Transcript

[R. Barr] One of the things that we’ve found is with the Arbor project we’ve continually found other uses for the project. It was originally an experiment in environmental naturalization or reforestation of a flood plain, but over the years, we’ve found that it’s very, very valuable to bring students to this site to show them a little bit about how science works, how naturalization, and how environmental improvement can occur with people participating, so we find students that may not have ever thought about a career in environmental science or a career studying how the environment works or a career in environmental law that all of a sudden discover that they’re interested in that, and they get to see that and experience that at this site.

[E. Johnston] Well, I’ve always been very interested in nature. My dad’s taught me about nature since I was really young, and I’ve loved hiking and loved just spending time out in the open and observing mostly, but it’s very scientific, and I like science. It’s fascinating to me. I like learning about how to restore projects like this. It’s very interesting watching it grow from horrible conditions to what it is now.

[Students talking]

[R. Barr] Science continues every day, and science is curiosity, and as long as we have people thinking and asking questions, they’re doing science, so at this site, what we hope they’ll do is stop and pause and say, “hmm, why is this like this? What makes this happen? Why did this tree grow here, or why doesn’t grow over there?” and at this site they can actually make the measurements and make the observations to help understand that. There is more that we don’t know than we know about how the environment works, so there’s so much to accomplish, and we hope that they get some, some insight into that when they’re here with us. We don’t have all the answers. There’s a lot to learn.