Compost Tea Study

Utilizing the campus as a living laboratory, the compost tea study is a collaborative initiative between students and faculty from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale Grounds and Maintenance, and the Office of Sustainability. The joint pilot project will monitor four different treatment protocols at eight test sites across campus. It will compare the effects of a compost tea amendment, made from Yale’s composted food waste, versus current treatment methods on the ecology of Yale’s soils. The above and below ground response to the four treatments will be assessed throughout the year.

Healthy soils absorb more water, filter urban pollutants, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Measuring both soil and vegetation responses will not only provide information relevant to ecosystem function but also will have useful implications for landscape management on campus.

The objectives of the project are two-fold:

1) develop a pilot project testing sustainable landscape management practices on campus and

2) assess the above and below ground responses to the use of compost tea versus synthetic fertilizer and herbicide.

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies graduate student, Emily Stevenson, talks about compost tea, her experience implementing this study, and her anticipated outcomes.

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Yale School of Architecture Assistant Professor, Alex Felson, talks about using campus as living laboratory. 

For further information on this study read graduate student Emily Stevenson's Hixon Center for Urban Ecology Fellowship proposal and report findings:

Proposal: Closing the Loop: Alternative Land Management Practices at Yale
Report Findings: Closing the Loop: Alternative Land Management Practices at Yale
PowerPoint Presentation: Closing the Loop: Alternative Land Management Practices at Yale