"Working in your silos" is a term that is familiar to many working in higher education - the siloed nature of work around a university has become a popular cliche.

At Oregon State University, we scale these silos and working together to form (sometimes unexpected) alliances. Landscape Management, a shop within Facilities Services, is no exception. Working at a land grant institution like OSU -- rife with experts in horticulture, pollinator health, environmental engineering and forestry -- means that Bill Coslow, the landscape supervisor, knows how to leverage other university experts and how to connect with the OSU and Corvallis community. 

Take, for example, a small drainage ditch bordering a parking lot to the east of the Tennis Pavilion in Student Legacy Park. There was an old gravel swale there, designed to slow the flow of water when it rained. However, it was never as efficient or effective as it could have been. Lars Larson, Vice President of the Ecological Engineering Student Society, a student organization dedicated to sustainable built systems within built environments, approached Coslow about re-engineering the area.

"We saw it as an opportunity to bring it back to a functional bioswale," said Larson, a senior majoring in Ecological Engineering. 

Together, staff from Landscape Management and EESS came together on a Saturday and cleared invasive species like Himalayan blackberries, planted 770 plants in three hours, including sedges, rushes and other plants designed to slow runoff due to heavy Oregon winter rains. Coslow and the Landscape Services crew left it up to EESS to determine what patterns to plant in.

"Runoff from parking lots can overwhelm a drainage system," explained Coslow. "The plants and the rocky waterway slow erosion down, and also help filter runoff containing motor oil and brake line fluid, keeping the pollutants out of our stormwater system." 

The Ecological Engineering Student Society is just one of many groups Landscape Management has collaborated with in the past few years. From working with the university's hops breeder, Shaun Townsend to plant some Cascadia hops behind Withycombe Hall to highlight OSU's role in the hop and beer industry, to connecting area gleaner groups with firewood from annual tree trimmings, Landscape Services embraces and collaborates with the Oregon State community.