It’s that exciting time of the year again, but we’re not talking about basketball. Hold on to your gardening hats, sports fans — it’s time for the Red Oak Rain Garden’s FOURTH ANNUAL Mulch Madness contest! 🎉 Our tournament takes an educational spin, teaching people about native plants in a spirited, engaging, and competitive way.
HOW IT WORKS
Twenty-eight native plants from the Red Oak Rain Garden are battling it out for the title as this year’s Champion. Your votes will determine which plant is the winner! All of the “games” are held through polls on RORG’s social media. Follow @RainGardenUIUC to play along!
Matches take place on weekdays from Tuesday, March 14 to Thursday, March 30 at 11:00 AM and 6:00 PM. This is your chance to vote! You do not need to submit a bracket to participate in the games, but it is more fun that way! The winner with the most accurate bracket submission will receive a $20 gift certificate to their favorite local business (because buying local is better for the environment!).
HOW TO SUBMIT A BRACKET
Click on the bracket below.
In the tab that pops up, click the “download” icon
Fill it out with your picks and save the document. Please include your name! Note that you can learn more about the plants by clicking their names in the bracket.
One bracket entry per person. Brackets must be submitted by Tuesday, March 14 at 10:00 AM Central Time. Games start at 11:00 AM the same day.
The winning bracket is chosen based on the ESPN Fantasy scoring system.
A correct pick in each round is shown below:
Round 1: 10 points per pick
Round 2: 20 points per pick
Round 3: 40 points per pick
Round 4: 80 points per pick
Championship: 160 points per pick
PRIZE
Your points are totaled according to correct guesses, so the person with the most accurate bracket receives a special reward from us: A $20 gift certificate to a local business of your choice! The business must have a gift certificate option available.
Good luck, gardeners. We look forward to another year of Mulch Madness… May the best plant win!
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a partnership between NOAA, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources, bringing science together with communities for solutions that work. Sea Grant is a network of 34 science, education and outreach programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Lake Champlain, Puerto Rico and Guam.
“Meet Our Grad Student Scholars” is a series from Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) celebrating the graduate students doing research funded by the IISG scholars program. To learn more about our faculty and graduate student funding opportunities, visit our Fellowships & Scholarships page. Brooke Karasch is a doctoral student in the Environmental Sciences Program at Ball State University. She is currently in her third year in the program and works on research focused on the development of learning and antipredator responses. As a model for this work, she uses fish — mainly fathead minnows. In the work that’s being funded by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, she uses lake sturgeon. Her broader research interests focus on how behavioral ecology can be used to further conservation goals.
This lake sturgeon is about 2-3 weeks old. It’s developing the characteristic snout and the sharp scutes, or protective scales, in a ridge along its back. Although this sturgeon was less than 2 inches long at the time, adult lake sturgeon can reach 7 feet.
Have you ever thought about how an animal knows which other animals it should be afraid of? Probably not, but this kind of question is what Brooke Karasch thinks about all day in her PhD research. The Ward Lab at Ball State University—where she conducts her work—focuses on a few different areas of animal behavior, including the effects of pollution on behavior, the sensory inputs that affect behavior, and most interestingly for her, the early life development of learning. In her work as an Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Grad Student Scholar, Brooke is focused on how lake sturgeon learn to recognize and respond to a predator at their earliest life stages.
Before this research could begin, Brooke needed one key component: lake sturgeon gametes. To procure lake sturgeon sperm and eggs, she worked with collaborators at the Black Lake Sturgeon Facility. The team of fisheries technicians ventured out to the Black River beginning in late April. Divers donned wetsuits and snorkels, and returned to the surface with over 250 adult sturgeon over the course of the breeding season. Not all of them were ready to breed at the time of capture, but by early May, they’d collected gametes from 8 adult males and 8 adult females for Brooke, and other researchers, to use. (All sturgeon were released unharmed!)
Lake sturgeon are broadcast spawners, which involves the release of both eggs and sperm into the water column, so a given female’s eggs might be fertilized by sperm from many different males in the wild. However, for research purposes, it’s useful to know who the parents are. So, upon bringing the male and female gametes to the lab, they were hand-fertilized using a technique that the Black Lake facility developed — carefully stirring the eggs and sperm in a concoction of clay and water, using a turkey feather. The clay is to prevent the embryos from sticking together, which can make them more susceptible to disease. The feather is used to gently keep them in motion while the clay coats them.
After collecting eggs and sperm from adult lake sturgeon in the Black River, Karasch fertilized them manually. The process is a little strange: eggs and sperm are swirled together, then rinsed, then stirred in a clay mixture for nearly an hour. The clay prevents the eggs from sticking together, which improves survival. She used turkey feathers to stir the eggs because they’re delicate, and the feather is gentle. Finally, she rinsed them with iodine before setting them up in treatments, to help prevent any early infections the eggs might pick up from river water.
Once the eggs were fertilized and began developing as embryos, the experiment began in earnest. Brooke’s work focuses on learning in fish, when they are at the earliest life stage, which is the embryonic stage. What would an embryonic fish need to learn? There is one critical piece of information that all animals need to know at every life stage: which animals are likely to eat them. To teach embryonic fish about predators, Brooke uses associative learning, similar to Pavlov ringing the bell at the same time as he fed the dog, until the dog associated the bell with food.
Brooke presented the sturgeon embryos with two scent-based cues. One was an “alarm” cue, which the sturgeon embryos innately recognized as dangerous; the cue was made of naturally deceased juvenile sturgeon, pulverized and diluted with water. The other was a “predator” cue, which the sturgeon embryos had to learn was dangerous; this cue was made from water that rusty crayfish were kept in for 24 hours.
The embryos were given both cues together from the time they were first fertilized until they began hatching. But there was another twist to this experiment — Brooke also wanted to know how temperature would affect learning for the embryos. Throughout their development, she kept them at three different temperatures: 58°F; 65°F; and varied from 54°-72°F, depending on the river itself. The information gained through varying temperatures is meant to help Brooke investigate how climate change might affect learning in this imperiled species.
Just before the embryos began hatching, Brooke started experimental tests. To determine if they would use their antipredator behaviors without the alarm cue, she tested them in either plain water or water with only the predator cue. This would show if they had learned to associate the predator cue with the alarm cue. First, she tested embryos. Because embryos are inside an egg and are surrounded by the eggshell (called the “chorion”), the antipredator behavior is to hold still and cease movement since they can’t swim away. Normally, embryos wiggle around a little inside their chorion, but if they detect a signal of “danger” such as the scent of a predator, they’ll hold still to hopefully avoid being seen. After completing test on the embryos, Brooke then let them hatch and tested them again a few weeks later.
“Analysis is ongoing, so it’s hard to say just yet what the results of this experiment might be,” said Brooke. “I’m excited to keep digging into the data for the project. This research will provide more information on how learning develops, and it’s especially important to get this kind of information for an imperiled species like the lake sturgeon.”
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a partnership between NOAA, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources, bringing science together with communities for solutions that work. Sea Grant is a network of 34 science, education and outreach programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Lake Champlain, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Sea Grant’s Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL) held its first Mentorship Virtual Summit in 2022 to celebrate educator wins and share success stories from classrooms near and far. Attended by 35 mentors and mentees from across the Great Lakes region, the conference provided a space for top-tier science educators to describe some of their favorite lessons—those that provide students with fun and experiential learning opportunities that meet course objectives as well as help build a foundation for environmental stewardship.
CGLL mentors are star educators from schools and organizations from across the basin who have already attended Sea Grant workshops and have experience teaching about the Great Lakes in their classrooms. During the 2021-22 school year, mentors selected mentees from their school or organization with whom they collaborated to incorporate Great Lakes education into lessons with the hope of completing a stewardship piece as well.
Students pick up marine debris at Portage Lakefront at the Indiana Dunes National Park. (Photo provided by Sarah Black)
For example, Sarah Black, a second grade teacher in Portage, Ind., paired up with a fellow educator as a mentor, and together they created a Young Scientists after-school club for fourth and fifth grade students in their elementary school. “We taught [them] about marine debris, invasive species, the biotic index, dune formation and weather versus climate,” said Black.
They also provided students with hands-on experiences at Indiana Dunes National Park by collecting marine debris at Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk, attending the Maple Sugar Time festival and going on a Mount Baldy hike. Students heard from a local meteorology student from Vincennes University and were also given an opportunity to participate in various research projects such as CoCoRaHS and plastic cup breakdown. These place-based lessons allowed Black to share information with students that applied to where they live.
Another mentor, Ashley Cosme, who works as a marine science and biomedicine teacher at Crown Point High School in Indiana, shared a bit about her experience: “I held a teacher workshop where we dove deep into the world’s largest freshwater system to examine the threats to the Great Lakes and how students can minimize the problem from spreading across the continent.”
She introduced teachers to hands-on lessons that focus on the causes and impacts of marine debris, and what can be done in their classrooms to decrease the negative impacts on the Great Lakes. Cosme was able to implement and master each lesson with her own students before teaching them to other educators. “Most importantly,” she said, “I made connections with other teachers in my district and developed meaningful professional relationships.”
To wrap up the experience, all participating mentors and mentees were invited to the virtual summit, which was supported with Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to share what they learned throughout the process and their plans for the future.
“The point of the summit was to get people together to network—trying to build a community of practice. We want to have an opportunity for those teachers to strengthen bonds with other mentors and mentees in their states and surrounding regions,” described Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s Kristin TePas, who serves as lead for the mentorship program.
“The summit also presented the opportunity for a guided discussion on what worked and what didn’t work in terms of the mentorship programs, and that feedback is allowing us to create best practices to use moving forward,” she added.
Allowing educators the space to share their mentorship experience and how they’re using Great Lakes literacy in and out of the classroom demonstrates one of the main goals of CGLL.
“Taking knowledge and putting it into action is a primary goal of ours,” said TePas, “so the great part is not just that they’re more knowledgeable but also that they put that knowledge into practice.”
To learn more about the mentorship program and find lesson plans that cover Great Lakes literacy principles focusing on place-based education and community stewardship, visit the Center for Great Lakes Literacy website.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a partnership between NOAA, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources, bringing science together with communities for solutions that work. Sea Grant is a network of 34 science, education and outreach programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Lake Champlain, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Angelica Weaver was determined to create a communal gardening and gathering space in the middle of her Hammond, Ind., neighborhood, even if that meant carrying buckets of water from nearby houses to water the plants while she was eight months pregnant.
Weaver, a social worker and organizer of the InnerMission Neighborhood Farm, said after meeting Purdue Extension educators at a neighborhood meeting, she reached out about assistance in creating a fully functional garden space on a vacant lot that had no access to potable water. Kara Salazar, assistant program leader and Extension specialist for sustainable communities, and Sara McMillan, former associate professor in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, partnered with Purdue Extension to assist the InnerMission Neighborhood Farm, as well as a community garden center in nearby Michigan City. Their team was a collaboration among Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, Minnesota Sea Grant and Pennsylvania Sea Grant programs, all part of the National Sea Grant College Program, a federal/university partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 34 university-based programs. They were awarded funds to support this work through a national competition aimed at creating water equity with their project “One Block at a Time.”
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a partnership between NOAA, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources, bringing science together with communities for solutions that work. Sea Grant is a network of 34 science, education and outreach programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Lake Champlain, Puerto Rico and Guam.
The Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative was awarded $425,000 by the National Sea Grant Office to advance land-based aquaculture in the Great Lakes region.
“The focus of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and GLAC’s aquaculture work is on sustainable farming in the Great Lakes region that does not negatively impact the environment,” said project participant and regional Aquaculture Marketing Outreach Associate Amy Shambach. “We’re excited that the Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative was awarded additional funds, which will allow us to continue to build on the great work that has been done over the last three years while opening doors to collaborate with new partners. We plan to work with the National Sea Grant Law Center, to take a deep dive into how aquaculture regulations are implemented in the Great Lakes region, and strengthen existing relationships with regional producers and state aquaculture associations by supporting industry events in each state.”
“Our aquaculture program has grown significantly over the last several years as we’ve invested in research, outreach and education,” added Stuart Carlton, assistant director of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. “The Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative is a key part of our efforts, and we’re excited to work with this regional team focusing on environmentally responsible, land-based aquaculture.”
Great Lakes states are not keeping pace with increases in consumer demand for fish and seafood, which contributes to a $17 billion national seafood trade deficit. Starting in 2019 and continuing today, the Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative has held region-wide workshops and training opportunities, created an aquaculture farm tour video series, funded and published research on consumer demand for aquaculture products and created a dedicated website.
The new funding will support ongoing and new activities:
Linking aquaculture producers to state and national aquaculture organizations and supporting producers, students, and researchers from historically marginalized communities to attend and present at state and national aquaculture meetings.
Continuing collaborations with aquaculture industry advisory groups from Great Lakes states to solicit feedback on progress and outcomes and understand state-specific industry needs.
Informing Great Lakes legislators about what aquaculture is and the elements of a sustainable regional aquaculture industry.
Comparing aquaculture laws and regulations among states within the Great Lakes region to determine how agencies interpret and implement these rules.
Fostering synergies among private, state, and tribal organizations to jointly address seafood supply-chain challenges in the aquaculture and commercial fishing industries.
Developing research questions that address priority areas of need for aquaculture producers that may be funded by Great Lakes Sea Grant programs.
“These investments demonstrate Sea Grant’s commitment to sustainably growing U.S. aquaculture throughout coastal and Great Lakes communities,” said Jonathan Pennock, director of NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program. “The funded projects, which address a variety of challenges, will ensure that growth of the aquaculture sector will be informed by the latest science and community needs.”
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a partnership between NOAA, University of Illinois Extension, and Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources, bringing science together with communities for solutions that work. Sea Grant is a network of 34 science, education and outreach programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Lake Champlain, Puerto Rico and Guam.
This year, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) is celebrating 40 years of service to southern Lake Michigan communities. Started in 1982 by Robert Espeseth and Jim Peterson as a collaboration between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), University of Illinois Extension and Purdue University Forestry & Natural Resources, the program has flourished as funding and partnerships have grown over the years.
Director Tomas Höök joined IISG in 2010 as associate director of research and in 2018, when his predecessor, Brian Miller, retired, Höök was asked to step up as director. During this transition, IISG also switched its administrative base from University of Illinois to Purdue University.
IISG has seen substantial growth throughout the past 40 years—especially the breadth of issues the program addresses, the technology employed and, most significantly, increased funding. Höök credits much of the program’s growth to Miller, who sought out partnerships with outside agencies.
Due to the boost in funding, IISG has been able to grow its staff, fund more research and expand extension and community programs. One area of focus that has grown considerably is community and environmental resiliency. Due to climate change, the Great Lakes have experienced more dramatic fluctuations in water levels. High water levels result in erosion, flooding and washed-out roads while low levels create mud flats, disrupt transport and potentially harm wildlife.
“We’ve been doing more work to educate people about changing lake levels and impacts of climate change while also trying to educate decision makers, like city planners or state park managers, on how to address it. So, we develop resources that are accessible to managers and that can also be used by more people,” Höök explained.
Improving accessibility to underserved communities is another area in which IISG has been intentional about expanding. Traditionally, IISG has focused much of their community outreach on recreational boaters and fishers, who tend to be more affluent than most of the populations around Lake Michigan.
“We’re trying to do more outreach, K-12 education programs, and research that serve the diversity of the citizens and communities in southern Lake Michigan, including programs to get kids interested and excited about the lake.”
The program has also seen significant growth to the IISG Scholars Program, which provides one-year grants to support graduate student and faculty research. According to Höök, in addition to funding research, the scholars program aims to educate participants about Lake Michigan issues while training them on how to conduct applied research.
Höök also takes pride in the culture and work environment at IISG and credits the program personnel for continued success. As director, he takes more of a “behind the scenes” approach, which fosters autonomy and opens the door to new possibilities.
“People seem to enjoy working at Sea Grant and tend to feel like the work that they do has meaning. They’re winning awards and bringing in grant money, and I often receive emails and feedback from partners telling me how much they appreciate the work the people in our program are doing.”
Going forward, IISG plans to continue expanding its research and community outreach. After 40 years of serving Great Lakes communities, the future of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant only looks bright.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
As part of our strategic planning process, the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program wants to hear from you—our stakeholders. We are especially interested in learning about your experiences with our outreach, education, and research programs. Maybe you have participated in an IISG-hosted event, read one of our publications or listened to a podcast, borrowed our equipment for your classroom, accessed our buoy data, used our website, or learned about the research we fund. Whatever the case may be, we’d like to hear from you. Your feedback will help us refine our goals, strategies, and work plans as we develop our 2024-2027 Strategic Plan and future proposals.
Springtime reminds us that owning a home comes with a lot of responsibilities, including maintaining the lawn. Many people choose to care for their property by looking to their parents, neighbors, and friends for advice. While we can learn a lot from our communities, the ecological and health impacts of traditional lawn care products and maintenance are worth reevaluating.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) has expanded the Lawn to Lake Program to include a new website, lawntolakemidwest.org. The site helps users dig into the weeds of natural lawn care. IISG has worked with horticultural experts at the University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension to provide the latest science-based lawn care recommendations. There are options for all levels of commitment and experience — starting with basic tips and extending through soil sampling strategies.
The site allows you to begin your journey toward a healthy lawn and landscape in your own backyard. Start with the lawn care quiz to evaluate your current lawn care practices. Then the featured monthly lawn tips can help you improve your score by providing a simple to-do list of seasonal lawn care tasks.
The website makes finding lawn care solutions easy. For example, an interactive map locates your nearest soil testing labs. “Soil health is the foundation to a healthy lawn and we have found that just finding testing labs could be an obstacle to action” says, Sarah Zack, IISG Pollution Prevention Outreach Specialist. You can find many other tools on the website including a handy fertilizer calculator that does the math for you. Excess fertilizer can run off into local watersheds, so knowing the correct amount to apply is important for protecting water resources.
With spring just around the corner, consult Lawn to Lake and head outdoors to see how you can work with nature to grow a healthier landscape for you and the environment.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
Let your love of the Great Lakes have an impact. Challenge yourself to try something new to prevent pollution in Lake Michigan and beyond. All 22 actions won’t work for everyone, but taking one action can make a difference.
Properly dispose of unwanted medications to protect people, pets, and the environment. Find a collection site at unwantedmeds.org.
Make your own cleaning products. By using less toxic ingredients you can reduce the threat of accidental exposure and pollution of the environment.
Discover toxin-free household cleaning product alternatives with this publication from New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service. https://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_g/G315.pdf
Identify source reduction strategies. Evaluate the materials that produce waste at work. Try eliminating non-essentials, improving operating practices, purchasing more durable products, or replacing materials to reduce toxicity. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has pollution prevention resources for Indiana business: https://www.in.gov/idem/ctap/pollution-prevention-p2-for-indiana-businesses/
In your yard
Before applying fertilizer to your lawn, always consider soil test results, desired lawn quality, and maintenance preferences. Find more information from Lawn to Lake about how to fertilize appropriately and protect local water resources.
Use integrated pest management to control pests with fewer pesticides while creating favorable growing conditions for your lawn. Midwest Grows Green provides toolkits, guides, and factsheets to help you reduce the need for pesticides.
Mow smart to develop a deeper root system and reduce your dependence on irrigation and chemical fertilizers. Learn how to maximize your mowing practices on the Lawn to Lake website.
Overwatering and misdirected watering practices result in wasted water and polluted runoff that may end up in nearby streams, rivers, lakes, and even groundwater. Lawn to Lake teaches you how to conserve water and control runoff on your property.
Shrink your yard and plant natives, mowing less will reduce emissions. The Red Oak Rain Garden provides a number of native planting garden guides to get you started.
Compost your food waste and by adding it to your garden and grass you can both mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and improve soil fertility.
Pick-up pet waste to protect water quality. Pet waste can carry two types of pollutants into our waterways, nutrients and pathogens. Learn more about this from the Great Lakes Echo’s Scooping Poop Improves Water Quality.
Salt keeps our sidewalks and streets safe but it can also pollute local waterways. Save money by sweeping up and reusing excess salt. Visit saltsmart.org for more tips.
At the store
Reduce household hazardous waste by reading labels and choosing the least toxic products. Search for products that meet the EPA’s Safer Choice Standards.
When you can, choose natural fiber materials like cotton, linen, wool, silk to prevent microplastic pollution. Learn more with Delaware SeaGrant’s microfiber factsheet.
Reduce the need to harvest new materials by choosing reusable mugs, straws, and utensils when you can.
Prevent pollution by washing your car in a commercial car wash facility where wastewater can be filtered and recycled or properly disposed. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency providesinformation about the requirements governing car wash wastewater and how these facilities can become more environmentally friendly and conserve water.
Don’t litter. Wind, rain, streams, and rivers can deposit marine debris (trash) into our Great Lakes. The NOAA Marine Debris Program works to prevent marine debris from entering the Great Lake through education, outreach, and removal projects.
Sharing is caring
As we aim for progress not perfection, remember that individual actions matter. Share these pollution prevention tips with others and then get involved! IISG connects people with science to help protect southern Lake Michigan ecosystems and build resilient communities. Look for opportunities to get engaged.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
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