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Over a century ago, Professor of Botany Henry Conard began bringing students to a wooded hillside southwest of �����������ϳԹ�’s campus to study the spring ephemeral wildflowers that bloomed there. Parasols in tow, the class took the train west from �����������ϳԹ� to Kellogg, then trekked three miles to the hickory and oak woodlands.

�����������ϳԹ�ians have returned to those same woods ever since. Rather than hiking, these days they roll up in College vans. They still come to document the spring wildflowers, but they also come to conduct research, to write, to birdwatch, to hike, and to make art. The place, now named the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA) in honor of its first patron, has become a meaningful destination for �����������ϳԹ�ians seeking to understand their place in the natural world.

An Endangered Ecosystem

The land became the College’s official property when it was bought for just $60,000 in 1968. The 365-acre mixture of farmland and pastureland is made extraordinary by the few acres of native, unplowed prairie that it contains.

Over 99.9% of Iowa’s original prairie has been erased by conventional agriculture, explains Emily Klein, CERA’s manager. The remnant at CERA belongs to the 0.1% of surviving native prairie, and the preservation and expansion of that prairie drives the space’s management.

Regular prescribed fires, native plantings, and careful invasive species management over 50 years have resulted in more than 125 acres of restored prairie, as well as a restored oak savanna and woodland and many experimental plots.

“Where Is the Prairie?”

Peter Jacobson, professor of biology and current CERA director, says that over the years CERA has grown into a site not only for productive scientific research and teaching, but also a space that �����������ϳԹ�ians use for recreation and learning across disciplines. The construction of the Environmental Education Center (EEC) in 2005, a state-of-the-art laboratory and classroom facility, has enabled more classes, speakers, retreats, and events to make use of the setting.

“We now estimate that over a third of students in a class year are using CERA during their time at the College. Increasingly, that’s not just in the context of STEM classes,” says Jacobson.

Sociology, anthropology, and art classes alike make use of the space, and eight tutorial classes visited CERA this year to be guided through the land’s history by Klein. She sees CERA as an especially important tool for students just getting oriented at college.

“A large percentage of first-year students are not from Iowa or the Midwest. They’ve never seen a landscape like Iowa’s before, and when they come to �����������ϳԹ�, they’re observing a landscape that is one of the most altered ecosystems in the world,” says Klein. “CERA allows us to tell the history of that landscape and to illustrate how much has changed.” Though almost entirely wiped out but for places like CERA, the deep, fertile soils of prairie ecosystems are what first catalyzed Iowa’s transition to a hotbed of agricultural productivity.

“Students live in �����������ϳԹ�, a town called ‘the jewel of the prairie.’ But where is the prairie?” Klein asks. She gestures out the windows of the EEC, toward CERA’s restored Wilson Prairie. “This is it. And it’s one of the best examples we have.”

A Seed of Belonging

Like Klein, Hai-Dang Phan ’03, associate professor of English, believes that time spent at CERA helps new �����������ϳԹ�ians to better connect with their new environment. He uses the place to frame tutorials that revolve around place and belonging, including his 2022 course, Birds: Nature, Joy, and Belonging.

“We are all always learning to see and to listen, or at least we ought to be, and places like CERA can help us practice these forms of attention and care,” says Phan. For the tutorial’s first birdwatching excursion, he brought students to the field station.

“I bring my students here, and I bring myself here, to cultivate a greater sense of place and belonging,” Phan says. “I would want CERA to act like a seed of belonging, dispersing,