening partnerships among watershed agencies and non-profit groups and promoting outreach and education for better understanding of water and aquatic habitat quality in the three-rivers region."
In addition to joining as the Assistant Director, Dr. Gillespie will also be taking the role of Acting Director from July to December 2020, while Director Dr. Bruce Kingsbury is on sabbatical. Please help us in giving him a warm welcome!
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Indiana’s Terrestrial Invasive Plant Rule
Not only just frowned upon, it’s now illegal!
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The rule signed by Governor Eric Holcomb and published on March 18, 2019 has now become fully enforceable as of April 2020. The Indiana Terrestrial Invasive Plant Rule now makes it illegal to sell, gift, barter, exchange, distribute, transport, or introduce these invasive plants in the State of Indiana.
To qualify as an invasive species, a plant must be a non-native  organism where the introduction can cause harm either to the environment or to human or plant health. Unfortunately, many of the invasive plant species got their footing in the horticultural industry and escaped cultivation by invading into natural areas. Invasive species are responsible for habitat destruction, a loss in biodiversity and can cost a pretty penny to control. In fact, Indiana landowners and managers spend over $8.6 million every year to manage invasive plants in Indiana.
There are a total of 44 species of plants designated as invasive pests through this rule. The full list of species included in the plant rule can be found on the Indiana DNR website and a more comprehensive plant list of official invasives is located on the Indiana Invasive Species Council’s website. The Indiana Native Plant Society also has a great recording of last week’s webinar describing the rule in detail and even offers a downloadable pocket guide of the regulated plants for easy identification!
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Environmentalists for Black Lives Matter
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We really can’t talk about environmental sustainability without talking about race and culture. It has, for example, been well-documented in scientific studies that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities bear a disproportionate burden on a multitude of environmental issues, both historically and today. Social justice and environmental justice are inextricably bound together. Social injustices must thus be prioritized at national and community levels to achieve meaningful environmental goals.
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“…keep actively working together to make a real difference and to create a future where every member of our community feels valued, loved, equal, and safe.”
-Chancellor Ron Elsenbaumer
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We stand with Black Lives Matter and know that BIPOC communities are crucial in efforts towards sustainability and environmental protection. We also know that we have a lot to learn and work to do in the effort to make the Environmental Resources Center a truly inclusive and anti-racist Center of Excellence. As we continue to discuss specific goals, we welcome suggestions and dialogue that will help us to move forward. As the chancellor stated in his message to the university community last week, we must “…keep actively working together to make a real difference and to create a future where every member of our community feels valued, loved, equal, and safe.”
And for what it’s worth, in times like these where healing is so important and seems so difficult to find, please remember the healing powers of nature - it exists for everyone.
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Composting Versus Landfills
A segment written by members of the Green Action Club! This month: Emma Steele
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 We’ve seen a lot of compost webinars and DIYs crop up during the nationwide stay-at-home orders, but what is the difference between composting and landfilling organic waste? Does it really matter if we compost our food scraps?
The truth is that a piece of food will rot differently in a landfill versus a compost pile. With our current waste system, food scraps that end up in a landfill quickly become buried under deep layers of other waste as new trash is continually trucked in and piled on top of the previous days’ deliveries. As a result, whatever food scraps and other bits of organic waste that have been landfilled get little to no aeration once they’re dumped. The oxygen-depleted environment that results triggers anaerobic decomposition of the organic waste, which produces a gaseous cocktail that is notably heavy in methane compared to aerobic decomposition scenarios.
In a compost bin, organic waste is dumped out with other organic waste and aerated every time you turn the pile. This means the scraps end up rotting in an environment very rich in oxygen. Food scraps in this scenario go through aerobic decomposition, which produces a set of waste gasses that is mainly comprised of carbon dioxide and very little methane.
The reason methane content matters is because not all greenhouse gasses are created equal. The big one people always hear about is carbon dioxide, because carbon dioxide sticks around in the atmosphere for a long time, but there are actually a slew of compounds contributing to our warming planet, including nitrous oxide, ozone, and even water vapor. One of these is methane, and while methane leaves the atmosphere much faster than carbon dioxide, it is a much more potent contributor to the greenhouse effect, with the ability to hold 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Our food scraps are going to decay one way or another, and carbon is going to be released into the atmosphere as a result. But in what form the carbon enters the atmosphere, we do have a choice, and this time, carbon dioxide is preferable.
Composting is getting more popular across the Fort Wayne community. The ERC has a large vermiculture bin, which the Green Action Club helps to maintain, and individual households are choosing to take the plunge by setting up backyard bins or mini indoor composters. If you’d like to start composting your scraps, and home composting isn’t an option for you, Ground Down and Dirt Wain are two organizations tackling composting on a community-wide scale. Through their subscription services, you can have your food scraps picked up from your home like a regular trash pickup every two to four weeks.
To learn more about the Green Action Club, find them on Facebook at 'Green Action Club' and on Instagram @gacpfw. If you are interested in joining, as a student or non-student member, email an officer at greenactionclub@pfw.edu.
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