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A Summer of Sustainability

Five New McCullough Fellows Take on Real World Research

By UNC Asheville

May 27^th, 2021

How would solar panels impact people who live in low-income housing? Would a person on the autism spectrum benefit from spending time in a pollinator garden? Does it matter if Asheville loses its urban tree canopy? How much carbon is being sequestered by the urban forests on UNC Asheville’s property? What should be included in an ethnobotanical field guide of a forested property in Black Mountain?

This summer 2021, UNC Asheville’s five McCullough Fellows will conduct their own original, real-world research to answer these questions, and many more.

Now in its sixth year, the McCullough Fellows program partners UNC Asheville students with faculty advisors and representatives from local organizations to implement a research project they conceive and design themselves. The Fellowship, funded by UNC Asheville’s McCullough Institute for Conservation, Land Use and Environmental Resiliency, provides the funding and materials for a project in one or more of the following areas: land use and conservation; urban planning; sustainable agriculture; resilience and environmental sustainability. The McCullough Institute was established in 2015 by Charles T. McCullough Jr. and his family through a $1 million endowment.

Follow this story throughout the summer as we learn more about each McCullough Fellow, their projects, and their discoveries.

Gabbie Moneymaker

Project: “The Relationship between Gardening and Mental Health of Individuals on the Spectrum”

Community Partner: Autism Society of North Carolina

Faculty Advisor: Darren Bernal, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Gabbie Moneymaker, a biology major completing the sustainability certificate program, has big dreams to one day build an inclusive, self-sustaining farm, with camps geared towards including people with disabilities.

When Moneymaker discovered the McCullough Fellowship, she realized she’d found a way to start building her dream, complete meaningful research, and engage with her community, all at once. She is developing and planting a garden specifically for people with autism at the Autism Society of NC office in Asheville, with the help of her fellow McCullough Fellows, and volunteers with autism and their caregivers.

Including those who will use the garden in the creation of the garden is an important part of making sure its sustainable, Moneymaker learned. “That means that they'll be involved throughout, and be more invested when I'm not able to be here, which is really cool, and I think it's really a good lesson for me professionally,” she said.

Moneymaker, who grew up in a disabled community and has worked as a caregiver, found that there wasn’t a lot of existing research connecting gardening and mindfulness practices with the mental health of people with autism. It’s research she’ll have to conduct herself as the garden—and her project—grows.

Individuals with autism will be able to spend time in the garden to decompress or experience the various sensory-specific plants, like the soft leaves of sage or the bright colors of the flowers. They’ll be involved in planting days, and learn how to water and care for the garden. Other program days for participants will include yoga classes designed specifically for those with special needs, DIY bird-feeder construction, spaghetti sauce and salsa making classes with veggies from the garden, and herbal tea making class.

To measure the impact of the garden on its users, Moneymaker will turn to observational surveys conducted with the caregivers before and after days spent in the garden. “They spend a lot of time with their participants, so they know how they're doing, and what's their normal baseline,” Moneymaker said. “I'm going to be taking field notes and just trying to see if there are any notable behavior changes, like they come in and they're very upset and then they get really excited to water something. Or they're distressed and then they're able to go into the pollinator garden and decompress.”

It’s work Moneymaker hopes to continue, even after the McCullough Fellowship is complete.

“I want this to be a steppingstone for my career, and maybe be able to make more of these going forward, especially if I'm able to see that this really is beneficial,” she said.

“My heart is so full being able to be here. Being able to have a career that makes my heart feel this way, I would just absolutely love that.”

Update: Moneymaker presented her research at the American Indian Science & Engineering Society National Conference in Phoenix, AZ in September of 2021. She was awarded third place for her research and oral presentation, which came with a $400 award.

Ally Fouts

Project: “The Environmental, Economic, and Social Significance of Asheville’s Urban Tree Canopy”

Community Partner: Center for Biological Diversity

Faculty Advisor: Leah Matthews, Economics

Money doesn’t grow on trees. But trees do have an important economic impact. UNC Asheville senior Ally Fouts is on a mission to find out exactly what economic, social and environmental benefits Asheville’s urban tree canopy provides to the people who live here.

On June 10, 2021, Fouts brought the McCullough Fellows team to several locations in downtown Asheville that remain forested lots—for now. Both locations are in danger of development.

“They would have to knock down all those trees completely and build huge buildings and a huge parking deck in that little space, and in doing so all of that soil, all of the plants, and all of the trees that normally sit there and retain water and nutrients and wildlife would be gone,” Fouts explained.

“They would be replaced by parking lots, buildings and impervious surfaces that aren't able to absorb the water; instead, it all just runs off and then leads to even worse flooding.” The buildings and pavement would also retain heat from the direct sunlight as a result from no shading trees, which would create a “heat island effect,” Fouts explained.

The city of Asheville is trending towards losing canopy coverage provided by trees: between 2008 and 2018, Asheville lost 6.4 percent of its canopy coverage, according to the Urban Tree Canopy Study by the Davey Resource Group.

“That's concerning,” Fouts said. “It doesn't sound like a lot now, but in a long run that's just not sustainable.”

Fouts is using data collected for the Urban Tree Canopy Study by the Davey Resource Group, and the Heat Vulnerability Map created by NASA, as a jumping off point for her research. She’ll compare data from four Asheville neighborhoods based on their vulnerability—the most vulnerable neighborhoods, for example, having the least tree cover, highest land temperatures and most vulnerable residents based on socioeconomic factors. But to understand the human impact of tree canopy loss, she’ll have to go beyond hard numbers.

“I'm going to be conducting a virtual survey and also conducting interviews with a few residents from each neighborhood to add a personal qualitative aspect to the data that we have now,” Fouts said. She’ll reach out to neighborhood associations and community leaders to find participants. She also plans to turn her research into an easily accessible presentation, geared towards Asheville citizens.

Designing and implementing this project has allowed Fouts to explore the convergence of her studies in environmental policy and management and economics that she hopes to pursue professionally when she graduates. McCullough Fellows projects are also submitted to the UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Research, and presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

“I'm so incredibly grateful for this opportunity, because I am really lucky that I'm able to do this research that does have such a perfect intersection of all of my passions and interests,” Fouts said.

“It's just so cool, and I'm really thankful that I can design my own research and then do it. I'm really excited about it.”

Anna-Lisa Keller

Project: “Inventorying UNC Asheville’s Forested Properties to Estimate Carbon Sequestration”

Community Partner: NC Forest Service

Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Horton, Biology

UNC Asheville has pledged to become carbon neutral by the year 2050, a multifaceted commitment that will require work from everyone on campus—including the trees. Senior biology major Anna-Lisa Keller is setting out to find out exactly how much work the trees on UNC Asheville’s forested properties are already doing to help UNC Asheville reach its goal.

“The end goal of this project is essentially to inform the University how much of their current carbon emissions are being offset by the forested properties, and then my research partner Pierce Lynch is doing on-campus trees, so our projects together are going to be used for the Climate Action Plan,” Keller said.

The Climate Action Plan, which was drafted in part by students, will help guide UNC Asheville towards carbon neutrality by tracking carbon emissions on campus and identifying steps to reduce or offset those emissions. “Also, through these projects we're getting insight into the composition of the forest, so then Jordan Luff from the Forest Service can help us devise land management plans and then we can hopefully maximize the carbon storage and sequestration," Keller said.

In order to know how much carbon is being stored and sequestered by trees, you have to know how many trees you have, their size, and their species. That data is entered into a program called i-Tree, but a lot of field work is required to gather all that data first. Keller identifies the species of every tree within .1-acre plots marked by Luff, and measures each tree’s DBH (diameter at breast height). It’s a time-consuming process, taking hours to complete a few plots, but Keller finds it rewarding.

“It can be frustrating to say the least, but I definitely still enjoy it. I think my favorite part is just being outside,” Keller said. “I'm learning about the different tree species and how to identify them, which is a pretty cool skill. All the different wildlife too, especially at Sandy Bottom, is exciting, because it's a new property that definitely has a lot of different wildlife over there. You can flip over the cover boards and find little salamanders and snakes and stuff, which is really fun.”

Keller will use the information she gathers at each plot to create a forest inventory of Sandy Bottom, a wetland area owned by UNC Asheville near the North Carolina Arboretum. The full project will extend beyond Keller’s McCullough’s Fellow research, with forest inventories also being conducted on UNC Asheville properties at Chestnut Ridge, the Kellogg Center, the urban forest area across from campus, and campus itself.

“This project is long-term, and doesn’t end with me,” Keller said. “You have to inventory every ten years or so to keep up with new data, so this project is going to be around for a while, which is pretty cool.”

India Appleton

Project: “Making Solar More Affordable: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Solar Installation on Low-Income Housing”

Community Partner: Blue Horizons Project

Faculty Advisor: Jake Hagedorn, Environmental Studies

For many people with low or moderate incomes, the idea of installing solar panels on your house may seem like a nice idea, but financially out of reach—even if those panels would end up saving on utility costs in the long run. India Appleton, a senior environmental policy and management major with an economics minor at UNC Asheville, is using her McCullough Fellowship to partner with Solarize Asheville-Buncombe and the Neighbor to Neighbor program, helping low- and moderate-income homeowners receive grants to install solar panels.

“My project is assessing whether the Solarize Asheville-Buncombe campaign can alleviate their energy burden, because low- and moderate-income households in the greater United States experience the largest energy burdens compared to their other socioeconomic counterparts,” Appleton explained.

Energy burden is the amount of total income that goes towards paying the utility bill. Appleton is specifically looking at electricity bills for her project.

“For low- to moderate-income households, up to 6% of your total household income can go towards paying your electricity bill,” Appleton said. Houses that are less energy efficient, such as homes with older appliances or poor weatherization, can increase that burden. Solar power can help alleviate that burden.

Getting more solar panels on more roofs—especially the roofs of those who otherwise would not be able to afford them—not only benefits the people living inside the houses, but the wider community, as well.

“This can alleviate their energy burden, then it can also contribute to Asheville and Buncombe County's climate goals,” Appleton said. In 2018, Asheville City Council unanimously passed a resolution to transition all municipal operations to renewable energy by 2030 and to support Buncombe County’s community-wide goal to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2042.

“It's better for all of our climate action goals if we can also target that demographic as well. It's going to take everyone to make a difference.”

Appleton’s work includes making connections with community members and finding applicants who qualify for and are interested the Neighbor to Neighbor program, and conducting outreach and education through social media and print publicity. She’s also conducting a cost-benefit analysis assessing the energy burden of low- to moderate-income households, and she’s investigating other solar programs in other cities.

Appleton’s McCullough Fellowship is an extension of several sustainability projects she’s been involved in, including taking part in creating UNC Asheville’s Climate Action Plan, working in the Office of Sustainability on campus, and completing undergraduate research around plug load data and energy efficiency in Ponder Hall. In the spring of 2022 Appleton was accepted to present her research SOLAR 2022 Conference in Albuquerque, NM. After she graduates in December, Appleton is hoping to participate in a work-away program in Hawaii, and then pursue a service year in AmeriCorps. She hopes to continue pursuing sustainability work throughout her career.

“I would maybe like to work for a sustainability council; I'd also would like to work in renewable energy,” Appleton said. “But to be honest I'm really enjoying the solarize campaign; I think that a really cool career would be facilitating or helping out in solarize campaigns. That would be really interesting to me, I think it's a great opportunity.”

Sarah McMullen

Project: “Land Use History and Ethnobotany at Christmount: An Illustrated Field Guide”

Community Partner: Christmount Christian Assembly

Faculty Advisor: Irene Rossell, Environmental Studies

Sarah McMullen, a senior post- baccalaureate student majoring in environmental science, is combining archival research, botanical research of herbaceous plants, and art for her McCullough Fellowship project, which will result in an interdisciplinary interpretive guide of herbaceous plants found on the property of a conservation easement in Black Mountain.

McMullen is working with Christmount Christian Assembly, a retreat, camp and conference center in Black Mountain, NC, with over 600 acres protected through a conservation easement with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

McMullen hopes to better understand the land she’s studying by investigating the cultural and ecological history of the area, from its use as Cherokee hunting grounds, to subsistence farming by European settlers, to the Chestnut blight in the early 1900s, to logging in the 1950s. This means that she was not only surveying plant species at Christmount, but also the crumbling foundations and old stone chimneys of homesteads built in the 1800s.

McMullen will use the historical and scientific information she’s collected, along with her skills as an artist, to create an illustrated ethnobotanical guide to Christmount. “My interpretive guide will offer ethnobotanical and ecological “biographies” along with illustrations of selected herbaceous plants.” McMullen said. “My community partner and I both feel passionate about making environmental education accessible, inclusive, and scientifically- sound. I hope the guide will foster interest in ecology and conservation while also encouraging visitors to develop a critical lens. The land use history element helps to draw these ideas together. I think Christmount is an interesting place to study the impacts of human disturbance on plants. It is surprisingly biodiverse.”

“Dominant culture influences how we see the natural world and how we develop research questions. Taking an honest look at that is a part of good science.” McMullen said.

“I think it is important to include the cultural significance of these plants side-by-side with the history of this place. They are so much more than their Latin names. I hope to build a picture for visitors that is engaging. Especially now, I think that it is very important that environmental science is engaging for the general public.”

McMullen’s “plant biographies” will include information about the plants from Cherokee and African American herbal medicine traditions that are often ignored or improperly credited in medicinal plant guides. “When I talk about the plant uses in my guide, I want to be able to represent the plants with respect to the cultures that value them, while also not perpetuating cultural erasure.”

“She’s developed a relationship with the plants,” said Irene Rossell, chair of the Environmental Studies Department and McMullen’s faculty advisor. “It’s more than just a species list.”

“I want there to be a spark,” McMullen said. “Like, ‘oh, wow, not only does this plant grow in this specific condition and have this interesting dynamic with other species, but here’s this complex history of uses by different people throughout history.”

McMullen, who has a bachelor’s degree in fine art and returned to school to pursue her passion for ecology, hopes her experience as a McCullough Fellow will aid her in her next steps at graduate school.

“I'd really like to incorporate what I've learned in this project about my role as a researcher, and I think that that the accountability of a researcher is very important,” McMullen said. “I'd like to be able to have that to be part of my legacy as my career advances.”