The Ohio State Mansfield campus contains 3 utility corridors – a powerline of FirstEnergy Corp, a gas line of Columbia Gas, and a gas line of TCEnergy. These working landscapes are an opportunity to engage students with the challenging realities of balancing humanity’s consumption of natural resources with stewarding the ecosystems that sustain society. Guest speakers from utility companies enrich undergraduate classrooms, and field experiments for vegetation management practices provide real-world laboratory settings for students to see and experience the scientific method in practice. The FirstEnergy ROW Pollinator Plots in the center of campus provide a readily accessible education site where research and extension are also co-priorities.
Ecolab Rights-of-Way
Partnering with utility companies can create ideal homes for native plants and wildlife on corridors through industry best practices, but the impacts of fragmentation and encroaching invasive plant species cannot be overlooked. Strong relationships between Ohio State Mansfield, the School of Environment and Natural Resources , and each campus rights-of-way provide unique opportunities for researchers and students to participate in research and better understand these tradeoffs when conservation objectives are prioritized. A wide array of partners support these collaborations – ArborMetrics , Arnold’s Landscaping , Columbia Gas , Davey Tree , FirstEnergy Corp , Grow with Trees , Ohio Prairie Nursery , the Pollinator Partnership , TC Energy , and the Utility Arborists Association .
Rights-of-ways are a pervasive element of the landscape, and campus collaborations with utility partners create learning opportunities for the public and in-service professionals alike. Most utility corridors in Ohio are managed through easement relationships with private landowners, and partners like Ohio Division of Wildlife , Pheasants Forever , and Richland Soil and Water Conservation District help bridge those gaps between practitioners and Ohioans. Ohio State Extension ’s Woodland Stewards Program skillfully knits together these complex relationships and offers programming that explore nature-based solutions to sustain healthy landscapes and vibrant human communities. No event exemplifies this better than Pancakes and Pollinators that highlights every autumn semester’s Welcome Week.
Several Ecolab reports examine connections between native biodiversity, the utility industry, and conservation stewardship: Columbia Gas Report, FirstEnergy Pollinator Plots Report, and Viburnum Shrubs Report . Dr. Gabriel Karns, Ecolab Land Manager, is a co-author on the Utility Arborist Association’s Managing Compatible Vegetation for Targeted Species and Biodiversity and continues to foster multiple partnerships at The Ohio State University to push utilities above and beyond strict regulatory compliance. Ongoing research opportunities exist for current and incoming students, and Ohio State Mansfield’s Ecolab is proud of its vision that has enabled these positive collaborations to thrive.