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Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds fluttered from flower to flower, gathering pollen from the native plants at ������Ƶ’s 365-acre Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA). The pollinators flitted away, unconcerned, when a four-by-four utility vehicle rolled to a stop near a bluebird nesting box, one of 10 such boxes at CERA. 

Three student workers hopped out of the vehicle and parted the tall grass to approach the box. Sam Emison ’26, a political science major from Cambridge, Massachusetts, knocked softly on the nesting box and then eased up one side.

A bluebird exploded out, temporarily abandoning her nest. The students leaned in for a glimpse of five tiny, pale blue eggs, which they noted on a clipboard.

The CERA Experience

Eleven miles from campus, CERA is ������Ƶ’s field station and the site for class field trips, student-faculty research, and quiet enjoyment for the entire community. Grinnellians engage with CERA in many ways, and in the process, they learn about Iowa’s once-abundant tallgrass prairie, land preservation and ecological restoration, and prairie plants and wildlife. They also experience the peace that comes from spending time in nature. CERA is open to the public for hiking, birdwatching, photography, and the appreciation of nature.

CERA manager Emily Klein and horticulturalist Jacob Hill work with Professor of Biology Peter Jacobson to manage the field station. While Klein appreciates the work that her student employees do, she also wants to give them plenty of hands-on experience, ranging from identifying native prairie plants and collecting their seeds to driving on sometimes treacherous gravel roads. 

Learning about Life

The students provide support for some of the ongoing research projects at CERA and care for about 10 acres of prairie remnant. The team works hard, and they end each day feeling pleasantly tired.

“At the same time, I hope we’re laughing and having a good time and getting to know each other and growing as people,” says Klein, who is also the outreach coordinator for the Center for Prairie Studies.

She wants to give her student workers a wide variety of experiences and a clear picture of what a career in land management and conservation entails. 

“There’s a lot of value in that at this point in their life,” Klein says. “We hope to get some work done too, but work is fun, and fun is work.”

For the Birds (and Snakes)

Monitoring the bird boxes twice a week is 100% fun for bird lover Peyton Dixon ’27, a biology major from Spokane, Washington.

“We check in to see if there are eggs or young in the nest. We get to see baby birds and sometimes the mom flying out, and it’s just really cool,” Dixon says. “I really like being able to see and hear all the birds.” 

The weekly snake board check-in is another favorite task. Snake boards are boards placed on the ground to give snakes a place to hide from the elements to regulate their temperature. 

The students lift the boards, poised to grab any snakes they might see and measure them. When people ask Dixon what she’s doing this summer, she likes to tell them, “Oh, the other day, I held six snakes.” 

Hunter McDivitt ’26, a philosophy major from Sunnyvale, California, and Quinn Bausch ’26, a biology-music double major from the Washington, D.C., area, are the other members of the team. Bausch shares the love of wildlife and appreciates being out in nature, even on steamy 90-degree days. 

“The wildlife is a big part of it for me,” he says. 

History in the Landscape

Before the students came to Grinnell, prairie was a murky concept for them at best. “I had never been to the Midwest,” Dixon says. “In my mind, prairie was farmland as far as you could see.” Now, she says, she’s learning more about the tallgrass prairie and getting a sense of what the Iowa landscape looked like a couple of centuries ago. 

Bausch is also fascinated by the glimpse of Iowa’s past he can see at CERA. “You can look at places like the big prairie remnant on the other side of the property and tell what has happened there over the course of maybe 150 years.”

Uncovering the Real Iowa

The students agree that their summer at CERA is flying by. It’s also helping them understand that Iowa is more than interstates and cornfields. 

“Being here day after day, it’s a whole different world,” Emison says. “It looms a bit larger my perception of what Iowa is.” That’s exactly what Klein wants to hear.

“I hope we’re adding to the richness of their Grinnell experience,” she says.