A groundbreaking ceremony for the Notre Dame Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility (ND LEEF) will take place Friday (June 15) at 9 a.m. at St. Patrick’s County Park on Laurel Road.
The new research facility is a partnership between the University of Notre Dame and St. Joseph County Parks. Its goal is to build a cutting-edge environmental and research facility at St. Patrick’s County Park.
The field-based environmental research facility will allow Notre Dame scientists, graduate and undergraduate researchers, visiting scholars and other academic institutions to study the interrelationships of land, water and wetland ecologies in the face of environmental change.
The project also complements the county parks department mission to provide environmental education for school- and college-aged students and adults. Notre Dame will provide an on-site program manager who will help local educators develop curricula for schools.
The facility will use cutting-edge sensor technology to monitor experiments in real time, allowing students and community members to participate as virtual researchers through the Internet.
ND LEEF at St. Patrick’s County Park is part of the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative (ND-ECI), which conducts policy-oriented research designed to help decision-makers manage environmental challenges.
Contact: Jennifer Tank, 574-631-3976, tank.1@nd.edu