Biological Sciences Department at Goshen College

What’s that smell? Is campus on fire, again?

Not to be confused with the regular fire alarms that go off due to new cooks in the apartments, these fires are on purpose! For some campuses, it might be alarming to see fires blazing, but here at Goshen College, springtime means it’s time to burn.

On and off campus prairies are mowed and/or burned to increase the carbon sequestration capacity. Despite the fuel required to mow and supply the drip torch, or the smoke released from burning, the accelerated growth prairies experience as a result of burning completely offsets the carbon requiremenus to burn in the first place. This year, there was a significant fuel load at Little Bluestem Farm and the result was hot (1st picture). These pictures were taken at Little Bluestem Farm (cour of Ryan Sensenig) and KMY prairie. Thank you to all who helped, we couldn’t do it without the support.

If anyone is interested in burning in the future, reach out to John Mischler or Jonathan Schramm. Burns happen here and at Merry Lea and no previous training is necessary!

During Homecoming, the Biology Department had a reception. Two of our students: Bongiwe Ncube and Brady Woods, enlighten us with their summer research outcomes.

The Biological Sciences Department at Goshen College invites you to visit us today (October 7th) at Homecoming!

From 1-2pm we will sharing some updates about our department and you will get the chance to hear the exciting research some of our students have participated in.