Northwestern State University’s Conservation Club, along with other student group volunteers, participated in Earth Day and Keep Louisiana Beautiful’s Love the Boot Week by hosting cleanups and distributing water bottles to the university community.
Under the director of faculty sponsor JD Cox, the NSU Conservation Club distributed no-cost refillable water bottles to raise awareness of their organization and a new KLB grant funded water bottle refill station on campus. The refill station and re-usable water bottles will reduce plastic water bottle waste.
Academic departments got involved as well. The Gallaspy College of Education and Human Development organized a clean-up that began at Watson Memorial Library and the new library garden, funded by KLB’s Beautification Grant. Students, faculty and staff the Department of Fine and Graphic Arts organized a clean-up and garden project at the School of Creative and Performing Arts Complex and surrounding area. The group picked up trash, cleared brush, hauled garbage, weeded an existing garden and planted two blueberry bushes, several Louisiana irises, and a dozen Crocosmia plants.
Campus clean-up and beautification efforts were all funded by Keep Louisiana Beautiful whose mission is to promote personal, corporate and community responsibility for a clean and beautiful Louisiana.
The Conservation Club is a relatively new registered student organization in the Department of Biology and Microbiology that works to promote natural resource conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
“We help bring awareness to local conservation issues such as threatened and endangered species and the important role of pollinators,” Cox said. “We currently have a pollinator subcommittee who is working towards establishing more native pollinator habitats on campus. We are working towards securing grant funding for the pollinator seed and other necessary supplies.”
The club is also a career hub for students interested in working in conservation and wildlife management.
“Our goal is to bring together students across campus with an interest in conservation,” Cox said. “The Conservation Club is primarily a service organization and hosts several events each year including clean-up days. Our motto is ‘Conservation Starts with NSU!’ For each club meeting we try to bring in a guest speaker to talk about current topics in conservation. This semester, our guest speakers have included a representative from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a private beekeeper and Steve Gruesbeck [NSU’s director of Service-Leaning] who came to talk about Keep Louisiana Beautiful and Love the Boot Week.”
The grant from KLB funded the installation of the water bottle filling station in the School of Creative and Performing Arts, as well as the 350 reusable metal water bottles that were distributed on Earth Day.
“The Grady Erwin clean-up day was also part of Love the Boot Week,” Cox said. NSU’s Grady Erwin Nature Area, which is used for field studies, is also open to the public with beginner and intermediate trails for walking, hiking and biking.
“The Conservation Club is very active, and members have participated in N-Side View, Science Showcase, a recent FFA event held on campus and outreach events at the Literary Rally. Over the summer we plant to participate in a soil health workshop being put on by the NSU ARGO (drone) Lab and assist with Destination Science summer camp.”
All NSU students are welcome to join the Conservation Club, which has members from Biology, Creative and Performing Arts, Hospitality Management and Tourism, Veterinary Technology and academic disciplines from across campus.
For information on the NSU Conservation Club, contact Cox at coxjd@nsula.edu.
