Journal & Courier Article, 05.14.08

focb May 14th, 2008

Celery Bog friends continue to push Purdue to act as a ‘Good Neighbor’
By Bob Scott • bscott@journalandcourier.com • May 14, 2008

Members of the Friends of the Celery Bog remain upset that Purdue University employees cut down trees, dead and alive, on the east side of the marsh.

In three weeks, the group has gathered 1,200 signatures on a “Good Neighbor Petition.” The signees support a plan the group wants to present to Purdue President France Córdova.

The petition deadline has been extended indefinitely until the group gets a meeting with Córdova.

“The dead trees had value to wildlife,” said group member Barny Dunning during a Tuesday bird-watching visit to the Celery Bog Nature Area. He is an associate professor of wildlife ecology at Purdue.

“The trees provided habitat for birds. For example, egrets roosted there.”

The 15- to 20-acre Celery Bog marsh in West Lafayette is more like a lake that borders the Purdue Kampen Golf Course. The trees were cut down in mid-February.

The petition states that Purdue not only destroyed habitat, it also removed a natural visual screen and sound buffer between the Celery Bog and the golf course.

Group members also were appalled that Purdue did not contact local wetland and wildlife ecology experts before clear-cutting.

The petition urges Purdue to include those experts, including Celery Bog naturalist Mary Cutler, in developing a wetland recovery management plant for the east side of the marsh. Purdue also is requested to include the experts in all future decisions affecting the Celery Bog.

“We started the petition because so many people were frustrated. They didn’t know what to do,” said group member Joan Mohr Samuels.

“We want Purdue to know that a lot of people in the community care about the Celery Bog.”

Devon Brouse, operations director at the Kampen Golf Course, said Purdue has plans to re-establish the Celery Bog border with marsh grasses and “low country grasses.”

He said when Lindberg Road was repaired, the water level was raised in the Celery Bog marsh.

“That killed 90 percent of the trees along this side,” he said Tuesday at the golf course.

“We had a nightmare situation with four of our more picturesque golf course holes.”

He said the trees were removed to provide “air movement” and to keep the grass healthy on the golf course. He said the crews also cleared out invasive vegetation.

Brouse reminded people that Purdue has “enhanced the Lindberg corridor” with trees and flowers.

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