Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 24.4.
Students install plantings inside tree shelters at the UW Natural Area.
and has the normal assortment of invasive riparian species, the most bothersome of
which is Himalayan blackberry (
Rubus armeniacus
). Historically, a stream ran some-
where near the current channel, but the stream was disconnected in the 1960s and di-
rected into the sanitary sewer system a mile upstream. In 2006, the stream was recon-
nected, improving the water quality and igniting interest in improving the riparian
zone as habitat. Salmon do use the stream.
We asked the students to clear the site of Himalayan blackberries and dispose of
the brush. The canes were cut with loppers, and the root systems were dug out with
shovels. Once that was accomplished, students hauled wood chip mulch to the site us-
ing wheelbarrows and covered the soil with four to six inches of mulch. We then went
to a willow thicket and harvested three-foot sections of willow for live stakes. The live
stakes were immediately installed at the site along with a few container plants from
the nursery.
Wetland Restoration Web Course
Course delivery using distance technologies has blossomed in recent years. These
approaches can provide pedagogical advantages (e.g., integrating students from a
wider geographic area into a single course) as well as practical benefits (e.g., reduced
student travel time, urban traffic congestion, and transportation emissions). Further-
more, the recent growth in the number of older, nontraditional students as well as tra-
ditional students with jobs has created a need for the delivery of courses that are flexi-
ble in terms of time and place. In response to such needs, UW-REN developed a
wetland restoration course using distance learning technologies.
The intention of this course was to allow students greater access to a popular resto-
ration topic using distance learning technology. It was set up as one component of an
online restoration curriculum, but limitations of institutional support have prevented
