GrassX - Experimental Grassland Competition 2017

Hosted by the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative and Yale Landscape Lab

Weed-consuming goats, controlled burns, fields of herbs… what innovative and untested ideas can you design and put into play, right here at Yale, to protect Connecticut’s native bees and pollinators?

The Yale Landscape Lab and Ucross are hosting the first ever Experimental Grassland Competition during the growing season of 2017. Competing teams will design and implement a scalable management system that supports native pollinators and local ecosystems. Many pollinator species, both locally and globally are threatened or disappearing. This puts not only huge quantities of biodiversity in grave danger, but destabilizes economies.

Test out a completely new idea or revamp traditional ones. We challenge you to come up with a solution to enhance habitat for native pollinators while also spending time outside, getting your hands dirty (literally) and connecting across Yale.

Build your team of three or four Yale students and APPLY. Design and implement management strategies on three experimental plots that could demonstratively or diminutively change land stewardship and the future of native pollinators in the Northeast.

The sky is the limit – mechanical or natural solutions: all are encouraged. The winning team will be awarded (1) travel expenses to visit any domestic stewardship or land management ecosystem of your choosing and (2) the opportunity to present your plan to regional land trusts and scale-up your plan through them or at the Yale Landscape Lab.

Each team will be evaluated on these metrics:

  • Pollinator Habitat (species diversity & abundance and flower duration)
  • Soil Health (bulk density and water infiltration)
  • Invasive species management
  • Scalability and application
  • Innovation

Timeline:

  • Proposals are due by Friday, February 24, 2017
  • Competition runs through November 1, 2017
  • Winners are announced November 9, 2017

APPLY HERE                                     

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Questions? Be in touch with Charlie Bettigole – Charlie.bettigole@yale.edu or Justin Freiberg j.freiberg@yale.edu">–j.freiberg@yale.edu