Conserving or growing the number of trees and other plants in our environment is not just a feel-good idea. Among many benefits, gardens and other greenspace can help reduce flooding, a major concern in the Midwest due to increasingly larger, more frequent storms, as well as expanding development that leaves rain nowhere to go.

Green infrastructure, such as rain gardens, allows rainwater to be absorbed where it lands.

Hazard Mitigation Planning

To provide on-the-ground support for incorporating green infrastructure, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) and Purdue University and University of Illinois Extension programs are helping inform the process as communities develop or update their Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plans or other resilience plans.

“This effort arose out of working with community groups and hearing that they have a need for these resources,” said Kara Salazar, IISG sustainable communities extension specialist, who led this work.

With funding from the Extension Disaster Education Network, the team developed a planning process that brings together existing plans and ordinances, GIS data, and input from focus groups and community engagement. In two communities, the project team and local participants worked together to identify current and future strengths, assets, and opportunities as they relate to natural hazards faced by the community, with an emphasis on nature-based solutions.

The team also used the new Green Infrastructure Optimization Tool, which, through visualizations, can help decision makers determine suitable placements for rain gardens and other nature-based options.

“It’s important that green infrastructure is located where it will be most effective and have the most impact,” said Salazar.

The rain garden near the courthouse in LaPorte, Indiana is part of a suite of green infrastructure practices installed throughout the city.

In an Indiana county that sits along Lake Michigan, the City of La Porte requested help from IISG as it set out to improve its stormwater management plan. In addition to two planning sessions, local stakeholders took part in the Rainscaping Education Program, which culminated in the installation of a demonstration rain garden in an underused park adjacent to city hall.

“The garden installation was part of a larger effort to build resilience in La Porte through updating ordinances and installing green infrastructure,” said Salazar. “The rain garden site absorbs a significant amount of stormwater runoff. It is part of a suite of green infrastructure practices installed throughout the city, including along a state highway redevelopment corridor.”

In Hancock County in Illinois, it was time to update the Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan and the green infrastructure team was there to help the county and its municipalities explore possible nature-based solutions. This very rural county, with a total population that is less than the city of LaPorte, has limited resources to invest in infrastructure, green or otherwise.

Nonetheless, local decision makers see the writing on the wall.

“With a changing climate, the expectation is that major storms will be more frequent,” said Carolinn McKillip, Illinois Extension community and economic development educator. “Many communities that don’t have storm sewers to accommodate this much rain are looking to new construction as a way to incorporate nature-based solutions.”

As a result of IISG and Extension’s efforts in Hancock County, in several municipalities, the hazard plan includes creating policies and procedures to incorporate green infrastructure into future development. In fact, a project in Carthage is underway to build a new library and if funding is found, it will include a rain garden.

In nearby Nauvoo, local leaders, master gardeners, and other stakeholders took part in Rainscaping training and planted a rain garden of more than 1,500 square feet that runs along both sides of a highly traveled intersection.

Additionally, the City of La Harpe has several green infrastructure projects included in its hazard mitigation plan, again, if the city can secure funding. Local planners are also looking to transform abandoned land into something useful.

“They will explore using some vacant lots to reduce stormwater on La Harpe’s main streets downtown. Planners are talking about rain gardens, terracing, or permeable pavers and creating something like a pocket park,” said McKillip.

The work of Salazar, McKillip, and their team in the two states has led to the development of a toolkit that is a resource for communities in the Great Lakes region and beyond. With facilitation from Sea Grant or Extension, communities can access the agendas, activities, and presentations that provide guidance in incorporating green infrastructure as part of hazard mitigation planning.

“This summer’s weather should tell us that that we need to rethink the way we do things,” added McKillip. “Hopefully, efforts like this can help expand the knowledge base to everyone in our states and our communities on how to be more resilient to these extreme weather events that we’re facing.”

One Block at a Time

Flooding and other climate change impacts are the drivers of another community outreach project—for this one, IISG is collaborating with both Minnesota and Pennsylvania Sea Grant programs. With funding from the National Sea Grant Office, they formed a multi-community work team to address climate hazards in Michigan City and Hammond, Indiana; Duluth, Minnesota; and Erie, Pennsylvania, respectively.

“Communities or neighborhoods that are marginalized due to income insecurities and other social vulnerabilities are acutely experiencing multiple water-related climate challenges yet have the fewest means to respond,” said Salazar.

As part of this project, Minnesota Sea Grant developed the Ready for Rain One Block concept (adapted from the Center for Neighborhood Technology) to engage local government and residents in addressing the challenge of flooding. The idea is to develop community-planned green infrastructure projects in one city block, which can be duplicated across nearby blocks.

Kara Salazar, left, and IISG summer intern Payton Ginestra, right, help with the installation of a rain garden at the Smrt Community Center in Michigan City, Indiana.

In Indiana, IISG collaborated with the Smrt Community Center in Michigan City and the InnerMission Neighborhood Farm, managed by the Gate Church, in Hammond. Both sites have small community gardens, developed with help from Purdue Extension, to increase access to fresh vegetables for neighborhood residents. But at both sites, a sustainable water source was a challenge.

“At each location, we worked with the garden managers, neighbors, and site users to conduct focus groups, interviews, and site visits to collaboratively design a rainwater harvesting structure and a rain garden to catch any overflow,” said Salazar.

At the community garden site in Hammond, this year, instead of dragging five-gallon buckets of water to the garden, volunteers are able to fill up a watering can on site or use the garden hose to keep tomatoes, cabbages, collard greens, peppers, cilantro, and other produce plants properly watered. Nearby residents are welcome to take produce as needed and some are chipping in to help with weeding and other tasks.

The site has grown with the addition of a micro food pantry and a meditation labyrinth. Angelica Weaver, who founded the garden, is planning on adding a little free library and places for children to play.

“The work of Purdue Extension and Sea Grant has helped us become sustainable, which was a dream of ours since we started this project in 2020,” said Weaver. “Now we feel like we have the tools to continue the work that we’re doing for many years to come.”

One Block at a Time efforts in Indiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania have also been compiled into a soon-to-be released toolkit for broader use. This collection of resources takes one through the process, including background assessments as well as community visioning, scoping, and implementation.

Environmental Justice Communities

Small, rural communities that have suffered from industrial pollution or other environmental or economic setbacks will soon have some support to make things better. Through a nationwide Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant, IISG will provide technical assistance to help underserved Indiana communities define and implement their visions.

“We will especially be connecting with communities that have difficulties applying for federal grants because of their size and limited staff support,” said Salazar. The focus will be on funding opportunities available from EPA and the Department of Energy.

Salazar and her team will engage in outreach that will likely take the form of workshops. “The focus may include grant writing, grant management or facilitation work, and other skills that can help communities successfully fund their impactful environmental projects.”

The work in Indiana will be part of a larger grant that includes Illinois and other EPA Region 5 states and tribes.

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.

While the primary responsibility of water utility managers is to provide a clean, safe water supply, water managers are de facto energy managers, as supplying water requires energy to move and treat water. Understanding the water-energy nexus can benefit sustainable resource management and policy development.

In the fall issue of SPLASH, the Illinois Section American Water Works Association (ISAWWA) magazine, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) Water Resource Economist Margaret Schneemann co-wrote an article, sharing results from a recent survey of water utility professionals in the state about water-energy nexus issues. This survey was a follow-up to a 2010 survey, therefore, demonstrating changes over time. It was a collaboration of ISAWWA and IISG.

Preliminary findings from the survey reveal that energy costs are a significant portion of utilities’ operating budgets. Nonetheless, the energy required to produce and deliver water in Illinois appears to have slightly improved over the past decade. This finding is consistent with an overarching pattern of increasing energy efficiency.

To learn about more findings from the survey as well as further discussion, visit pages 28−29 in SPLASH.

Meet Our Grad Student Scholars is a series from Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) celebrating the students and research funded by our scholars program. To learn more about our faculty and graduate student funding opportunities, visit Fellowships & Scholarships. 

Brian Lovejoy is a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in the Plant Biology and Conservation program at Northwestern University. He is studying urban ecology and wants to understand if there can be a balance between modern urban development and ecological integrity. He is part of an ongoing project to study alternatives to the traditional turf-grass lawn. The work funded by IISG involves interviewing homeowners to understand how they perceive their lawn care practices and how they relate these practices to the urban ecological issue of flooding.

My name is Brian Lovejoy. I’d like to share some free, yet unsolicited advice: If you are doing or planning to do research with a social component, even if that social component seems innocuous, start looking into the process of gaining your university’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.

On September 28, 2023, I conducted my very first interview with a lovely couple living in Evanston, Illinois who were kind enough to speak with me about their lawn care practices. It turns out that understanding the nuances of social behavior in how they influence urban ecological issues requires actually talking to people. This first interview was so exciting for me because I had been planning my questions and prompts for about seven months.

My plan at the beginning of the summer was to bring my research interns into the exciting work of integrating ethnographic interviewing with urban greenspace research, but it did not come to fruition. Whenever a scientific method includes human research, it is important that the people acting as subjects are protected.

My summer interns expected to help me conduct interviews, but due to my underestimation of how long the IRB process would take, we had to change gears and find alternate summer projects for them. (They made the very best of this situation and each had incredible research projects!)

The administrative body responsible for ensuring that your research is safe for your research subjects is the IRB. The IRB was established in 1974 and its initial purpose was to review biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects. The establishment of the IRB was a very important development for the time because before this there wasn’t any major infrastructure associated with human research that specifically protected human subjects from varying degrees of harm. Between medical and psychological research, it can be easy to imagine how important the safety and security of human subjects might be (check out the Stanford prison experiment and the Milgram experiment and imagine how potentially harmful that kind of experiment might be to the subjects).                   

It was difficult at first for me to understand how my research question and methods would fall under the purview of the IRB. I knew from one of my classes that a large part of seeking IRB approval is ensuring that 1.) your test subjects are not of a particularly vulnerable population (i.e., homeless, serving a prison sentence, children, etc.) and 2.) that your questions are not highly invasive or triggering (i.e., questions about committing crimes, instances of sexual assault, drug abuse, etc.). The population I am considering are homeowners around Evanston, and while I will be asking some demographic questions, none of my interview questions are particularly invasive.

In applying for IRB approval, one of the more valuable things I have learned is that ensuring the security of your interviewees’ information must always be considered when deciding which methods to use. While my target population is not vulnerable and none of my questions are very invasive, all my potential interviewees are people who like their privacy and would like to keep as much privacy as possible even as part of a research project.                                      

Going through the process of gaining IRB approval (eventually, I discovered that what I received was an IRB exemption due to the non-invasive nature of my study) helped me to develop my recruitment method for interviewees. I created a consent form for each interviewee that outlined all their rights and what they could expect by participating in my study. Keeping interviewees informed about potential question topics and that they at any time can choose not to answer and even can end the interview if they wanted, grants some assurance that they will always know that they are in control and that my goal is not to trap them or manipulate them, but to learn from them. Without the assistance of willing participants, I believe that my study would be missing a vital component that should be considered when studying urban ecology.

For more information about IRB requirements and protocol, visit the IRB FAQ Page.

Scientists have learned over the years that when aquatic organisms such as zooplankton become exposed to microplastics, they eat poorly. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Director Tomas Höök was part of a study at Purdue University that shows that the zooplankton’s plastic-induced eating difficulties also limit its control of algal proliferation. 

“Microplastics aren’t just having an effect on consumer organisms. They also have the potential to release algae from predatory control,” Höök said. 

When the researchers noticed increased algal densities in their laboratory experiment after adding higher microplastic concentrations, they were uncertain about its cause. Either the microplastics were getting in the way of zooplankton and preventing normal consumption rates of algae, or they served as better surfaces for algal growth.

Follow-up tests showed that adding microplastics without the zooplankton failed to increase algae production. The microplastics were somehow affecting predation on algae. “That was somewhat surprising,” noted Chris Malinowski, director of research and conservation at the Ocean First Institute.

Read the rest of this story on the Purdue College of Agriculture news site. The research was published in Science of the Total Environment.

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, in partnership with Illinois’ Kane County, is offering a unique grant opportunity for communities to improve water use efficiency. Kane County communities can now apply for support through the new Water Conservation Technical Assistance Program.

This program was created to support communities and water suppliers in Kane County to take proactive steps toward water efficiency practices. The program encourages a wide range of projects—from developing comprehensive water conservation plans to exploring service-sharing initiatives. Communities should align their project proposals with specific local needs.

The 3−5 communities selected for the Water Conservation Technical Assistance Program will be provided:

• Expert technical guidance and resources to implement water-efficient practices.
• The freedom to propose projects that best suit the community’s unique requirements.
• The opportunity to collaborate with like-minded communities and organizations dedicated to water conservation.

Projects will be selected in 2023 and will be implemented through 2024−25. No match is required, though a commitment statement of staff time and effort is recommended.

To apply or to find more information, visit the assistance program webpage. Communities and water suppliers are encouraged to submit applications by November 9, 2023 to ensure consideration.

For a while now, John Gensic, a high school biology teacher in Mishawaka, Indiana, has been redirecting his teaching from a focus on classroom lectures to having students participate and be actively engaged as scientists. One key way he is achieving that is by putting a Hydrolab in his students’ hands.

Hydrolabs are sensor units that are used by scientists to monitor water quality and have been available for educators to borrow through Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Limno Loan program since 2011. So far, 83 educators, many coming back for multiple years, have engaged nearly 13,800 students in collecting and analyzing data from nearby lakes, creeks, and rivers.

As a result, many of these educators have reported more time spent with their students on aquatic sciences— up to 2.5 weeks. They also report that students are more engaged because the data is relevant and real to them, plus they are learning valuable skills and feeling like real scientists.

In an example of an empowered young scientist, a Crown Point, Indiana high school student’s experience and initiative with a Hydrolab led her to an independent study project. When she graduated to Purdue University, the student brought this project with her; with help from her high school biology teacher, Ashley Cosme, the student developed and presented a poster about this project at the Hoosier Science and Engineering Fair and wrote an article that was published in Purdue’s undergraduate research journal.

Many educators who borrow a Hydrolab were introduced to the equipment while participating in the Shipboard Science Workshop, where educators spend a week on one of the Great Lakes working side by side with scientists, helping with research projects aboard the Environmental Protection Agency research vessel, the Lake Guardian.

Gensic (pictured along with his students on the following page) has taken part in the Limno Loan program since 2015 after his experience with the Lake Michigan teacher workshop, and his students now have years of data from the nearby St. Joseph River. In 2022, however, he stopped borrowing the equipment because he secured grant funding to buy a Hydrolab for Penn High School.

“Because we have our own Hydrolab, we are not limited to the loan period and whatever weather or circumstance that happens during that two-week time,” said Gensic. “It’s been a great catalyst to do a variety of fieldwork. I’m able to take my students out more frequently and other science teachers can do the same. The number of students who have been impacted by the increased access is probably fivefold from what it was before.”

In fact, in 2022, Gensic’s 100 biology students used the Hydrolab to monitor the St. Joseph River as many as 14 times. Four other science teachers used the Hydrolab to connect approximately 475 more students to real-world assignments.

Gensic attributes the shipboard workshop and the Hydrolab as re-energizing his career as a teacher, helping him continue to learn and grow and fully engage his students. And when his students get out in the field to monitor local waters, “they can get a deeper sense of where they’re at in our watershed, a deeper sense of the connection between what they’re learning in class and what’s just outside the door of our school, and they get a fun day outside,” he said.

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 2023 issue of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s magazine, The Helm, is now available. This annual publication is a collection of program research, outreach and education success stories as well as ongoing activities to address coastal concerns. This issue is focused on stormwater management with green infrastructure, PFAS, and more, including how students are learning about water quality through hands-on opportunities.

Here are some headlines from this issue:

• Green infrastructure helps communities—large and small—be ready for the future
• With a Hydrolab, Students study their own environment
• Study finds PFAS in all tested Lake Michigan sportfish and their prey
• Aquaponics offers high schoolers a hands-on way to learn science, math, and more

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.

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) and Purdue’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources are seeking a coastal resilience specialist. In this role, you will develop a program that includes technical guidance, extension and applied research related to physical coastal resilience along the southern Lake Michigan shoreline.

Responsibilities will include:

• Providing technical assistance and consultation for coastal communities related to coastal resilience and engineering projects, with a focus on human safety, infrastructure protection, erosion prevention and ecological benefits.
• Conducting applied research to inform extension work, focused on coastal resilience and engineering projects.
• Sharing outreach and research information through appropriate media and through presentations, reports and peer-reviewed publications.
• Collaborating with state and federal agencies, non-government organizations, university researchers and Sea Grant/Extension professionals.
• Seeking external funding to grow and support the work.

A Master’s degree is required in coastal processes, earth sciences, environmental sciences, engineering (coastal, civil, environmental), or a related field. Plus, four years of experience with coastal resilience extension, engineering, research and/or technical support is required.

To learn more about the position’s responsibilities and qualifications, visit the job posting on the Purdue University Job Board. Applications are due by November 30, 2023 or until the position is filled. For questions about the position, contact Tomas Höök, IISG director at thook@purdue.edu.

Purdue University is an equal access/equal opportunity university. We strongly encourage women, minorities, and people from traditionally underrepresented groups to apply. For more on Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s commitment to inclusion, please see our values statement on our website.

The Great Lakes Sea Grant Network (GLSGN) met in September for the first time in four years. Hosted by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) in Evanston, Illinois, the gathering offered opportunities for Sea Grant staff from throughout the Great Lakes region and the national office to plan, share resources and knowledge, and celebrate people and projects. It was good to see familiar faces and meet new ones.

At the meeting’s Awards Banquet, Amy Shambach, our aquaculture marketing outreach associate, was honored with the 2023 GLSGN Early Career Award. Amy has been with IISG since 2019 and has developed numerous outreach products, including videos, factsheets, and websites. She has organized and led webinars and workshops in the two states and helped lead Great Lakes-wide projects.

Throughout her four years with IISG, Amy has worked closely with fish farmers and has been someone they can turn to for guidance and information. As a result, she was able to help some farmers successfully secure federal support during COVID.

In other honors, earlier in the summer, IISG’s Ashley Belle, as part of the Spirit Lake Project team, shared the 2023 Western Dredging Association Environmental Excellence Award for Partnerships and Outreach/Education. Spirit Lake, located in the St. Louis River Great Lakes Area of Concern, is undergoing an environmental cleanup. Throughout that process, Ashley and the team have provided public meetings, regular updates delivered to residents, online photo galleries, and an onsite kiosk.

In other good news, we have announced our 2024 Knauss Fellowship finalist. Samantha Garcia, a master’s candidate in natural resources at the University of Illinois, will bring her background in researching invasive species, her previous fellowship experience in applied statistics, and her work bringing science and communication to marginalized communities to this fellowship.

The Knauss fellowship is a one-year paid opportunity in Washington D.C. for current and recent graduates from advanced degree programs (MS, PhD, JD) to apply their scientific knowledge and experiences to policy and public administration. Visit our fellowship page to learn more about applying for the 2025 cohort.

We are happy to welcome two new members to our aquatic invasive species (AIS) team. Natalia Szklaruk is our new AIS educator who will equip the public with essential tools, knowledge, and resources to prevent the introduction and spread of these species. Karter Burgdorf, the new AIS outreach associate, will research human knowledge and behaviors driving non-native aquatic species introductions in southern Lake Michigan. 

The fall season brings a round of workshops to share new knowledge to extension educators, teachers, and fishers.

Purdue and Illinois Extension educators have the opportunity to take part in Purdue Rainscaping Education Program training. This effort will expand the expertise and reach of this bi-state program that helps communities install rain gardens and other green infrastructure to manage stormwater. These newly trained educators will bring this knowledge to master gardeners, local decision makers, and others in their region.   

We have a learning opportunity for teachers and other educators. The Aquaponics Teacher Training Workshop will take place on Saturday, November 4, at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. In addition to information about aquaponics, this free, all-day workshop will include a tour of the high school’s aquaponics space, information about mini-grants, and a free water quality test kit.

The fall 2023 Lake Michigan Fisheries Workshop will take place in person on the evening of Wednesday, November 1 at the Portage Lakefront Riverwalk Pavilion. A virtual workshop and Q&A session with the speakers is scheduled for the evening of November 9 via Zoom. Topics will include a discussion of tracking fish with acoustic telemetry and emerging research on PFAS in Lake Michigan fishes.

Finally, speaking of tracking fish with telemetry, the Chicago Tribune reported on an IISG collaboration with Shedd Aquarium and Purdue University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources to track fish movement in the Chicago River. Researchers placed a total of 28 acoustic receiver devices in downtown waters and implanted acoustic tags in many largemouth bass, bluegill, and common carp.

Collectively, these tags and receivers will help us understand and visualize how fish in this system move in response to factors such as habitat enhancements, sewage overflow events, and seasonally changing conditions. 

Tomas Höök
Director, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant

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.