Invasive Species Education and Management

UB Sustainability and UB Facilities have partnered with the Orchard Park-based company Let’s Goat Buffalo to provide goat grazing services in support of invasive plant clearing efforts on the North Campus. The goats grazed near the Center for Tomorrow parking lot in September 2022. Photographer: Douglas Levere.

Take a practical role in invasive species management and education.

Project description

Students will work in small teams alongside professionals in partner organizations to experience some different aspects of invasive species management. Projects will be assigned based on student preferences and include:

Designing environmental education programs at Reinstein Woods
Producing video documentaries
Surveying and evaluating invasive species management techniques at Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge
Conducting targeted surveys for ‘data gap species’
Surveying and managing Phragmites in Grace Plaza on North campus
Surveying for teasel around the solar strand on North campus.

Project outcome

Each project will culminate in a final project deliverable. Depending on project topic this may take the form of a video documentary, a lesson plan and delivery evaluation, a set of biological surveys and/or a written report.

Project details

Timing, eligibility and other details
Length of commitment	About 3-5 months
Start time	Spring (January/February)
In-person, remote, or hybrid?	In-person
Level of collaboration	Large group collaboration (4+ students)
Benefits	Academic credit
Who is eligible	Undergraduate students enrolled in EVS 413 or BIO 413

Core partners

Students will work with one or more of the following partner organizations:

Reinstein Woods - https://reinsteinwoods.org/
Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge - https://www.fws.gov/refuge/iroquois
Western New York PRISM - https://www.wnyprism.org/
UB Sustainability - https://www.buffalo.edu/sustainability.html

Project mentor

Heather Williams

Clinical Assistant Professor

Biological Sciences and Environment and Sustainability

Phone: (716) 645-4912

Email: hw49@buffalo.edu

Start the project

Ensure you are enrolled in the course for the correct semester.
Click the button to start the digital badge below.

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Preparation activities

Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.

Students should fully participate in traditional classroom portions of EVS 413/BIO 413
Once assigned to experiential topic groups, students should arrange to meet with their team mates and Dr. Williams to discuss the scope of their projects
Second meetings should be set up with external project mentors. Students should write an agenda for these meetings which highlights what information they would like to better understand about the scope of their projects.

Keywords

Environment and Sustainability, invasive species, environmental, ecology, Biological Sciences