Student Finds Academic Love Amidst the Wildflowers

In the middle of Kansas City’s bustling Crossroads Arts District is an unexpected patch of prairie. And in the middle of that, you’ll often find junior Gavin Schaefer.

“It’s really serene, but it’s in the middle of the city,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know that this place exists — I grew up here and walked by it so many times on First Friday without knowing it.”

For the last two years, the biology major has been part of the crew responsible for maintenance of the rooftop garden on the Barkley advertising company’s headquarters — this year, as its leader. While maybe not as iconic to the average Kansas Citian as the same building’s rocket ship (a relic from the building’s former life as TWA headquarters), the garden also makes its presence felt — stepping through the doors to the rooftop, one is greeted by different native grasses, purple and white leatris, yellow coreopsis and purple coneflowers, to name a few. Butterflies, bees and other pollinators buzz about alongside businesspeople. It’s a peaceful place, and one that serves a purpose in the local ecosystem. The garden here is not just an important source of calm for busy people, carbon sequestration in this heat island and a waystation for pollinators — it’s also the reason that Schaefer changed his major.

Coming to Rockhurst, Schaefer said he was planning to study public policy, hoping to pursue environmental activism through the law. But like many others, Schaefer turned to vegetable gardening during the pandemic, finding solace in growing his own plants. That, plus the experience of working on this truly unique urban prairie, caused him to shift his area to study to biology.

“I love growing food, I love feeding people, but I think my passion is growing more into the ecological side of plants and their relationship to each other and to people,” he said.

In that regard, there is a lot to look at here. Tallgrass prairie, once plentiful in the Kansas City area, was nearly decimated in the continental U.S. due to development patterns and farming practices. But on this roof, that ecosystem thrives, in large part because of the efforts of Schaefer and his team.

“It is a simulated environment,” he said. “Historically, there were bison that would come through these environments, and they cause disruptions that would benefit the prairie. Or there would be fires that would clear out a lot of the biomass and clear out the woody plants and invasive plants. So my job, and the crew’s job, is to be the bison, to be the prairie fire.”

That means being able to identify the plants that belong here and weed out invasive species before they have a chance to take root.

On paper, Schaefer said, some biologists might find it hard to imagine this garden exists at all, given its soil is only about 4 inches deep. But in almost 15 years since the garden at the Barkley building was designed and established by Maggie Riggs, the plants have adapted, he said. Schaefer brings up the specific example of big bluestem, one of numerous species of native grass growing here.

“It is one of the signature grasses in most tallgrass prairies,” Schaefer said. “And its taproot goes down 12 feet normally. When a botanist came here and saw the big bluestem, he was absolutely baffled.”

Not only did working in the garden yield a new major for Schaefer — it also led to a research opportunity through Rockhurst. Schaefer and another student, Marcie McCann, are cataloging the types and number of plants growing in the garden and comparing it to the ecosystem at Jerry Smith Park, the last remaining tallgrass prairie in Jackson County, Missouri, in a project advised by Chad Scholes, Ph.D., professor of biology.

“It’s a measure of biodiversity and abundance, essentially,” Schaefer said.

As much as working here is an opportunity to research, it's also an opportunity for Schaefer to share what he's already learned. Its location in an area that serves as a common site for meetings, breaktimes and gatherings means Schaefer has plenty of opportunities while working to share what makes it beautiful and unique — even during those times when it is not flowering the same way a traditional ornamental garden would be.

“A lot of people are experiencing something that I only in the past two years have gotten past, which is species blindness,” he said. “You see all the green, and it’s not what you’re used to seeing with annual plants and flowers. It’s self-organized. So I love to answer quesitons, because I think being able to name something helps you understand it and appreciate it better.”