Published: June 28, 2008 10:01 pm         

It’s a dirty job: Rose students tackle field work

Research helps ensure 30-year-old J.I. Case Wetland is functioning properly

TERRE HAUTE — Rose-Hulman students are not afraid to get muddy and wet as they study the J.I. Case Wetland on Terre Haute’s east side.

“It’s fun,” said Morgan Coan, a senior biology major from Indianapolis. The wetland, which is adjacent to the northern edge of campus at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, is practically in the college’s back yard. “It’s nice to study something that affects your daily life,” she said.

For the past three years, Rose students and faculty have been doing research at the 30-year-old man-made wetland, which includes a 52-acre lake. Their study should determine whether the wetland is functioning properly, said Ella Ingram, assistant professor of applied biology at Rose-Hulman.

As part of the research, students visit the wetland daily to check amphibian traps.

They also take water and algae samples from the lake that are later tested in a lab.

“It’s just interesting to see what this area has,” said Harrison Sand, a senior applied biology major from Cincinnati. Despite being very close to campus, some students don’t even know the wetland is there, he said.

Student researchers have placed amphibian traps in different places around the wetland to catch frogs and other animals. The traps, made from plastic 5-gallon buckets, are checked daily so the animals can be collected, photographed and released as soon as possible, Ingram said.

On Thursday morning, Coan and Kate Sernett, a junior chemistry major from Chicago, discovered around a dozen small mostly leopard frogs in their traps. One-by-one, Coan reached a bare hand into the murky water inside each trap and scooped up the small frogs. “I love this,” she said.

Also on Thursday, Sand and Brenna Fullin, a junior chemical engineering major from Columbus, Ohio, paddled in a canoe around the wetland lake, collecting water and algae samples. Later, in a lab on campus, Fullin and Sand filtered the lake water so they could test its carbon and nitrogen levels.

“It’s pretty much what I want to do” after he graduates, Sand said of the wetland research. He enjoys doing work that takes him outdoors part of the time, he said.

There has been some concern lately about a relatively low number of frogs at the wetland, said Keith Ruble, superintendent of the Vigo County Park and Recreation Department, which operates the wetland and neighboring Hawthorn Park. No one knows why there are fewer frogs now, he said. “There are just not as many as there used to be,” he said.

For a long time, Rose-Hulman researchers weren’t finding many frogs at the wetland, Ingram said. Recently, however, the students collected 20 frogs in just two days, she said. “That may indicate there is appropriate biological function” at the wetland, she said, adding, “the jury is still out.”

Other wildlife is abundant at the wetland, which is on Old Maple Avenue about a half-mile north of U.S. 40 just west of Hunt Road. The lake, along with Burns Lake in neighboring Hawthorn Park, attracts migratory and non-migratory geese, Ruble said. There is also very good fishing in both lakes, he added.

Every day at the wetland, researchers find something different, Coan said. One day, a small goose followed her and Sernett as they checked their traps, she said. Another day, they saw a platter-sized snapping turtle. “It was the largest snapping turtle I have ever seen,” Coan said. On Thursday, a large spider, which Coan identified as a brown recluse, was nesting inside one of the amphibian traps. “It’s not pretty,” she said.

So far, the research project indicates the J.I. Case Wetland is functioning well in several areas, Ingram said. It provides good flood control, its chemistry seems normal and it is serving an important recreational function as well. Only the biological health of the wetland (as measured by animal life) remains in doubt, she said.

Ruble agrees the wetland provides good flood control, as was demonstrated during the recent June 7 flooding. Although some floodwater did exceed the lake’s capacity, flooding in nearby Robinwood subdivision was less destructive than it would have been, thanks to the wetland and Burns Lake, he said.

“This is a good day,” Coan said Thursday morning after she and Sernett collected more than a dozen small frogs in a 5-gallon bucket. For a long time, all they were catching in their amphibian traps was excessive rainwater, she said. “All month long [we got] nothing,” she said. “All of a sudden, [it’s like] Christmas.”

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.