DePaul University has been awarded a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish an Urban Forestry Program that will get students involved with environmental research projects in the Chicago area. The program will be based in the school’s new $12 million William G. McGowan Biological and Environmental Sciences Building, scheduled to open in September.

Support from Congressman Sidney R. Yates was instrumental in securing the grant, which is designed to enhance natural resources in high-density population centers.

"This grant will help us do more of what we do best in our Environmental Sciences Program -- that is, give students practical research experience," said Lynn Narasimhan, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "Many students come to college thinking they want to major in science, but they don’t really know what that means. We give students an opportunity to experience science the way scientists do -- and that means doing research projects in the laboratory and out in the field."

Courses and fieldwork in the Urban Forestry Program will give students an understanding of the science behind the restoration and management of forests, prairies, wetlands, savannas, and river corridors. The grant includes funds to purchase a van to transport students and equipment to the field, where students will participate in water and soil testing. DePaul will also purchase an ion chromatograph, a sophisticated instrument for detailed water quality analyses.

DePaul faculty plan to work with the agriculture department’s Forest Service and other government agencies, corporations and private landowners to involve students in a variety of research projects in the Chicago region.

Two faculty members in DePaul’s Environmental Sciences Program will help to direct the new Urban Forestry Program: Nancy Clum, an ecologist specializing in birds and mammals, and James Montgomery, a soil scientist whose local research focuses on wetlands. A third faculty member with a background in forest ecology will be hired.

The new Urban Forestry Program will increase the number of field sites at which DePaul students can work. It will also enhance the school’s new Public Policy Studies degree program, which offers both urban and environmental concentrations.

"For 100 years, DePaul has had a strong urban mission," said Narasimhan. "Chicago is our working laboratory."

Students Explore the Woods and Wetlands of Chicago with Professor James Montgomery

Trudging through the snow on a cold winter morning with a bright orange sled loaded with equipment, assistant professor of environmental sciences James Montgomery heads into Northbrook’s Somme Woods to take readings from more than 100 probes sticking out of the snow like ski poles at 13 different locations. Somme is managed by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, and Montgomery has been collecting data from the eight-foot-deep water wells at this wetland site for the last four years. Students have played a vital role in his experiments.

"It’s very important to me to give students meaningful research experience," said

Montgomery. "My students have helped me collect data, design experiments and build special equipment for measuring characteristics of the soil. They have learned that fieldwork must be supported by laboratory analysis."

DePaul established its Environmental Sciences Program in 1986 to provide a field of

study for undergraduates who were interested in pursuing scientific careers, but not necessarily in

attending graduate school in the sciences. Students in the program have been involved with Montgomery’s research since he joined the faculty five years ago.

In addition to his experiments at Somme Woods, he has a wetland project underway at Prairie Wolf Slough near Lake Forest in unincorporated Lake County. He also teaches several courses that use the local environment for student projects, including Environmental Geology, Focus on the Chicago River and Environmental Impact Analysis.

There are a number of marshes at Somme Woods, and Montgomery is working on three of them to learn how seasonal changes affect the water levels there and identify the different source of water for this wetland ecosystem. The data he collects year-round on the water temperature, depth and pressure, and on soil characteristics will provide a wealth of baseline information on the hydrology of these wetlands that can then be applied to other small wetlands.

"Many wetland studies monitor only during the growing season," said Montgomery. "I go to my field site year-round," he said, digging into the ice with his fingers to uncover a hole for one of the probes, "even when the wind-chill is 20 below or when it’s 98 degrees and we’re standing in mud with mosquitoes buzzing around our heads. That’s when I say to my students, ‘Isn’t science glamorous?’"

Fieldwork hasn’t scared off Patty Veltri, a senior majoring in environmental science and chemistry. She is studying the iron content of the soil at Somme Woods.

"I’d like to get a job in waste management and hazardous site cleanup, and I definitely want to do field work," says Veltri. "I’ve learned how to set up all kinds of field instruments and read the results, and I think that kind of experience is valuable."

Testing a Rebuilt Wetland in Lake County

Montgomery was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency, Friends of the Chicago River, and the Lake County Forest Preserve District’s

Youth Conservation Corps to monitor changes in water quality at Prairie Wolf Slough, a wetlands restoration project on the Middle Fork of the Chicago River. Drained more than 80 years ago for farmland, the wetland was rebuilt a few years ago. Scientists altered the hydrology on the site and a team of volunteers planted more than 50,000 plugs of wetland plants to begin restoration of the site.

Montgomery will begin collecting data at the site this spring. He hopes to gain a better understanding of how well such restored wetlands function compared to their "natural" counterparts. "Wetlands function like kidneys in an ecosystem," explains Montgomery. "They filter out toxins and store and absorb water, which helps to moderate flooding. We’ll be looking at how effective this rebuilt wetland is at removing nutrients and other pollutants that drain into the system."

"Not all of our projects will result in earth-shaking scientific discoveries," Montgomery added, "but they are important because they can increase our knowledge of how different kinds of wetlands function."

And that’s part of what Montgomery wants students to learn about scientific research. Not every scientist will land on a PBS special, but basic studies like Montgomery’s can lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of how to protect and restore fragile ecosystems

-- particularly in urban areas.

Note to Editors: A color photo of a student working in the field is available.