Collaborating to Confront Climate Change in Urban Grasslands: An Issue Driven Land-Grant University-Private Cemetery Partnership

Joseph Charap (The Green-Wood Cemetery)
Frank Rossi (Cornell University)
Sara Evans (The Green-Wood Cemetery)
Andrew Pochedly (Cornell University)

Climate change poses a significant number of unique challenges to the delivery of the ecosystem services provided by plants and soils. In the United States, these services are increasingly strained in cities, which house 80% of its total population. Targeting the large areas of urban turfgrass within the urban landscape through a climate change-driven transformation offers potential for unique collaborations between traditional University scientists and stewards of privately managed urban grasslands.

Twenty-seven percent of the land area in New York City is green space and 25 percent of that green space is within cemeteries. The 478 acres of The Green- Wood Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark, provide an ideal location for a collaborative study of climate change. In 2018, a three-year partnership was initiated between The Green Wood Cemetery and the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.

A practical goal of this partnership for Green-Wood is the development of a data- driven urban grassland management plan designed to increase resource efficiency, reduce emissions, and address invasive plant pressure. The collaboratively developed plan will address critical issues currently challenging the function and aesthetics of the Green-Wood landscape and will serve as a model for similar urban grasslands.

Cornell University scientists in partnership with land grant scientists from other US universities will explore fundamental urban turfgrass ecology, utilize and explore remote sensing as a rapid tool for mapping grasslands, establish an integrated team of scientists to develop an urban grassland soil health index, and launch progressive landscape management tactics that lead to reductions in emissions and enhance ecosystem services.Cornell University is one of 53 land grant universities in the United States, established with government awarded land in 1865 from the Morrill Land Grant Acts for the "study of agriculture and mechanic arts and promote liberal and practical education". Historically the emphasis of the land grant mission has addressed food and fiber production and nutrition in rural communities. Yet, significant expertise is available throughout the US for the study of plants and soils in urban environments, especially grasslands and urban forests that can lead to science-based solutions readily implemented into existing management systems.