Professor Emeritus Presented at Ecological Society

Dr. Samuel Farmerie, Westminster College professor of education emeritus, gave a presentation at the 95th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America Aug. 3 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.

Farmerie's presentation on the microforest at Westminster's Field Station was part of a special session on "Implementing Ecosystem Stewardship at the Local Level." The presentation included setting the context, describing the catalytic event that made completion of the project possible, and the project.

Westminster's microforest is an attempt to create a wood lot that replicated plant life in the area before the intrusion of Europeans.

"The context involved a description of the topography and nature of the environment of Lawrence County, Westminster College, and the site," Farmerie said. "The catalytic event was Pennsylvania's 1780s legislation creating Donation Lands, or lands donated to Continental Army enlistees. Lastly, the resource materials were analyzed and information about the canopy tree species present [at that time] and their proportions [in the forest] was the subject of discussion. This flowed into a discussion of native plants and about resources available to determine the nature of the understory/underbrush vegetation."

The second part of Farmerie's presentation dealt with the stewardship of natural resources by Lawrence County's Amish community.

Farmerie currently serves as Westminster's curator of cultural artifacts and was a member of the faculty from 1966-1996. During his tenure, he was chair of the Department of Education and director of the Graduate Program.

Contact Farmerie at (724) 946-7053 or e-mail farmersa@westminster.edu for additional information.

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