A small garden is turning into a big achievement for Syracuse University.

The Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction and SU’s biology department are currently constructing an educational garden near the Life Sciences Complex, which will feature more than 30 species of trees to be monitored by students.

“As far as we know, this is the first educational garden of its kind focused on climate change anywhere in the world,” said Jason Fridley, an assistant professor in the biology department. “It’s quite an achievement for SU.”

The project is slated for completion by the end of this fall, as the trees have the greatest chance of survival in the season’s climate, said Eric Beattie, director of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction. The biology department will be measuring and tracking the trees as part of an ongoing scientific research project, Beattie said.

Each tree species will be planted three times within its category. The four categories are based on origin and include local species, species more commonly found south of Syracuse, species from an area west of Syracuse and species native to Europe or Asia, Fridley said. Within those groupings, there will also be various lineages of trees, such as oaks, maples, hemlocks and others, he said.

The goal of planting local and non-local species is to allow students to monitor the health of trees that are adapted to different climates, Fridley said.

The Northeast, including Central New York, he said, is expected to experience a drier growing season and warmer temperatures in the coming years. The trees’ species were chosen to reflect this change and spark discussion of which will fare better than others, Fridley said.

“The garden will also provide a wealth of living plant material for biology laboratories, literally right outside of our building doors,” Fridley said. “Students will be able to see when they leaf out each spring, when they flower, how much they photosynthesize, how they use water, how they sense leaves and so on.”

The design was focused on creating a landscape that reflected a Central New York landscape, Fridley said. The biology department kept the landscaping team’s basic design, but maximized its use for education and the general public, he said.

Planting the trees will involve “regrading” the site, which involves lowering the incline of areas on the property to improve sidewalk and pedestrian flow, Beattie said. The sidewalk connecting College Place to the intersection of Comstock Avenue and University Place will also be extended and lowered to create a more gradual slope, he said.

Designs for the landscaping project have been established since Life Science’s creation but were postponed due to a “tight budget” which the construction team felt should go toward completing work in other areas of the building, Beattie said.

Beattie said the sidewalks will be laid in the coming weeks, trees will be planted in October and November, and the grass will be seeded shortly after. Depending on how the weather is this fall, he said, landscaping might continue into the spring.

“We knew we could postpone the landscaping for the future and now we’re doing it,” Beattie said. “It’s now become a nice opportunity to combine finishing a landscaping area with doing something from an educational standpoint.”

Published on September 23, 2013 at 1:09 am

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu