ARBOR is an acronym for Answers for Restoring the Bank Of the River. The project is the result of a request from the indianapolis Department of Parks and Recreation (IndyParks), Office of Land Stewardship, for better data on how to reforest the many degraded floodplains in the City.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The project area is an eight-acre strip of floodplain between 10th Street and New York Street along the White River in downtown Indianapolis. Prior to the project, this area was dominated by mowed turf grass and a few pioneer species. CEES service learning projects removed over 700 bags of trash and debris from the floodplain prior to it being replanted with native vegation as part of a comparitive, experimental floodplain reforestation program.
The project started with the planting of almost 1400 native trees. The 1-mile stretch of riverbank is evolving into a complex floodplain forest as the trees grow and other species gradually recolonize the area. The massive experiment will test the best way to restore riverbanks by comparing the three most common methods for planting trees to restore native forests. A 10+ years of monitoring and assessment have provided - and will continue to provide valuable data on reforestation strategies.
In 2000, CEES led students, and Lilly volunteers in the planting of almost 1400 trees, in what is now known as the Lilly ARBOR, in collaboration with the Indianapolis Parks, Department Office of Stewardship and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as many other local, state and federal agencies (White River Riparian Restoration Project, Executive Summary, 2000). Among the goals of the White River Riparian Restoration Project were to “strengthen experiential environmental education in the curriculum at IUPUI by providing students opportunities to engage in service and research related to riparian (river margin) restoration along White River” and to “help complete the last key component of a conservation corridor through Marion County” (Embracing and Enhancing IUPUI’s Natural Heritage: a Concept Plan, 1999). As the trees and shrubs have grown during the last 12 years, IUPUI students have gathered annual tree data, as well as conducted occasional studies of Lilly ARBOR birds.