Sheep vs. Lawnmowers: UC Campus Tests Which is Better to Maintain Grounds
May 8, 2021
Sheep were grazing the University of California–Davis campus this week in an academic experiment to see if the ewes can eat weeds and grass, fertilize, and control pests, as well as or better than using conventional landscaping methods.
The woolly ewes are part of a multidisciplinary study to explore the possibilities of saving the campus money and resources at the same time.
“My interest is taking the science on green infrastructure and sustainability and designing it so it’s interactive, beautiful and practical,” said A. Haven Kiers, assistant professor of landscape architecture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, who is leading the project.
Sheep will graze the University of California, Davis, Campus Gateway on Old Davis Road this week in an academic experiment to see if sheep can eat weeds and grass, fertilize and control pests as well as or better than using conventional landscaping methods.
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Flight of the cabbage white butterfly
3 minute read
This cabbage white butterfly takes flight in the fall. UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro spotted his first of the year on Jan. 16 on the UC Davis campus.
Kathy Keatley Garvey/Courtesy photo
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Shapiro spotted a cabbage white butterfly,
Pieris rapae, at 1:55 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, on the UCD campus, just south of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, at 254 Old Davis Road.
“At 1:55 p.m., I saw a male rapae flying a linear path along the edge of the waste ground between campus parking lot 1 and the railroad track, heading east,” he wrote in an email. “It stopped to nectar at a large Raphanus (wild radish) plant. That was directly south of the Manetti-Shrem Art Museum. I did not have a net and, there being no contest requiring a voucher, I did not care. It was 72F and clear with a trace of NE wind. I kept going. This is the earliest rapae since i.16.16 (Jan. 16, 2016).