Lilly ARBOR Project will restore urban riverbank in Indianapolis

White River green space will travel ‘back to the future’ with native trees, wildflowers once prominent two centuries ago

By Rich Schneider

Faculty from at least four IUPUI schools (schools of Science, Education, Liberal Arts and SPEA) will use the Lilly ARBOR Project site for teaching and research.

A kilometer-long strip of the eastern bank of the White River between 10th Street and New York Avenue will be restored to the way it looked nearly 200 years ago, with the branches of tall cottonwoods, sycamores, green ash and other trees stretching out ab ove wildflowers and flowering plants.

This ribbon of riverbank flood plain will yield new scientific data that will guide the way riverbanks are restored to a natural state, not only in Indianapolis, but for tens of thousands of acres up and down the Mississippi River Valley and across the Un ited States.

Doing it the way Mother Nature would will yield a number of benefits, including cleaner water.

“Our plan is to build a forest,” said Lenore Tedesco, director of IUPUI’s Center for Earth and Environmental Science (CEES).

In the end, the Lilly ARBOR (Answers for Restoring the Bank of the River) Project will produce a stretch of riverbank that will match the best quality riverbank forest for 150 miles along the White River. Eli Lilly and Company is the primary sponsor of th e project, reflecting the company’s ongoing commitment to the environment and the community.

The IUPUI team, assisted by volunteers and students, planted 600 trees in October and will plant an additional 1,400 trees in the spring. After months of research of 1820 land records, 12 species of trees native to the site were selected to be planted.

The massive outdoor laboratory project is under the direction of CEES at IUPUI, an interdisciplinary academic center that promotes environmental research, education and public service. Each planted tree will be numbered and carefully monitored for at leas t five years, testing three commonly used methods of riverbank restoration.

Restoring riverbanks isn’t new. Proving what works best over the long-term is. For the first time, the Lilly ARBOR Project will provide much needed answers to riverbank restoration project managers who, with limited funds, often have one shot at doing it right.

At the end of the five years, the Lilly ARBOR Project will have long-term data on survival of riverbank reforestation, something which doesn’t exist anywhere today.

http://www.cees.iupui.edu/research/wrerp/index.htm