Professor helping restore a local cranberry bog
Kate Ballantine’s research on environmental revival and ecosystems at a former cranberry bog in Plymouth investigates the effects of climate change.
A former cranberry bog in Massachusetts where environmental scientist Kate Ballantine conducts field research was recently featured in The New York Times.
Ballantine, an assistant professor of environmental studies at è˶Ƶ College, specializes in environmental restoration, including wetland ecology, ecosystem functions, water resources and soil microbial ecology.
She does fieldwork at Tidmarsh Farms in Plymouth, which is currently undergoing a restoration initiative to convert its cranberry bogs back into a coastal wetland. The farm’s land provides a template for revival of the disappearing habitat that scientists believe is useful tool for investigating climate change.
Projects at the farm like Ballantine’s “could not come at a better time,” the article said.
Ballantine is also the founder and director of the Restoration Ecology Program at è˶Ƶ. The program trains students interested in restoration ecology and related fields by teaching them to design real-world restoration projects and conduct original research projects of their own.
Ballantine also organized a session about wetland restoration and climate adaptation at the World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Iguassu, Brazil.