The Highlands Biological Station has become home base for a group of college students from across the state who are here both to advance their education in environmental science and contribute to the region through research.

Research projects being conducted by the students could hold real implications for communities around the region. The Highlands Greenway, Jackson County’s steep slope ordinance, the Balsam Mountain Preserve dam break, logging in the national forest, and the Jackson County Green Energy Park are among the students’ research topics.

The students partner with local conservation and environmental agencies to conduct their research. Many also take part in advocacy and public outreach in and around the Highlands Plateau.

“The students are very committed and hardworking,” said Dr. Anya Hinkle, associate director of the Highlands Biological Station and one of students’ professors this year. “I’ve been really impressed with their broad interest in the Southern Appalachian region. Many will certainly continue in science and environmental advocacy, and this course is a chance for them to see and experience these fields outside of a classroom.”

In addition to their course work and projects, the students have done a three-day hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail, and rafted down the Chattooga River. They also took a canoe journey down the Little Tennessee River to visit the Cowee Mound and view the valley containing evidence of Cherokee cultures.

“The Highlands Plateau and environs comprise a living laboratory ideal for student research,” Hinkle said. “Although we present ideas in the classroom, we strongly emphasize an experiential approach to learning about cultural heritage, biodiversity, conservation, and policy. Scarcely a day goes by that we are not in the field doing something.”

The program — now in its sixth year at the Highlands field site — is run through the University of North Carolina’s Institute for the Environment. Of the 11 students at the Highlands Biological Station this year, 10 are from the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, and one is from Western Carolina University. Many are students who originally hail from the region, from Black Mountain to Highlands itself. Here’s a sample of the research projects students are tackling.

• Brian Levo is working with mentor Hillrie Quin on developing ordinances relevant to establishing the first loop of the Highlands Greenway, using GPS and GIS technologies to develop, and post on the Internet, a master Greenway map.

• Brian Houseman is working with Dr. Gary Wein of the Highlands-Cashers Land Trust to an evaluate the impact that the new Jackson County steep slope and subdivision ordinances will have on development.

• Three students are working at the Coweta Hydrologic Laboratory to investigate the impacts the massive die-off of hemlocks will have on the ecosystem.

• Jason Baker is working with the Balsam Mountain Trust on the restoration of Sugar Loaf Creek following a dam break several months ago, and the development of protocols to respond to similar events.

• Anna Vandenbergh is working with Timm Muth at the Jackson County Green Energy Park on the preliminary research for a possible Anaerobic Digester system to supplement the supply of methane.

• Katie Supler is working with Brent Martin of The Wilderness Society in Franklin to assess roadless areas within the national forest.

• Sally Whisler is working with Tom Goforth from Crow Dog Nursery to investigate the possible development of hybrids in the fern genus Dryopteris along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

• Melissa Burt is working with Patrick Brannon at the Highlands Nature Center to study the vertical distribution of small mammal populations (specifically shrews) and the effect of roadside trash on these populations.

• Katy Betz is working with Paul Carlson of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee to develop a pre-European history of a tract of land near Robbinsville with purported historical use by the Cherokee and British.

• Matt Whitehead is working with the Town of Highlands locating, classifying, and mapping perennial streams to be approved and placed on a zoning map.