Wisconsin Landscape Architecture Students Help Out Around Town

For the past two years the Community Service Committee of the ASLA Wisconsin Student Chapter, based in Madison, Wis. has been working to beautify and assist the community in a variety of activities ranging from prairie plantings to collecting gifts for Toys For Tots.

Last fall, the Committee was involved in a prairie planting; a honeysuckle clean up in a wooded area along the Ice Age Trail; and a garbage clean up in the summer. The Committee also did seeding for a Habitat For Humanity project in Madison.

The students have teamed with Madison radio station 105.5 WMMM-FM's Green Team on many of these events. At the Wisconsin Chapter ASLA annual meeting in the fall, the Green Team received a recognition award for Environmental Enhancement for its work in the community.

"We really appreciate being honored by them," Green Team representative Laura Byrne said. "We are just out there doing things the best we can to improve the Madison community."

Landscape Architecture students have a unique opportunity to help out their community as a part of the ASLA Wisconsin Student Chapter's Community Service Committee.

The Green Team is a volunteer group that runs events from Earth Day in April until the middle of November, planting seeds and trying to help the environment with many innovative projects.

The Green Team started the "Red Bike Program" where they collect old bicycles, paint them red and leave them around Madison for people to use instead of driving. They also started a computer recycling round-up, where the machines are recycled instead of being landfilled.

Byrne said that she looks forward to working with the Committee as they try to get things off the ground.

"We have about three-to-five students coming out for events," Rob Williams, past-Chair of the Committee said. "It's a big challenge because students are busy and they can't always commit."

Williams graduated from University of Wisconsin at Madison last spring and is currently working with TDI Associates in Pewaukee, Wisconsin and is a Professional Mentor to students studying landscape architecture at UWM.

The most recent event that the Landscape Architecture students participated in with the Green Team was on November 18, at Badger Prairie Park in Verona, Wis. where students and other volunteers spread prairie seed at the park. Snow fell in the area a few days before the seeding, leaving about two inches of snow on the ground.

The Student Chapter was represented by only two students, as the weather kept attendance down.

"There was snow on the ground," Williams said. "It was cold, but we did what we could."

Lisa Geer, ASLA Wisconsin Chapter Trustee is pleased with the student involvement in the community

"There is nothing more enlightening as discovering the uniqueness of our native environment," she said. "It's great Rob and the other students were a part of this event. By this coming summer they will be able to go back to the park and enjoy the Black-eyed Susans that they planted in the snow."

Even though snow fell in Verona, the seeds that were planted will be in full bloom in the summer, and the students can enjoy the Black-eyed Susans that they planted.