The proposal that follows was approved by
the FSU Board of Trustees at a meeting on April 2, 2001.
The Board of Trustees rescinded its approval of this proposal
at a meeting in November 2003.
REQUEST FOR
DESIGNATION OF
BIOLOGICAL RESERVE
AT FAYETTEVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY
The Department of Natural
Sciences at Fayetteville State University is requesting that
the University's Board of Trustees set aside the area
indicated in the map on page two of this proposal to be
maintained as a Biological Reserve by the Department of
Natural Sciences for the following purposes:
1. for the preservation of
some of the types of plants, animals,
and ecosystems of eastern North America
2. to serve as an
educational resource for FSU students
3. for scientific research
by students or faculty
4. for the educational
enrichment of visitors to the FSU campus
The dotted line on the map
shows the approximate location of the proposed boundary of the
Reserve. In addition to the area indicated on the west side of
Big Cross Creek, it is requested that all property currently
owned by the University on the east side of creek be included
in the Reserve. It is understood that a mowed area will be
maintained around the radio tower. It is also understood that
the Fayetteville Public Works Commission will maintain a
cleared path for a sewer line on the west side of Big Cross
Creek and for a water pipe on the east side of Big Cross
Creek.
The Biological Reserve is
being maintained and developed on the FSU campus by the
Department of Natural Sciences. Faculty members, student
workers, and student volunteers have worked on the Reserve for
more than 19 years. An inventory of plant and animal species
of the Reserve has been conducted and the Reserve is known to
contain at least 403 species of plants. Nine species of
mammals, 89 species of birds, nine species of reptiles, eight
species of amphibians, and many other kinds of animals are
also known to occur there. To see some examples of what the
Reserve contains, refer to the photographs at the end of this
proposal. Some parts of the Reserve are being developed so
that they will resemble natural ecosystems that did not
originally occur in the Reserve. These developed areas are
called the Hardwood Forest Habitat, the Sandhills Habitat, the
Mountain Habitat, the Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest, and the
Savannah. Introduction of native plants to the developed areas
began in 1981 and 82 species have been successfully added to
these parts of the Reserve.
The Biological Reserve is an
outdoor laboratory used by the Department of Natural Sciences.
There are areas off campus that can be used for biology field
trips and where students or faculty could do field research,
but the Biological Reserve is on university property and can
be reached by a short walk from the Lyons Science Building.
The importance to colleges
and universities of areas of land similar to the Biological
Reserve is widely recognized, and it is not unusual for such
institutions to have one or more areas used for some or all of
the purposes indicated for the Reserve. For example, UNC
Asheville has the North Carolina Arboretum, Catawba College
has the Catawba College Ecological Preserve, UNC Charlotte has
the UNC Charlotte Experimental Ecological Reserve, and UNC
Chapel Hill has the Coker Arboretum, the Mason Farm Biological
Reserve, and the North Carolina Botanical Garden.
During the calendar years
1994 through 1999 the Biological Reserve has been used by
classes taught at FSU as described below:
BIOL 130, General Biology
II, fall semester 1999, 2 hours, 10 students (average of 1.7
students per year).
BIOL 350, Ecology/Evolution,
taught every spring and fall, average of 3.5 hours per
semester, average of 46 students per year.
BIOL 430, Special
Problems/Ornithology, taught every spring 1995 through 1999,
average of 5 hours each spring semester, average of 8.2
students per year.
BIOL 430, Special Problems
(sections other than Ornithology), spring, summer, and fall
1994, fall 1996, 1998, and 1999, average of 2.2 students per
year.
BIOL 650, Communities and
Ecosystems, fall 1996, 1997, and 1999, average of 3 hours each
semester the course is taught, average of 3.9 students per
year.
BOTN 210, Botany, taught in
spring, fall, and summer session I, average of 3 hours per
semester or summer session, average of 77 students per year.
BOTN 620, Advanced Botany,
taught spring 1994, spring 1996, and fall 1997, average of 13
hours each semester the course is taught, average of 4
students per year.
NSCI 120, Modern Biology,
spring 1996 and 1997, spring and fall 1998 and 1999, 2 hours
each semester, average of 17 students per year.
ZOOL 470, Entomology, taught
in summer session II, approximately 5 hours per session,
average of 7.5 students per year.
The average total number of
students using the Biological Reserve per year, 1994-1999 was
168.
Over a period of 13 years
the Reserve has been used by students doing projects for
Special Problems (BIOL 430). Since the beginning of 1990, 22
students have used the Reserve for Special Problems Projects,
19 of which were research projects.
In several semesters since
the fall of 1995 the participants in a workshop offered by the
Math/Science Education Network have been taken on a tour of
the Biological Reserve as part of the workshop. The average
number of participants per year is approximately 30. The
Biological Reserve could also be used by groups of students
from local schools when they visit the FSU campus.
Something that is very
important about the Biological Reserve is that it is unique in
the Fayetteville area. It offers things that our students can
not find elsewhere in this area. It is not being developed to
be a botanical garden, although it can serve some of the same
purposes. It would be more accurate to describe it as a
managed nature preserve, but in fact all or nearly all nature
preserves are managed in one way or another. The Biological
Reserve contains species of native plants that are rare in
Cumberland County, at least one species that is extinct in the
wild in this county, and others that are native to eastern
North America but not to this county. In an area of 9 hectares
(22 acres) the Reserve contains a variety of habitats, each
with its own combination of plant and animal species. If
development of the Reserve is completed, it will not only
contain types of habitats that were originally present in the
Reserve, but will also contain replicas of natural habitats
that occur elsewhere in the southeastern United States. It is
expected that the Reserve will contain at least seven
different types of terrestrial ecosystems, some of which can
not be found locally.
Field experiments have made
important contributions to the science of ecology (e.g., see
Stiling, 1999), and some biology students at FSU have used the
Biological Reserve for field experiments. However, it would be
difficult or impossible for FSU students or faculty to do
field experiments at nearby locations that are not on
university property.
The rapid and accelerating
loss of biological diversity that is occurring has provoked
increasing concern by biologists in recent years (e.g., see
Wilson, 1992) and has given rise to the branch of biology
known as conservation biology. A report published by the
Nature Conservancy, based on a study of 20,500 species,
concluded that at least one third of the plant and animal
species in the United States are at risk of extinction. The
Biological Reserve offers an opportunity to save a small
fragment of the biological diversity of the southeastern
United States and of Cumberland County. It can also offer our
students a chance to learn about conservation biology, not
just by visiting the Reserve, but also by hands-on experience.
Even though the Reserve is
small and has been extensively disturbed, it still contains a
significant number of native plant and animal species. For
example, it contains 8 out of 17 bird species indicated in a
recent paper (Keddy and Drummond, 1996) to be characteristic
of mature eastern deciduous forest in the Eastern United
States. This type of forest is rare in Cumberland County. The
Reserve contains 5 out of 14 species of spring ephemeral
plants that are considered typical of this type of forest
(ibid.). Four of these 5 plant species are in the Reserve
because they have been planted there. The Reserve contains 37
species of trees that are typical of eastern deciduous
forest.
Most of the development of
the Reserve that has been done up to this point could be
described as pilot projects. None of the areas of the Reserve
that are being developed are close to being complete, but the
work that has been done on a small scale has demonstrated that
much of the development that has been planned is possible.
Eighty-two native species of plants have been established in
the developed areas of the Reserve in addition to those
species already present, and a large proportion of those
species have been there continuously since the early 1980's.
Fifteen of these introduced species are reproducing themselves
and the populations of some of them are growing rapidly. It is
expected that more of these species will reproduce in coming
years. Once a plant population has become well established it
is likely that it will require little or no care.
If the Biological Reserve is
set aside and maintained, its value for conservation,
education, and scientific research will become increasingly
apparent as the years pass. This is true because natural
habitats are being modified or eliminated at a rapid rate in
Fayetteville and surrounding areas, the native plants and
animals they contain are becoming increasingly rare, and some
of them will almost certainly become extinct in this area.
This is also true because it is expected that our knowledge
about the Reserve will increase and that the Reserve will
continue to be improved. More plant species will be added,
trees and other plants that have been added will grow larger,
populations of plants that have been added will be larger, and
the landscapes of the different habitats in the Reserve will
become more distinctive.
