Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
By the time they have finished the academic year, they almost always express pride in
their accomplishments and demonstrate confidence in their abilities. The nine-
month project duration fosters a sense of ownership and project/community engage-
ment that we rarely see in typical classes spanning just an academic quarter or semes-
ter. A number of students have continued involvement in their projects and the
surrounding community even following graduation. Such students have been more
than happy to assist us in fostering continuity in the course by presenting their projects
to students in the course the following year. This exchange is also intended to show
the current-year students that students from prior years made it, so they too should be
able to. Although taking a demanding course that requires nine months to complete
and involves considerable commitment outside the classroom is both a workload bur-
den and a scheduling problem, students have continued to enroll in it. The Capstone
has clearly worked well for students on several levels.
The Capstone is also good for the university because it does precisely what the cat-
alog promises. It involves students in applying their academic knowledge to hands-on,
meaningful work that produces solutions to environmental and social problems. It
also constitutes a technology transfer to the local restoration community. Neighbors
are pleased by the idea that the university has reached out to help them solve some of
their problems, and they are inspired by the energy of hard-working and idealistic
students.
EXAMPLE OF A PROJECT
One of our Capstone groups of six students worked with a community partner (City of
Shoreline) to start the restoration of Saltwater Park. Saltwater Park had been a sand
and gravel mine on the shores of Puget Sound; material removal had ceased by the
early 1920s. The beach (Richmond Beach) continued to be a popular recreation area.
The forty-two-acre area was a county park, and then became a city park after the in-
corporation of the city of Shoreline. Over time, the droughty, southwest-facing slopes
became infested with invasive Scotch broom (
Cytisus scoparius
). The city wanted to
replace the invasive vegetation with a native plant community and control slope ero-
sion, while maintaining the dramatic views of Puget Sound.
The students proposed the sequential removal of broom, which was to be replaced
immediately with American dunegrass (
Leymus mollis
) and native shrubs and forbs
capable of establishing in the droughty site conditions. They chose an initial site on
the main entrance road and near a playground to increase visibility of the project
and increase interactions with park users. Scotch broom was removed with weed
wrenches (fig. 24.3), and because it was seed-free in late winter, it was tied into
fascines, which were pinned into the slope along contour lines to stabilize the sandy
soils. Organic mulch was backfilled behind the fascines, and plant material was in-
stalled. WoodStraw, a waste wood product that is excellent for stabilizing slopes, was
scattered over the finished installation.
