by Rebecca Dolan, Friesner Herbarium and Center for Urban Ecology, Butler University.  SER MWGL Indiana Representative.

Colleagues and I have a paper published in the September issue of Ecological Restoration on a community-based effort to reconnect people to waterways in Indianapolis, in part, by removing Amur bush honeysuckle. After a lot of planning, 2,000 volunteers removed more than 760 m3 of Amur bush honeysuckle from 30 acres of land along Fall Creek during a single day. The paper is Open Access and can be read or downloaded by clicking here. It presents the work in the context of Civic Ecology Practice. I think this framework is a way to connect ecological restoration with broader civic issues. I also think invasive nonnative plants as visual pollution is an under-appreciated issue. This project was the basis of a paper I presented at the 2015 SER MWGL Chapter Annual Meeting in Chicago.