Native plants reshaped the Bellevue University campus. They're studied in an advanced lab

His view? That was almost a brick wall of weeds, he says.

Since then, he and others in the College of Science and Technology have been transforming not just the lab space but the 67-acre campus. It has turned into a living classroom for sustainability with 20 acres of native plants grown on site.

“We wanted to have some biology outside as well,” said Kyndt, a microbiology professor who came to Bellevue from the University of Arizona. “Biology is the science of living things, so we have to go outside sometimes.”

The first lab, with its three rooms and dark hallway, in 2017 was turned into four state-of-the-art areas with large glass windows so people can see the science that students are doing inside.

Two greenhouses form the sustainability lab, completed in 2019 to grow plants for research and use in the classroom. Soil research is also done here and in indoor labs. Students collect samples, study soil health and identify which native plants will thrive on campus.

Vegetables for the cafeteria are grown in another greenhouse.

Before 2017, because there wasn’t available laboratory space, there was no research capability. The school, with some donor funding, now attracts both local and international students. Majors in biology and sustainability management are offered.

“We have students to do inside and outside research,” Kyndt said. “It has opened up opportunities.”

Grants, like one from the Nebraska Environmental Trust that helped build the sustainability lab, and money from the school have funded the work, which has cost millions.

That brick wall of weeds, which sits behind what is now the sustainability lab, also underwent a renovation.

It’s now a hillside garden filled with native plants, all from the university.

“We grow the plants we use on campus, so we don’t have to purchase new plants every year,” Kyndt said. “We take seeds and grow them in our greenhouse.”

The school consulted with Mulhalls experts about which native plants would thrive on the campus. Benjamin Vogt of Monarch Gardens and Midwest Natives Nursery also helped with the selections.

There are flowers such as aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium), liatris (Liatris aspera), rosin weed (Silphium integrifolium), purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea), purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata) and rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium). Native grasses include sideoats and blue grama and little bluestem.

The campus is in full bloom, but with less water and fertilizer required.

“The difference is the sustainability of it,” Kyndt said. “They are going to be deeply rooted and much better to prevent erosion.”

Secondary education student Mia Arnold, who is from the Scottsbluff area, is doing a fungi project with Kyndt, working with native plants in sequencing their genomes. A science endorsement is part of her degree.

She said she enjoys seeing the native plants on campus because it makes the area more welcoming and inviting.

“It’s interesting to see how many native plants there are in Nebraska just from the campus alone,” she said.

She’ll be seeing even more. Although there’s still regular grass turf on the campus, the native areas keep expanding.

Kyndt is thrilled with what has developed.

“Walking through the hallway in the lab and seeing the open lab spaces, that makes me happy and gives me a good feeling science is happening,” he said. “Seeing more pollinators, like birds and bees and stuff, and having the research of the soil, those are the two things that excite me most.”