UT students place native plants at the Glass Bowl

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – As thousands of football fans descend on the Glass Bowl this weekend for the Battle of I-75, they may notice some changes to the landscape.

University of Toledo students and staff planted native plants in the gardens surrounding the stadium this Friday. The project required a lot of preparation, some gardening tools and ‘GUTS’.

“GUTS is an acronym for ‘Greening the University of Toledo through Service,’” said Todd Crail, a distinguished assistant professor in UT’s Department of Environmental Sciences. “It is an organization that the students started. They wanted to plant native plants in the landscape around campus. They have generated money for this themselves with the Student Green Fund, and this is the ultimate goal of their efforts: to place them here in the Glass Bowl.”

All these plants were grown on campus and approximately 200 students participated. Some of them enjoy the break while studying; working with their hands and spending time outdoors.

“I like doing this because I get to learn more about the plants we plant,” said Caleb Lawrence, a student volunteer. “So I’m trying to figure out what all of this still is and I think that’s great because then I get the knowledge and I can do this myself.”

Once these native plants become established, they require little to no maintenance as they can withstand our local climate. They also have many more benefits than just beautifying the landscape.

“With nutrients, with carbon sequestration and with the benefits to pollinators, they are actually interacting with the ecosystem,” Crail said. “And they require less maintenance than other plantings.”

Because the plants are native, it is not a problem to plant them at this time of year. Whether you come to cheer on the Rockets or the Falcons on Saturday, be sure to take a look around and enjoy the new “native” look.

“We are planting near the alumni pavilion in the Glass Bowl right now,” Crail said. “A somewhat representative, though appreciated, garden is on the other side of the tennis courts if you are tailgating in Lot 10.”

“I think it will be cool too, if you come to the football games you can see it grow over time,” Lawrence said. “And so in a sense you can watch it as it builds up and say, ‘I saw that once.'”

The students have now put 1,000 man-hours into this planting effort. 60% of that time was for class credit, but the remaining 400 hours were purely voluntary. They also plan to expand this project next summer.

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