Biology

In the past 10 years at WKU’s Green River Preserve, hundreds of endangered mussels have been released, more than 14,000 trees have been planted, wildlife and plants have been inventoried and numerous student research projects have been conducted at the 1,520-acre site in Hart County.

“We are valuing, preserving and restoring Kentucky’s environmental and cultural heritage,” said Dr. Ouida Meier, a director of the Green River Preserve.

Through its mission of research, education and conservation, the preserve has served WKU faculty and students, scientific researchers, teachers and students from area schools, community groups and Kentucky Wounded Heroes.

“In addition to ecological and cultural restoration,” Dr. Meier said, “the preserve offers an opportunity for human restoration because it’s so valuable now for people to come out and find personal restoration and rejuvenation in nature.”

WKU will mark the 10^th anniversary of the preserve with a celebration from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 27). The WKU Green River Preserve entrance is located at 150 W Walters Road near Horse Cave.

The event will include remarks from WKU President Gary Ransdell; Dr. Terry Wilson, director of WKU’s Center for Environmental Education and Sustainability; Sarah Craighead, superintendent of Mammoth Cave National Park; Dr. Ritchie Kessler, chair of the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund Board; and WKU students and faculty.

The WKU Green River Preserve’s mission is to foster knowledge and protection of the natural heritage of this highly diverse region. The preserve includes seven miles of river frontage, and helps protect the Green River’s 150 species of fish and 71 species of mussels, including 12 endangered species of mussels, cave shrimp and bats found at the preserve currently and historically.

“The upper Green River region has a high concentration of endangered species; therefore the land was purchased for conservation purposes and for restoration ecology,” Dr. Meier said.

WKU has received grants of more than $3.6 million from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund Board for purchase and management of the preserve. Your purchase of Natures Finest license plates pays for these land purchases. In recent months, the preserve has added 350 acres along Lawler Bend and a 17-acre inholding was purchased separately by the WKU Research Foundation. KET PBS, WKU PBS, and a show for Animal Planet have all filmed at the preserve during the last year.

The WKU Green River Preserve received the KHLCFB’s first Stewardship Award in 2010 and the 2012 Biological Diversity Protection Award from the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission.

Numerous WKU departments, including Biology, Geography and Geology, Folk Studies and Anthropology, and Architectural and Manufacturing Sciences, utilize the preserve for classes, research projects, labs and field trips.

Since 2004, research activities by faculty and students have received more than $2.2 million in external funding and have resulted in 11 peer-reviewed publications, 12 master’s theses, seven undergraduate Honors theses and more than 90 conference presentations. The preserve is an ideal location to inspire the best of student research; two WKU Middleton Award winners and two Goldwater Scholars have worked on the preserve.

As part of the 10^th anniversary celebration, the historic Gardner House will be open for tours. The house, which is more than 200 years old, is being restored by WKU’s folk studies program. This summer Dr. Darlene Applegate, a WKU archaeologist, led students in her Archaeology Field Camp course in the careful work of excavating and documenting the site where the actual bricks for the historic Gardner House at the Preserve were made. The kiln allowed some of the bricks to be fired specially to produce a shiny black glazing along one edge, and this was incorporated into the Flemish Bond construction design of the house – a pinnacle of engineering for strength and aesthetics two centuries ago in Kentucky.

More: Green River Preserve Invitation and Directions

Contact: Ouida Meier, (270) 745-5201.