USU Kaysville Botanical Center creates research opportunities for students
The Utah State University Botanical Center is property in Kaysville that includes the research, teaching and extension aspects of a land-grant university all in the same place.
Brent Black, USU professor and extension fruit specialist, said, “Every land grant university in the country has the goals or the mission of doing teaching, research and extension or outreach.”
The Botanical Center satisfies that mission with its Kaysville research farm, Kaysville Education Center, and the USU Davis County extension office.
Botanical Center director, Jerry Goodspeed, said the center is a 100-acre property open to the public from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year.
The land includes various hiking paths, ponds and gardens.
“We’re here for you to come and look and to enjoy and learn. That’s why we’re here,” Goodspeed said.
The Botanical Center hosts a number of programs, workshops, demonstration gardens where they teach people how to wisely use water and energy and care for their plants.
“Our goal is to guide the use of plants, water, and energy resources through research based education, experiences, innovations and technology,” Goodspeed said.
Beyond the horticulture and agricultural aspect of the Botanical Center, they are involved with community members through the extension and outreach aspect.
In line with the community outreach involvement, the center has a variety of programs which include youth, 4-H, financial, health, wellness, and expanded food nutrition programs.
Goodspeed said the center is currently in the process of building “what we’re calling an agricultural heritage center that’ll house an indoor and outdoor arena, mostly for our youth programs and for our cultural heritage center.”
This cultural heritage center arena is expected to be finished in May.
Those wanting to be involved with the extension community aspect of the Botanical Center can visit extension.usu.edu/davis.
In addition to the Davis County extension office, Goodspeed said the center is also home to distance education buildings and a 50-acre research farm.
“We have all three arms of a land grant university, which is very rare in the United States where you have the research,” Goodspeed continued, “Normally you won’t have that in any one given place on one piece of property. This is a very unique piece of property here for a university to have, which is pretty cool.”
The center conducts research, brings the research to the classrooms and shows the research to the community members to help them with their own agricultural needs.
Working as the fruit specialist, Black is involved with looking at the latest research and technology, and seeing how that can be implemented into commercial farm management.
Black said new varieties of fruits and vegetables are being developed as well as new management strategies. These things can be very specific to regions.
One important thing Black does, as well as other researchers, is testing these new developments to see how suitable they are for local conditions and providing community members with relevant information.
“Plants grow differently based on the climate and the soil. And so being able to test it in our region is really important for them to know if it’s going to work,” Black said.
He continued to explain they determine where it makes sense for them to even try at times to ensure they’re not rushing their farms on unproven technology.
“We’re kind of trying to be the first line of defense,” Black said.
Black is passionate about students being involved with research while they are studying at USU.
He said, “If students can find their niche and connect with professors that are doing research, and get involved, they learn so much more and it opens so many doors from a career standpoint as well.”
Students from the USU Logan campus as well as other statewide campuses participate in research at the Kaysville Research Farm.
The Kaysville Education Center is one of the main buildings at the USU Botanical Center and is a USU Statewide campus.
Melissa Thomas, USU student services associate director, said there are roughly 500 students who attend USU Kaysville every semester.
These students have majors ranging from education, to social work, agriculture and more.
Thomas said some students from Student Involvement and Leadership took a statewide tour this summer and were surprised to see the ponds and the beauty of the campus.
Similar to these students, Thomas has an appreciation for the uniqueness and beauty of the USU Botanical Center and Kaysville campus.
Thomas also said she has a great appreciation for the fact that USU is a land grant university.
When referencing the many USU campuses across Utah, Thomas said, “You can literally be an aggie anywhere you live.”
-Kate.Stewart@usu.edu
Featured photo by Bailey Rigby