Educating anyone without piquing their interest, or providing resources for their inquiries the chances of them wanting to learn are slim. I learned this the hard way by choosing an audience that is already familiar with invasive species removal plans. I was challenged to interest the residents of Stone Lake, specifically with invasive species in their yards. By using workshops, infographics, and community outreach, many residents learned how to use the PictureThis app to identify and learn about both native and invasive species in their yards. For some, this provided incentive to manage invasive species closely and encourage neighbors to do the same. At the start of all this, I thought people didn’t care about the environment and only wanted stereotypical, well-manicured, and landscaped yards full of ornamental plants. I thought that many would not care to put in any effort to remove invasive species. Now, I know it is not a matter of not caring, it’s a matter of not knowing any better. The media often bombards us with information about climate change and pollution but offers few resources on how to enact change. I found most people are willing to learn if someone is willing to reach out and teach them.

Urban sprawl has been documented as one of the most consistently destructive forces against multiple types of ecosystems, damaging wetlands, shorelines, and aquatic ecosystems (Steinman et al., 2011). As of 2021, it is estimated that around 73% of the world’s population will be living in urbanized settings by 2050 (Mwaniki & Ndugwa, 2021). Urbanization benefits capitalism at the expense of biodiversity, as habitats are not only degraded but fragmented without natural corridors, causing increased and unwanted human-wildlife interactions (Shinge & Reese, 2022). The Midwest is no exception, having experienced an onslaught of urban sprawl ripping through the remaining forests, grasslands, and wetlands. With roads, factories, strip malls, and once-rural homes turning into subdivisions all over the midwest, it is no surprise that habitats are being degraded beyond recognition. Native ecosystems have been replaced with generalist species, man-made forests, and otherwise overtaken by invasive plant species (Cao & Natuhara, 2019).  Not only are these habitats physically destroyed, but chemical pollutants from factory and agricultural runoff also seep deep into the soil and aquifers and enter the water cycle (Vatanen et al., 2014). This weakening of ecosystems provides a breeding ground for invasive species to dominate habitats. 

 This meant addressing plant blindness, the phenomenon of not noticing the plants in one’s environment, causing the inability to recognize the importance of basic biodiversity to society (Aleen, 2003). The inspiration for this comes from the lake community I grew up in, which has a conservation club that oversees the care and maintenance of Stone Lake. The board works with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and several environmental groups. Each year there are updated management plans to eliminate several aquatic invasive plant species brought in by birds and fishing boats from the lake, and how residents can help. Since there were already plans for aquatic invasive species management, I saw the opportunity to address the more terrestrial invasive plant species to help restore the ecosystem as a whole. My main concern and research focus was to bring awareness of how invasive plant species specifically benefit from urbanization and how urbanized communities can educate themselves on these species to help with management plans. 

Educating my community on environmental stewardship through invasive plant species management is not what I expected my master plan to be; however, it has led me to some important life connections and lessons. My foremost goal was to make an impact by the end of my time at Miami. I wanted to educate others on how they can make small changes to their lives - and if enough people do it - it’ll make a much bigger impact down the road. I wanted to be able to show others how to be involved consistently in environmental action. This portfolio reflects and summarizes several inquiry action projects (IAP), independent research, authorship leadership challenge (ALC), and community leadership challenge (CLC).

This section seeks out the impacts of urbanization and invasive plant species creeping into ecosystems. Invasive plants spread and thrive off urbanization, which provides easy-to-take-over degraded habitats (Pennington et al., 2010). Invasive animals or insects are often focused more on conservation when invasive plants need to be addressed on a much larger scale. In this section, I investigated how invasive plants were affecting my community, and what their knowledge of invasive species was.

The Invasion: Invasive plant species between rural and urbanized ecosystems

From ASTLINGS_AIPFINAL.pdf

Stone Lake Conservation Club (SLCC) had previously released information about invasive aquatic species within Stone Lake along with management plans from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). However, this did not include invasive species along the lake's riparian zone, and I found out this was a frequent occurrence. Wetland areas have been noted as among the most difficult ecosystems to restore or conserve once urbanization has crept in (Sanderson & Robinson, 2018). Recent management plans focused on inside bodies of water and not around them, leaving out a majority of the wetland habitat. As my first master's degree research project, I decided to start learning about what invasive species were in my area and how they impacted the ecosystem. By learning how to use PictureThis to identify invasive plant species, I could research the scope of species invasiveness.

This research project looked at invasive and native species richness between two urbanized and two rural or “unurbanized” lakes in Indiana. Stone Lake (figure 1) is the most urbanized of the four lakes used for this study, with 90% of the lake being urbanized. To identify plant species, PictureThis was used to photograph all plant species along the shoreline/riparian zone within reach. This included plants just inside of the lake in shallow water. I investigated the number of invasive species and overall species richness.

Figure 1: Stone Lake, IN home of the Stone Lake Conservation Club. The most urbanized lake studied in this paper, with 90% of the land being urbanized, and just 10% remaining unurbanized, or natural.

Figure 2: plant species richness at each lake using Shannon Diversity Index. All lakes are in Northeastern Indiana. Both Stone and Sylvan lakes (LaGrange county, IN), which are urbanized showed a lower percentage of plant species richness. Sacarider and Bixler lakes (Noble county, IN) are naturalized with minimal urbanization and showed a higher percentage of species richness.

I found no significant difference between native vs invasive species richness in urbanized or rural lakes. I did, however, discover that rural lakes were faring better than their urbanized counterparts and that while rural lakes had more species richness, invasive species still were able to hold ground and spread. While my data was not significant, it did suggest that urbanization weakened ecosystems and provided opportunities for invasive species to take over. Additionally, the species I identified were used by the DNR to update their management plans and website about invasive plant species and their current spread. Using PictureThis at the beginning of my journey ended up paying off greatly as it became a key tool in my master plan to educate others on invasive species in their yards.

Impacts of invasive plant species on insect species evolution

From IoE Project Synthesis.pdf

In pursuit of reaching out to my community, during the Fall of 2021 I looked at how pollinator species could be affected evolutionarily due to human interventions. This was then presented as an educational poster (figure 1) which explains what humans have done in recent decades to negatively impact pollinators, and what individuals can do to help reduce their impacts. Providing education and the opportunity for inquiry is a big part of my master plan. Visual learning aids provide people with an important tool in self-education which allows for growth at a personal pace. I believe using pictures with some words helps readers understand the information without feeling overwhelmed. 

Through this synthesis project, a key aspect I focused on was the “perfect lawn” image. This notion or pressure to have a well-manicured non-native grass species yard with maintained landscaping is not only an education issue; it challenges societal norms and expectations that have been placed in urbanized areas. These habitats are not too friendly to pollinator species such as bees and butterflies. While artificial hummingbird feeders can help these birds during migration, it does not address the native species issue. Unfortunately, while writing this synthesis, I discovered individuals who did want to have more “natural” habitats were often kept from doing so by city ordinances or HOAs, who often see native habitats in place of traditional yards as unkempt, unsightly, and wild (Burr & Schaeg 2018).

Figure 1. Infographic detailing how urbanization leads to climate change, which causes fewer pollinators creating further ecological collapse. Beyond the effects of a warming climate, fragmentation too alters the viability of pollinator species and allows invasive species to take over. Multiple things can be done to reduce the impact of these issues and lead to the prevention of pollinator species loss.

I discovered a tremendous amount during this synthesis and poster production. Mainly, we often mistake the lack of the public’s knowledge of ecological issues to be due to ignorance or summarizing everything under “climate change”, whereas it seems to be as simple as no one breaking the information down for them. Adults love and learn from picture posters just as much as youth do. Secondly, pollinators struggle to adapt fast enough to human-made environmental changes to survive without significant human intervention. I learned that most individuals do want to learn how to help, but are prevented from helping due to their living situations. This enabled me to see that for my master plan to work, I needed to be educating organizations, councils, and committees as well as individuals, to allow changes to rules and start moving forward to conservation-friendly yards.

This section investigates the impacts of invasive plant species on pets' safety and wild bird behaviors. By increasing awareness of how vastly invasive species can affect human hobbies and put their pets at risk of illness, a wider range of people can be encouraged to make a difference. As I dove into this section, I realized how willing my community is to learn about invasive plants and change their yards to protect their pets and their hobbies such as birdwatching. 

How pets negatively impact habitats, and how habitats can negatively impact pets

From Independent Study.pdf

Changing the rules on how yards are “supposed” to look is much more complex than dealing with residential or city regulations. Through independent study with some inspiration from being an ER vet nurse, I researched how promoting responsible pet ownership could help ecosystems out, and how this could protect pets. During the Covid-19 pandemic, pet ownership soared in the US, leading to an influx of local environmental issues including plastic pollution, habitat destruction, and wildlife deaths. Figure 1 shows this spike in pet adoptions in four local midwestern counties my community had adopted from. This gave me a wider target audience for environmentally responsible pet ownership education. The stereotypical yard is not only harmful to ecosystems but can be to pets as well. 

An open, well-manicured lawn is the perfect environment for toxic invasive species to sneak in, or ornamentals to be planted. It also means wildlife is more exposed and at risk for predation by dogs and cats. Both problems lead to habitat degradation and pose health risks to pets. Many plants are toxic to dogs and cats, and this allowed me to educate locals on how to protect their pets by maintaining their yards in an environmentally friendly manner. More pet owners in my community than I thought were concerned about their pet’s health and expressed interest in learning how to use PictureThis to ID plants in their yard, or plants they wanted to landscape with. 
Figure 1: Number of animals adopted in three local Indiana counties and one Michigan county that bordered my community (Stone Lake, IN). Every county chosen had an increase in pet adoptions in 2020 (the start of the pandemic) and all but one county (LaGrange, IN) continued to see an increase in adoptions in 2021. This follows country-wide data sets and trends. 

This project was difficult to come up with, and I was not sure how I was going to relate pets to my master plan. Truth was, pets fit right into the conversation and were a gateway to reaching more of my community. People care dearly about their animals and want to keep them safe. Maintaining a healthy, pet-friendly yard is a great conversation to have with just about anyone, and includes a focus on invasive and ornamental plant species management. In 2020 alone, the ASPCA saw 9,000 more plant poison cases from 2019 and moved plants from the top 8 most common pet poison cases to number 5 (ASPCA, 2021). With that information in mind, plant identification and management are considerably more important to learn about to protect our pets.

Invasive plant species-dominated habitats negatively impact bird's eating behaviors

AstlingS_IAPFinal.pdf

In addition to pets being negatively impacted by invasive plant species, wild animals experience multiple new challenges when their habitats are overrun with invasive species and urbanization. As a bird watcher myself, it is frustrating to see fewer bird species each year, even in relatively rural areas or parks. With little to no competition, invasive plant species can quickly degrade an already struggling habitat. When this happens, many resources for birds in particular are affected, including food, shelter, and nesting areas. Which in turn, can reduce population growth, prevent successful seasonal migration, and reduce the likelihood of survival over the winter (Gleditsch, 2017). Such pressures drive away individuals, and even whole populations from their habitats to survive. 

Providing artificial resources, especially in urbanized areas such as birdhouses and bird feeders can be beneficial. Though from personal experience from birdwatching in urbanized areas, generalist and overwintering species seem to be the only ones active at these artificial resources. This was a driving factor for this research, I wanted to see what species would be present at artificial bird feeders in habitats dominated by invasive plant species and native plant species, then focus on their eating behaviors. Eating requires vigilance and energy, and it was suspected that birds would spend less time eating in invasive species-dominated habitats due to a lack of shelter or additional food sources. Surprisingly, as figure 1 shows below, there was not much variation in the amount of time spent eating. Save for two seemingly outlier values, most birds on average spent between 10-15 seconds eating before displaying another behavior or flying away.

Figure 1. Average seconds spent eating at artificial feeders in a native plant species-dominated habitat (Hoosier Honey Farms (HFF), Middlebury, IN), and invasive plant species-dominated habitats (Scidmore Park, Three Rivers, MI) on each data collection date.

This research was the second most intensive project I have done. Trying to time feeding times per individual bird and tally other behaviors, plus ID species was a lot for one person. This is a project where a team would be more efficient. While my data was not significant in this study, I suspect that with some adjustments a significant outcome would be more likely. I did notice that Scidmore Park, which is an urbanized park, had more generalist species than Hoosier Honey Farms, and there were different species seen between locations. Hoosier Honey Farm’s feeder was visually more “busy”, with multiple species being present at one time. Providing that there was more species richness and activity in the native plant species-dominated habitat, it could encourage hobby birdwatchers to learn about invasive species and protect native habitats.

In this final section community engagement, and outreach through workshops, and using technology to encourage inquiry were tested. Using blended technology in the classroom has proven successful to increase inquiry-based learning outside of the classroom (Cherner & Fegely, 2017), so why not apply the same technology to adults in club or organization meetings?

Education outreach and promoting inquiry using phone apps

From Astling_ALC.pdf

Environmental education can be tricky to get the public interested in. Understanding the target audience’s interests was key to the success of this invasive plant species education initiative. Many individuals in my community are avid birders, wildlife rehabilitators, beekeepers, and gardeners. Invasive plant species negatively impact each of these jobs and multiple hobbies such as bird watching. The Stone Lake Conservation Club had previously shared data and management plans on aquatic invasive species in their spring 2022 newsletter, which is shared with all lake residents. With an increase in interest in these management plans, publishing in this newsletter was the next logical step in my master plan.

In partnership with the Stone Lake Conservation Club and Hoosier Honey Farms, I was able to publish an invasive species education infographic within the community’s seasonal newsletter and social media. The goal was to encourage inquiry and monitor the community’s involvement in species management. During the June club meeting, we found that 23 individuals downloaded and used PictureThis, and 7 used Inaturalist to identify plants in their yards. This success further encouraged a community-involved workshop planned for July 2022, which did not see an increase in app downloads, but rather an increase in plant-focused conversations. One such conversation leads to the invasive species clean-up plan for 2023 around Stone Lake’s riparian zone. This project showed me how much we depend on technology, and that it should be used to any educator’s advantage. Most people have their phones on them all day long, giving them opportunities to learn, so long as they have the right tools.

Invasive species infographic tailored to the Stone Lake community (Middlebury, IN) and published in the summer 2022 newsletter. Through previous research, I found the top three invasive species in the Stone Lake area and focused on them for this infographic. QR codes were essential for easy accessibility. 

Busy Bees and Pesky Plants presentation and bioblitz

From ASTLING_CLCFINAL_2022.pdf B&G club presentation.pdf

Putting technology to use real-time is how I concluded phase one of my master plan. Now that I had worked with residents of Stone Lake, I had the opportunity to co-present invasive plant species and honeybees alongside Hoosier Honey Farm’s owner to the Boys and Girls Club of Elkhart County, IN. For this workshop, I modified the presentation to make it appropriate for a 4-6th grade class, followed by a show-and-tell of a beekeeper’s tools and items used, and we finished with a bioblitz competition. During the bioblitz, we found a total of 10 different invasive plant species on the Boys and Girls Club property. 

This challenge was the first tangible pinnacle of success I felt. While my infographic publication had success, there is something different about presenting in person and being hands-on in education. This presentation was so successful that we were personally asked to return for more workshops. I saw the need for content to be flexible to fit the target audience at the time. Though curiously enough, questions from adults and kids were fairly similar when it came to invasive species. Most simply did not realize invasive species were an issue, nor how they became an issue. Luckily this led to the conversation about ornamental plant species and ensuring landscaping projects do not become the next invasive species problem.

Powerpoint introduction to the bee and bioblitz workshop at the Elkhart County (IN) Boy’s and Girls Club. Hoosier Honey Farm owner Jacquie Trump (right) began the conversation about honeybees, beekeeping, and how plants and bees have close relationships. This was followed by my presentation on invasive species in our area, and how we can help honeybees. 

Invasive plant species management and education in my community, Stone Lake, Indiana, my master plan, was a success. While this is only phase one, it is the building block for future work to be done. Now that the conversation has been initiated, and some residents have taken invasive species management seriously enough to monitor their yards, we continue outreach and try to get more neighbors to do the same. Starting this plan was not easy, nor was what I thought I would be doing in this program. Through independent study, I learned it is possible to connect something like pet ownership responsibility to invasive species management. People do want to learn, but need different tools, experiences, and opportunities to get involved. I used to think people just didn’t care about plants unless they were pretty or useful to them, and I learned that is simply not the case. Most have just never been given the opportunity to learn more about plants and how that knowledge can be used to help the environment.

Not only did I see that people wanted to change their habits and learn, but I also changed with them. I learned being a leader means being teachable, and sharing the spotlight with those who have experience or wisdom to share. I found that community outreach can be tricky to navigate, and there are multiple ways you can expand your audience and that changed me. I saw how I could connect my current career in the vet med field to invasive plant species management, and be an educator at work for plant toxicity cases. This knowledge and experience in collaborative leadership have opened up the opportunity to educate co-workers and clients about invasive plant species. 

While this chapter of my education comes to an end, I plan to continue working with the Stone Lake Conservation Club, Boys and Girls Club, and Hoosier Honey Farms to expand environmental education and show others how invasive species can affect ecosystems in multiple ways. In the near future, I intend to expand this education at the clinic I work for to expand invasive plant species education there so that we may make our yards environmentally sound, and safe for our furry friends. With that plan underway, I hope to find more ways to relate invasive plant species management to everyday life and allow others to start their inquiry journeys. 

Special thanks to the board members of the Stone Lake Conservation Club for collaborating with me throughout my time at Dragonfly, and to Hoosier Honey Farms, as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Elkhart County for their tremendous support and collaboration. I graciously thank my friends, partner, and family for their devoted support and my instructors and classmates at dragonfly for the education and experiences I received over the years.

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