News
News from Rewilding campus - Grønne Gløs
Restoration biologists ready for the coming season
March is here, the snow has melted and we are waiting for the spring to arrive. In the meantime, we had a little walk out in the garden. It has survived the winter and the plant boxes are ready to be sown as soon as the soil has thawed.
The master student in Natural Resources Management Marie Digre is finishing up her thesis this spring. She has spent hours in the park, identifying all plant species from the soil moving experiment conducted in 2022 - following up the PhD-student Martine Hennig's master thesis work. Not only did Marie spend time in the park, she also identified the species still present at the soil donation site, 80 kilometers south from Trondheim. In close cooperation, Marie and Martine are working on out-reach and dissemination for Grønne Gløs, while Martine also is exicted to be supervising Marie's great work so far.
Through master students like Marie, we get to produce scientific knowledge about our work, while also contributing to the local community with rewilding efforts. In addition, Martine recieves great experiences with teaching and knowledge transfer. Their work represents one of our many goals of making the park a greener place for acitivites, engagement, knowledge and life.
Waiting for spring..
We are all happy to see more of the sun these days. However, we expect the snow to last until late March (or even April), so we will just need to wait for the spring to settle in Høgskoleparken. Lots of activities for the spring and summer is coming up - stay tuned!
There are at least some activities to do in the meadow area in the mean time! In just a few months, the snowman or lady will be replaced by students resting, eating their lunches or studying in the grass lawn, along with a diverse set of insects passing by and meadow flowers popping up. In August, we will use scythes in the neighbouring slope to enrich the floral diversity in this area, without hampering the social activities in this particular popular and sunny slope inbetween Realfagbygget and Byggteknisk.
constructing a tall and proud snowman or lady.
Park bird diversity
Have you mostly seen house sparrows, crows and gulls in Trondheim? They might be abundant, but Høgskoleparken and Elgseterparken has even more to offer! Between May and June 2023, several bird experts had their breakfasts with bird songs on the side. In a total of four times, they walked in transects from 04:00 to 08:00 to register bird songs and thereby record the bird diversity.
The found a total of 18 bird species either feeding, living or enjoying the park! Our aim is to maintain and eventually increase this diversity, by making bird boxes, winter feeding stations and attract more insects by our meadows and insect hotels for the bird to feed on.
Insect results
NINAGEN and Gjærevollsenteret
In the summer of 2023, the insect diversity in the park has been examined! Maybe you have seen the malaise-traps? In the park area closest to Studentersamfundet, Elgseterparken, and in the grassy slopes of Høgskoleparken, have researchers collected specimens three times over the summer.
The final count(down)
We are excited to reveal the seemingly diverse insect collection in our urban park, even the same year our rewilding initiatives have taken place. The analysis would never have been possible without the experts from NINA (NINAGEN) for the inect speciation and funding from Gjærevollsenteret. We are curious to see how many species pop up in the coming summer, and see if the diversity has taken effect by restoring meadows, the pond, a diverse garden and bird boxes.
Getting ready for winter
The rewilding campus group has been out in the medow just outside of Cafe Sito, working with scythes clearing the grass before the winter comes. Luckily the weather was beautiful and all the work was completed in no time.
If you want to learn how to use a scythe and the benefits from cutting the grass and removing it, keep your eye on the event calender next fall for the next round. We'd love to see you next time!
Until then check out our other events
Reaping what we sow
We finally had a BBQ and used vegetables and herbs from the garden.
30 students together with the garden group and members of other groups got together to talk about our Rewilding campus project, expand the pond and plant some flowers around the garden-boxes. We can't wait to get the garden going next spring with more vegetables!
In the meantime the garden group will cover the soil and prep the boxes for the winter.
Do you know the different birds by their songs?
If you want to experience the birds are currently in the park, you can join our bird-group for a nice 4-am morning walk in the park. The group register the bird species by their songs, which will happen multiple mornings during the semester. Stay tuned for 2024!