Program Overview
“In the beginning was the seed, and the seed made sound, and if you were to listen carefully you might say that it sounds like love...” Cadine Navarro.
In collaboration with The Frank Museum of Art at Otterbein University, this EPN program is a celebration of beauty in the sounds of nine Ohio prairie seeds: Wild Bergamot, Big Blue Stem, Echinacea, Little Blue Stem, Dogbane, Switch Grass, Milkweed, and Black-eyed Susan, and the steps we can take as a bioregional community to help them thrive again1.
For centuries these grasses were foundational to the glaciated prairie ecosystems of north central Ohio and scattered throughout the present-day United States Midwest. Requiring a unique combination climate conditions, soils, and Native American land management.
In recent decades, these seeds were ploughed under, shuffled aside, and silenced through land use conversion in agriculture and infrastructural development, and increasingly through competition with nonnative species. Southern Delaware County and northern Franklin County sit at the center of one of the fastest growing human communities in the United States. While these prairie seeds have remained resilient in the regional soils, stabilizing on the edges of farm fields and the remaining forest systems when able, the opportunities that humans create for these seeds to regenerate themselves is increasingly limited. In the past thirty years Delaware County’s population alone has grown by more over 220%2 and with it a growing conversion of green fields into permanent impervious surface cover – cementing a fixed ceiling over the native prairie seeds below.
In our human-centric lives it can be easy to miss or ignore the vibrational voices of Wild Bergamot, Big Blue Stem, Echinacea, Little Blue Stem, Dogbane, Switch Grass, Milkweed, and Black-eyed Susan seeds in our environment, but they are there. Artist Cadine Navarro will show participants that the seeds still speak. This morning event will guide and immerse participants through series of indoor and outdoor spaces and places showcasing the beauty of native, Ohio prairie ecosystems. Navarro’s artistic feature It Sounds like Love will evoke meaning, place-making and action for greenspace storytelling and conversation on these nine native grasses inside Otterbein University’s Frank Museum of Art, Westerville, OH. Through experiential learning locations such as the Alum Creek Multi-Use Trail, The Point at Otterbein, and Sharon Woods Metro Park, regional environmental scientists, and naturalists, including Jenny Adkins, will address the potential for restoring these grasses to the ecosystems and natural areas, including prairie habitats, that were once native to the northern Franklin County, southern Delaware County, and the broader Alum Creek Watershed area. Terry Hermsen and other local leaders will draw connections between the arts, the sciences, and highlight the many regional partnerships and strategies underway to restore native prairie and other habitats in the north central Ohio. This includes a focus on the Regional Ohio Action for Resilience, which brings together community groups, concerned citizens, religious leaders, social justice leaders, non-profits, businesses, educational institutions, and governmental entities to collaboratively create a more resilient region…planting the seeds of change and watching them grow.
1FLOW, “Prairies, Naturalized Areas, and Pollinator Patches.” Read here.
2Columbus Business First, “Delaware County ranks among America's fastest-growing exurbs.” Tristan Navera. Columbus Business First. Jan 14, 2021. Read here.
Agenda
7:45 a.m. Doors open at The Point at Otterbein.
8:00 a.m. Catered coffee and breakfast is served.
8:20 a.m. Jeff Sharp, Ph.D., director, Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, provides welcome remarks and logistical overview.
8:30 a.m. Group-based immersive tour of It Sounds like Love with Cadine Navarro and Dr. Terry Hermsen.
9:30 a.m. Group-based walking tour of Otterbein Lake and the Alum Creek Multi-Use Trail with Jenny Adkins, and other regional environmental scientists and naturalists.
10:30 a.m. Snacks served, and professional presentation on native grass and ecosystem restoration and preservation strategies in the northern Franklin County, southern Delaware County, and the broader Alum Creek Watershed area.
11:00 a.m. Extended, optional networking session on ecosystem restoration within the community and tour of a local urban wetland system at Highlands Park in Westerville. This wetland was enhanced and expanded in 2012 using EPA grant funding and municipal funds.
