As Earth Day dawns on campus, the Beal Botanical Garden begins to hum with new energy. The seeds of knowledge planted over 150 years ago grow deep in the earth and sprout toward the sunshine, teaching valuable lessons which flourish in the hearts of students like Laura Perrin.
As a student in the Beal Scholars Internship Program, Laura helps manage the garden collections. Her work is focused on plants and strategizing the organization of the garden beds. With over 2,000 plants in the garden, including rare plants like goldenseal and the Michigan monkeyflower, a lot of work goes into placement, layout and detailed systematics which highlight plant interaction.
Different garden beds are dedicated to different themes, such as beds focusing on food and medicine; a bed for plants that have traditionally been labeled as weeds; and arts beds that are being improved to emphasize the different ways plants are incorporated in the arts.
Collection efforts also have an overarching focus on sustainability. Laura believes sustainability is about connecting plants and people, because we need each other to survive. “Sustainability means bettering both the environment and ourselves,” she says. “We’re all living things.”
Laura is grateful for the Spartans whose generosity has made the Beal Scholars program and garden initiatives possible.
“We want the garden to be open for everyone, so it’s great to know that Spartans are supporting us,” she says. “We're all trying to help each other. We’re all Spartans here, and so it’s just like a family.”
By reimagining what’s possible, Laura and other Beal Scholars are finding new ways to help people connect with the garden. Such reimagining includes a planned well-being bed that will encourage interaction with touchable plants.
Already there is the Nurture Your Roots: Rooting Stations exhibit installed at several locations in the garden. Visitors can use these stations to engage in mindful practices and access QR codes that link to poetry or songs to help visitors connect both with nature and with themselves.
Rewilding initiatives have also begun to make the garden more natural and in alignment with W.J. Beal’s initial vision, benefiting local wildlife, becoming a haven for native species and welcoming community interaction with the garden.
Scholars continue to lead conservation efforts to preserve native plants, help with invasive species removal and – being mindful that the garden is within a flood plain – are careful not to plant seeds which could cause issues if they were washed downstream.
All these initiatives and projects result in a hands-on approach for Beal Scholars, which is what drew Laura to the garden in the first place. As a Fisheries and Wildlife major in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, she hopes to become a field technician with national parks or nature centers, and her work in the gardens gives her crucial experience outside of the classroom to build her resume.
Beal Scholars receive professional development training to do just that and collaborate with their cohort on garden projects. Since the Beal Scholars program has an interdisciplinary appeal, students from various majors often participate.
“The other scholar that I'm working with right now is a neuroscience major,” says Laura. “So, she's focused on how well-being works with the brain.”
In celebration of Earth Day, Laura plans to roll up her sleeves and visit one of the natural areas on campus to pick up litter. She emphasizes that you don’t have to do something huge to make a difference.
If we all do a little something for the environment, together we can make a big difference to make the world grow green.
Interested in helping students thrive on Earth Day this year? Learn more at givingto.msu.edu/earth-day