Professor grows his own research money Homegrown heirloom plants pay for student programs By Linda Gregerson News-Chronicle At this time of year, gardeners in Northeast Wisconsin can savor fresh vine-ripened tomatoes while stretching the harvests through canning, freezing and preserving produce. At the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a teacher takes the harvest one step further. At UWGB, the harvest of heirloom plants means another annual sale of the heirloom seeds with the proceeds going to pay for research. Heirloom plants are defined as those that produce seeds that will reproduce the same plant year after year - more simply, vegetable, fruit or flower varieties grown in the past but not now available commercially. Typically, the heirlooms are from historic or family sources dating back years. By contrast, the more common hybrids deteriorate into parent plants each year of reproduction. For the last eight years, Jeff Nekola, an ecology professor at UWGB, has impressed an increasing number of gardeners with the beautiful heirloom vegetable plants he sells. Each year's sale starts when Nekola finds garden space donated by individuals or in the UWGB greenhouse. He plants heirloom seeds he has collected over the years. When the plants are grown, he puts on the sale. Starting with a modest 1,500 plants in 1996, the annual sale grew in May 2003 to include more than 17,000 plants, raising $15,500. The variety of plants sold has grown, too. In the beginning Nekola offered a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes and a few types of peppers. This year, participating gardens were filled with a variety of heirloom plants including lettuce, eggplant, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, herbs and flowers in addition to the tomatoes and peppers that have become favorites. The proceeds from the sale were matched with university funds to create a seminar series that brings top scholars and special programs to the Green Bay campus. Since its inception, the program has brought in 12 speakers - including founders of Seed Savers Exchange - from around the world and presented special programs for students, faculty and the community. As the program grew, it became too much work for Nekola himself to host four speakers per year, so he offered other faculty members in his department the opportunity to bring in scholars in their fields. When his colleagues showed little interest, Nekola decided to use the plant sale money to help students. "I knew the students would appreciate it," he said. Today, Nekola uses the proceeds to fund undergraduate research, pay student workers and support his lab. "My job at the university requires me to run a research program but funding can be difficult to obtain so I use the money from the sale to fund my research," Nekola said. "I buy equipment, fund expeditions and pay students to sort samples." The student workers not only earn much-needed money, but they have an opportunity to participate in internationally important research programs. Nekola's research, for example, has led to the rediscovery of land snails thought to have gone extinct at the end of the last ice age. Colonies of the snails were found, identified and protected during the widening of Highway 57 in parts of northeastern Brown County. Some of the money from the heirloom plant sale is used to provide opportunities for students to pursue research and educational goals that cannot be met at UWGB. Graduate student Angie Opiola, for example, is grateful to have the resources that are available to her through the snail lab. "The lab has provided a financial means for me to complete my master's degree and to meet incredible people who share my interests," Opiola said. "It's nice to have a place as my own on campus and (Nekola) lets us be ourselves here." Even though the sale is a lot of work, Nekola donates his time to it. He has put it together and does most of the work by himself with help from students and volunteers. "Every year is a struggle to pull it off, and every year I have to ask myself is it worth it?" he said. And every year, Nekola finds another reason to go back out in the heirloom garden as a way to offer students increased opportunities while meeting his obligation to maintain a research program.