The Long-Awaited Return of the Ecological Landscaping Crew
Eli Styles | October 4, 2023
During March and April of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Warren Wilson College (WWC) to make some difficult decisions about how to move forward. As a result of this, the Landscaping Crew had to be cut from the budget and their work was outsourced to Harper’s General Contractors.
The crew was replaced in early 2021 by the Land Stewards Crew, which turned into the Campus Conservation Corps (CCC) in the fall of 2021.
This crew had fewer responsibilities than the Landscaping Crew originally did because they lacked the equipment they needed to complete more heavy-duty jobs. WWC had to sell or get rid of most of this equipment in 2020, so Harper’s General Contractors continued to complete the tasks that the CCC was unable to.
Blue Savedge, a senior outdoor leadership major, has been a part of CCC since its inception.
“I joined in fall 2021,” Savedge said. “There were about 80 or 90 land crew people with unassigned supervisors, so they just unleashed us on parts of campus to clear brush and stuff. Then throughout the semester, we got supervisors one by one. [CCC’s] supervisor got there around October, and that’s when things started getting a little more streamlined.”
That new supervisor, Roth Doyle, started their experience at WWC by leading CCC. Much of what the CCC did at that point was detail work that Harper’s General Contractors was not able to do, which meant a lot of recovery work on neglected areas.
“This beautiful land that we live on really wants to go back to being forest,” Doyle said. “So when it’s left to its own devices it’s going to turn into invasive species and forest. The neglect wasn’t intentional: it was due to an unfortunate lack of resources, labor and knowledge retention. So [the CCC] had to do a lot of maintenance, weeding and mulching when it was formed.”
After nearly two years of operation, the CCC hung up its title to shift back to Ecological Landscaping Crew in May of 2023. A crew of approximately 10 students stayed at WWC over the summer to work 40-hour weeks, revitalizing the crew through their unyielding passion for taking care of the land.
Luke Wheelan, a junior music major, was one of these students. He has seen the Landscaping Crew shift from Land Stewards, to CCC and back again.
“My experience being here over the summer was incredible,” Wheelan said. “It was very peaceful. I’d never worked 40 hours a week doing landscaping before, so by the end of the day I was always wiped. I felt good in my body and my mind.”
Wheelan’s time on the crew has taught him more than just how to landscape.
“Landscaping Crew has exponentially increased the rate at which I’m learning and interacting with and understanding the things around me,” Wheelan said. “And there’s still so much to learn. But in terms of connectedness to the land, I feel like that’s sticking with me beyond the scope of Warren Wilson.”
Other students have also learned a lot from being on the crew. Savedge obtained their chainsaw certification through their work on the crew, and they have been training in leadership.
The Landscaping Crew is all about leadership. They are a forward-facing crew on campus and hold a lot of responsibility in terms of how WWC is presented to not only visitors, but also students and faculty. They are the stewards of this land, and they take that responsibility seriously.
Daily duties for the Landscaping Crew members vary widely. Some of the main tasks include clearing bramble, taking care of landscaping beds and gardens, removing invasive species, mowing and removing dead or hazardous trees.
Some of these tasks were only recently taken back over by the Landscaping Crew. From fall 2021 to spring 2023, Harper’s General Contractors were taking care of the mowing, leaf blowing and snow plowing due to WWC’s lack of equipment. However, they were recently able to get more funding, tools and mowers to be able to fulfill their needs.
On top of the physical tasks, there is another job that the Landscaping Crew spends a lot of time on.
“One of the big jobs of landscaping that maybe is not overly intuitive is telling our story while connecting us to nature and place, and creating natural landscapes that are native and regionally appropriate,” Doyle said. “And, of course, to help prevent climate change.”
In the future, the Landscaping Crew hopes to become carbon neutral. They are already on their way to doing so by having a solar-powered tractor and being close to having a solar power array that would be able to charge most, if not all, of their equipment. They are also looking forward to the future possibility of electric trucks.
“I think it’s really possible [to become carbon neutral] in the next few years,” Doyle said. “And I think that by doing so it not only demonstrates our values, but it tells our story. It ties us into the past while also putting us into the future.”
An exciting project that Doyle and co-supervisor Erik Mangs have been working on is bringing back sub-crews. They will be expanding to a Propagation Greenhouse Crew that works in the already-existing propagation greenhouse, a Tractor/Mow Crew that will run the mow cycle and do maintenance on the vehicles, and are also hoping to bring back a Tree Crew where students would be able to use harnesses to scale trees and remove limbs. Hiring for these crews will likely begin next semester.
“The goal for these sub-crews is for students to have specialized knowledge,” Doyle said. “Right now people are learning a little bit of everything. But I think with people’s work contracts, it’s more realistic to specialize. And I think it’s nice for students to be able to do a deep dive and learn the things they want to learn.”
While all of these things—the official return of the Ecological Landscaping Crew, the opportunities presented to students, the emergence of sub-crews, and the possibility of a carbon-neutral future—are important, there is one more key aspect of the crew that Doyle noted.
“I’m one of two trans faculty and staff members [at WWC],” Doyle said. “So I’m here, I’m queer, trans, I’m out here representing the land. I’m happy to do this work and be working here on this campus and I want to help more queer and trans folks feel like this is a safe space because it’s very hard entering into land work as it is a very cis white male-dominated space. But it’s totally possible to be in this work and be trans—it can be exhausting, but it’s doable.”
If you are interested in joining the Ecological Landscaping Crew, they will be hiring next semester. For more information, contact Roth Doyle or Erik Mangs.