Publications from the Project

Extension Publications Animal/Range/Social Publications Animal/Range/Social Science Abstracts & Presentations Education Publications



Extension Publications - Creating Sustainable School and Home Gardens

Misconceptions About Bees

Authors: Campbell, et. al. Bees are fascinating creatures that play a crucial role in pollination and ecosystem health. However, misconceptions about bees are widespread. Understanding the facts about bees helps us appreciate their significance and take a...

Water-Wise Gardening

Authors: Trundle, et. al. The average family in the U.S. uses about 320 gallons of water per day, with about 30% of that water being used for outdoor purposes like landscape irrigation (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2025a). The EPA (2025b) r...

The Buzz About Bees

Authors: Campbell, et, al. All bees belong in a group of organisms (i.e., order) called “Hymenoptera.” The word Hymenoptera comes from two ancient Greek words: "hymen," which means membrane and "pteron," which means wing.

Using Citizen Science

Authors: Campbell, et. al. Citizen science, also called community-based science or participatory science, provides a way for anyone to gather data, along with scientists, around a scientific question or phenomenon.

Companion Planting

Authors: Mohr, et. al. Companion planting is an agricultural practice in which two or more plants are intentionally grown together to enhance mutual productivity. The special relationships that plants have with other organisms help create balanced ecosyst...

Organic Pest Management

Authors: Mohr, et. al. This fact sheet on organic pest management outlines sustainable gardening practices that promote ecological balance and biodiversity. It defines organic pest management as a proactive method, using natural insecticides like sulfur a...

Using Drones to Enhance Garden Projects

Authors: Weber, et. al. This fact sheet explores using drones to enhance garden projects at home and in schools. It covers the benefits of drones, such as monitoring garden health, planning layouts, and assessing plant conditions through advanced imaging ...

Using Weather Stations

The weather impacts every aspect of our lives, from the clothing we choose to wear each day to our travel plans and activity choices. The weather also impacts our school and home gardens and landscaping. Whenever you check the weather on your phone or any...

Wildlife Monitoring Using Bioacoustics

Chirps, cheeps, and croaks! Animals use sounds to communicate with each other, just like humans. Humans can listen in on animals by using a bioacoustic monitoring device, a passive device that quietly records surrounding sounds.

Beneficial Biological Control Insects

Insects and arthropods, some of the most abundant residents in school and home gardens, play many significant roles as predators, herbivores, detritivores, and parasites. Predators are particularly important in the garden because they help keep the “bad,”...

Composting

Compost, a mixture of decayed organic material, can be used as a natural way to enrich soil and fertilize plants. You can create compost for your home or school garden by using food scraps (e.g., vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grounds, tea leaves, egg ...

Using Trail Cameras

Trail cameras (also called game or wildlife cameras) have been used for decades to document wildlife for personal use (for example, identifying key areas frequented by game animals), education, and scientific use (documenting distributions of animals arou...

Create a Garden Anywhere

Many flowering plants and trees, as well as vegetables, are critical to healthy and biodiverse habitats. Installing a smart foodscape in which you integrate edible plants into an existing landscape is a great way to do just this! The key is to create mult...

Native Bee Homes

When most people think of a home for a bee, they probably picture the white wooden hives or domeshaped skeps associated with beekeeping. Those homes are just for honeybees, a single social species of non-native bee that is kept around the world for honey ...

Rain Barrels

In the United States, many houses have roofs that allow water to flow down the sides, being directed into a rain gutter and then a downspout. Traditionally, this water is dumped into the ground, a ditch, or the street as it flows back into the ground or i...

Raised Bed Gardening

Raised garden beds, also called garden boxes, are great for growing small plots of veggies and flowers. Raised beds are different from container gardening as they do not have bottoms; they are open to the ground, which offers the benefit of permitting pla...

Vertical Gardening

Vertical gardening is the practice of in-ground gardening that grows plants up a trellis, arch, or vertical support. It can be used in container gardening by growing vertically. Some vertical gardens employ hydroponics to feed their plants. Vertical garde...

Welcoming Pollinators

Insects play a very important role in your garden as pollinators, prey for beneficial wildlife, predators controlling insect pests, and as soil nutrient recyclers. Follow the best gardening practices below to promote insect conservation and create healthy...







Animal/Range/Social Science Publications

Tannins in Perennial Legume and Forb Functional Forages

Feed is the greatest input cost for cattle producers. The studies summarized here employed non-bloating, tannin-containing irrigated perennial legume pastures or hay of legumes or a hydrolysable tannin-containing forb that were grown in the Mountain West ...



Animal/Range/Social Science Abstracts & Presentations

Seasonal Change in Forage Nutritive Value and Secondary Metabolites in Legumes and Non-Legume Forbs Adapted to Western Rangeland. ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting. November 10-13, 2024. San Antonio, TX. ASA-CSSA-SSSA.

Western rangelands are dominated by native and exotic cool-season grass species. These species exhibit high forage nutritive value in Spring but decline in early Summer as the plant approaches maturity. To address this, costly protein supplementation is o...





Education Publications

The Cost of a Garden

The following garden-based, interdisciplinary STEAM lesson challenges students to consider the costs of planting, watering, and growing a garden. Students use mathematical thinking to determine if gardening is worth the cost and reward.

BEE Ambassadors for Pollen

During this lesson, students engage with the phenomenon of the coevolution of structures of pollen and pollinators and their functions. Students collect pollen, prepare pollen slides, and make observations of the features and structures of pollen. Next, s...

The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees

What do birds and bees have to do with flowers and trees? How do pollinators connect to this thing called “love”? This 3-D lesson distinguishes itself from classic flower dissection lessons in that we tell the flowering plant story from the perspectiv