Campus Nursery Revived

As part of its 125th anniversary celebration, Northern held a grand opening garden party Oct. 1 for its new Campus Nursery, which will be used to grow native trees and shrubs for future campus landscaping projects. The 150-foot x 75-foot parcel-complete with an irrigation system-is located behind Central Receiving, revitalizing the same site where NMU had established a tree nursery decades ago that later fell into disrepair.

A placard at the grand opening stated that native plants increase biodiversity and ecological function by supporting native pollinators and insects, and require less watering and other landscaping maintenance. Since the plants fit the region's specific soil conditions, they also help to prevent erosion and enhance water retention.

The nursery project is a collaboration between NMU Grounds, Facilities and SHINE (Sustainability Hub for Innovation & Environment). It was an adaptation of multiple proposals to the Green Fund, a fee paid by students to support sustainable, student-led initiatives.

"Every year, we get Green Fund proposals for more native plants on campus," said Jes Thompson, assistant vice president of Sustainability at NMU. "Now we'll be able to grow our own plants and trees and have them healthy, resilient and ready to go into the ground after a construction or renovation project is completed. It's the best of all worlds from a sustainability perspective. Facilities and Grounds have gone above and beyond to make the space available. And then we've got a student who's our inaugural native plant intern who has done a lot of research on what species work here."

Grace Freed, a junior environmental studies and sustainability major, applied for the internship based on previous related experience. Over the past two summers, she worked at a native plant nursery downstate, and was primarily responsible for the transplanting process. At NMU's nursery, Freed will nurture the plants until they are large enough to be used in campus landscaping projects.

Dave Raudio, a heavy equipment operator and landscaping specialist with NMU Plant Operations, cleared out overgrown shrubs and debris left behind from the previous nursery this past spring, then helped Freed prep the site for planting before the grand opening.

"We built the deer fence around the parcels first," Freed said. "That process lasted a couple of weeks. And then we did some tilling of the soil and some serious weeding. It's cool to have these opportunities to get more hands-on and involved in the growing process, and to see native trees and plants in the conditions they are meant to thrive in. I'm very excited that Northern decided to start this new nursery."

Grounds supervisor Andy Smith said Northern previously purchased plant material from nurseries downstate or in Wisconsin that had to be trucked to campus. The "home-grown" approach will save on those costs and economic impacts. He also demonstrated how recently purchased mesh bags will improve the transplanting process over burlap.

"The mesh bag with its smaller openings allows fibrous roots to grow through while it's in the nursery field and getting established," Smith explained. "As those fibrous roots increase in size and diameter, they literally get constricted by the bag, which forces more roots to be developed in the central root zone. So when a tree is pulled out of the ground and transplanted elsewhere on campus, as we cut the mesh bag off and those fibrous roots fall off, you're left with a dense, really well-established root zone that transplants easier and quicker. You can dig a hole, tamp the bottom of it flat and know that it's not going to want to tip over.

"We had been buying a lot of bald and burlap trees, with root balls on them that weigh 450-500 pounds. The only way to plant those effectively is with some of our heavy equipment, and because of their cone-shaped root balls, they typically required straightening when you put them in the ground. The goal using this particular system is to start with smaller plants that we nurture at the nursery and to ultimately be able to move larger trees with less manpower."

Smith and Raudio planted a fall fiesta sugar maple during the grand opening. Other trees will include red maple and red oak, with an assortment of shrubs.

"This is so exciting to see, and I also learned some things about landscaping," said NMU President Brock Tessman. "This fits well with our efforts on campus with respect to sustainability more generally, and it's a really nice example of how to complement our carbon neutrality plan. I think sustainability is not just defined by how we get our energy, for example, but also how we operate on this campus day in and day out. This seems like a concrete example of how to make progress, even down to the fact that we won't have those trucks shipping the trees up here. We can grow them right on campus instead, which is tremendous."