SCENE THE
Summer Issue 1
June 30, 2017
www.thescenefp.com
St. Louis Community College at Forest Park
Dream Vacation See page 2
AC on the DL See page 3
Dive-bombing hawk
Student startled on campus By Timothy Bold The Scene staff
Photo by Brian Ruth
Nursing major Candy Suggs walks past a bed of red geraniums in the circle drive near C Tower.
Landscaping is a big deal at Forest Park
By Brian Ruth The Scene staff Landscaping at Forest Park is designed to enhance “curb appeal,” but its flowers and trees also provide shade and beauty for people to enjoy. “We plant several hundred flowers per year,” said Facilities Manager Dennis Kozlowski. “Most annuals have been begonias and impatiens. The perennials are geraniums and mums.” The campus also has dozens of maple, ginkgo, cherry, ash, elm, plum and birch trees. Students, faculty and staff seem to
Photo by Brian Ruth
A view of the campus butterfly garden, featuring yellow black-eyed Susans, pink hibicus and red canna plants.
appreciate them. Tripti Dura, an English as a second language student from Nepal, waits for rides while sitting on benches shaded by three river birch trees, next to the circle drive and security booth. “Coming here, I see many different flowers and trees than in my country,” she said. “And they do such a good job here, even with the grasses.” Facilities staff members work on the grounds all year, but spring and summer are their busiest times with planting, mowing and weeding. Work is supervised by Josh DeWitte, maintenance and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) manager. “We have multiple locations that we are looking at to improve our curb appeal,” he said. “Some are additional plants and shrubbery we are looking to get in before the end of the growing season in late summer to early fall.” Beyond landscaping, the campus also has a butterfly garden that faculty and staff planted in 2015 at the southwest corner of A Tower. It has daisies, coneflowers, tiger eyes, black-eyed Susans and three milkweeds, which attract Monarch butterflies. “I look for volunteers wherever I can find them because it’s quite an undertaking,” said humanities secretary Mary Kearny, one of the volunteers. Kozlowski, a Forest Park employee since 2001, has become something of a tree expert since he took the job of facilities manager 12 years ago. He does extensive research before deciding what to plant and where to plant it. “Maybe I do have a bit of a green thumb, I don’t know,” he said. “I just like the beautification aspect of landscaping. But then again, I can’t get the tomatoes to grow in
Red-tailed hawks are common around Forest Park, nesting in trees, perching on utility poles and looking for rodents or birds to eat. Student Connor Smith didn’t know this – until last month. That’s when a hawk swooped down toward him as he was walking in the Student Center door. “From behind my Smith left side, I felt a gust of wind, like a broom sweeping against my ear, next to my shoulder,” said Smith, 28, a general transfer student. He saw a brown hawk with red feathers and a wide wingspan making a beeline for a pigeon in the courtyard. It came within inches of his ear. “I was in shock because it happened so fast,” Smith said. He then walked into the Student Center lobby, where information desk attendant Tim Cary was on duty. “He came in, eyes wide open, and he looked shook up,” Cary said.
Smith reported the incident to campus police Lt. Terri Buford, who wrote a report. “The main thing was, I had to make sure he wasn’t injured,” she said. “I take everything serious.” Buford later watched the incident on campus security video. She verified Smith’s version of events. “The pigeon flew in the right corner, next to the Student Center entrance,” she said. “Smith was about to enter through the automatic doors when the hawk flew past his head.” Campus police haven’t received any reports about hawks in recent memory. “No, they never cause problems,” Buford said. Red-tailed hawks are common throughout the St. Louis area, according to John Hoffman, director of World Bird Sanctuary Hospital in Valley Park. “(They) dwell in the open areas, where old trees are perfect to nest,” he said. Hawks particularly like highways lined with utility poles because they are good places to perch and spot prey. Their vision is eight times better than that of humans. What happened to the pigeon at Forest Park? “The pigeon actually got away and changed its course,” Smith said. “I went to the police department to see if they had it on video. It was a close encounter, but I didn’t file charges.”
Photo by Timothy Bold
John Hoffman, director of World Bird Sanctuary Hospital in Valley Park, holds a 24-year-old female red-tailed hawk. my back yard.” At Forest Park, his staff has dealt with several tree diseases. “We had an ash-borer disease that killed most of the original ash and honey locust trees that were put in back in the late-‘60s and early-‘70s,” he said. The ashes were replaced with maple, ginkgo, cherry and plum trees.
“The ginkgo is one of the oldest-living specimens of tree life on earth,” Kozlowski said. “So I figured it would survive during my tenure here.” The cherry and plum trees were planted for color. The gingkos along Highlander Avenue (in front of the Bastian theater) and Wise Avenue were
See Landscaping page 2