Green Wing Environmental Laboratory

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Augustana College owns and manages Green Wing Environmental Laboratory field stations that are used for educational purposes. Green Wing Environmental Laboratory is approximately 80 miles to the east of campus. It totals 420 acres of upland forest and wetland habitats and is equipped with two buildings that can accommodate students and professors for short and long-term trips.


Green Wing Environmental Laboratory

In 1991 Augustana was provided an opportunity to purchase a 420 acre property that had been used as a summer Bible Camp from 1968 to 1988. The camp was owned by a consortium of churches in the area and was used for children's religious education. The College purchased the property from the ELCA and began at once to alter it for teaching and research purposes.

There are two major buildings on the site. The main lodge is a large building that includes a classroom, research space, fireplace, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, and storage space. It was recently renovated. Another building (the "Canteen") serves as a small dormitory that can house ten students. This building is air conditioned.

In late fall 1992, a 20 acre weedy field near the main lodge was plowed in preparation for establishing a tall grass prairie. Locally produced prairie seed was scattered in the spring of 1993, and within two years prairie plants were clearly becoming established. Today the Kenneth and Florence Johnson Prairie (named for a patron of the field stations) is a robust prairie dominated by numerous species of grasses and forbs as well as vertebrates and insects. To retain the grassland character of the Johnson Prairie, a program of regular burn treatments is employed to maintain its vigor.

Classes have been taught at Green Wing since 1995, and currently average two classes per summer. These have included local flora, entomology, research methods and aquatic biology.

Ten solar panels were installed at the Green Wing Environmental Laboratory, a field station south of Dixon, Ill., in rural Lee County that is owned and operated by Augustana. The total cost of materials and installation was $10,000, with 40 percent, coming from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity under a program to promote the development of renewable energy.

The solar panels are capable of producing 2,350 kilowatts of clean energy on sunny days, and less on cloudy days, but usually enough to power accommodations and laboratory equipment at Green Wing, which is the largest of the college's three biological field stations. It covers 420 acres and is equipped with two buildings to house students and faculty during summer classes and field research