Forest Park Living Lab: Exploring the Biodiversity and Natural History of One of the World’s Great Parks

Urban biodiversity and the value that it brings to communities has been overlooked and understudied. This Living Earth Collaborative seed grant project seeks to highlight biodiversity and natural history of Forest Park and the value it brings to our community by engaging students, the community and the natural assets of the park itself in a multimedia exploration. In conjunction with Forest Park Forever, the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center and the Sustainability Exchange at Washington University, collaborators will produce a coffee-table book of art, stories, paintings, photography, poems and other media by Washington University students. Students will lead every facet of this ambitious effort to document the biodiversity of the park that is considered a crown jewel of St. Louis.

Research Team

Joseph Steensma, WashU (Brown School of Social Work)
David Webb, WashU (Environmental Studies)
Carolyn Cosgrove Payne, WashU (Environmental Studies)
Anthony Dell, National Great Rivers Research and Education Center
Amy Witt, Forest Park Forever