Securing Fermilab savannas

Inside the Tevatron ring sits one of the largest natural savannas in Illinois. But without some financial help, it could soon disappear.

"In some places you almost can't walk through it, it is so overgrown," said Rod Walton, a Fermilab scientist and member of a new not-for-profit board taking on saving the rare habitat. "Savannas are very tricky to maintain. And if they get away from you, they are difficult to get back."

Walton helped launch Fermilab Natural Areas to capture money for increased conservation, ecological research and outreach around the lab. The group just started collecting donations in hopes of securing a $25,000 matching grant from the state to eliminate the raspberry patches, black cherry trees and dogwood trees squeezing out nearly two-thirds of the 35-acre savanna.

Saving the savanna also contributes to the continuation of the laboratory's seed program, which supplies area schools, parks and forest preserves with natural plant seed. Next year, the group plans to take over funding the Robert Bertz Memorial internship program that was started this summer. The internship currently entails collecting native seeds and mapping the health of plant life throughout the lab. Other future projects for Fermilab Natural Areas include: launching small research programs in the National Environmental Research Park, expanding ecological internships and spreading the message of the laboratory's value as a home to acres of open space.

Using donations to secure the laboratory's reputation as home to pristine open space increases the chance that if the lab ever downsizes, elected officials would turn the excess land into a park rather than a mall, Walton said. Argonne National Laboratory near Darien had such success about 20 years ago. Portions of the lab were converted into Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve. The idea for Fermilab Natural Areas took root about 1 ½ years ago with a group of Fermilab employees, an ecological advisor from Morton Arboretum in Lisle and the support of the Fermi Research Alliance, which includes the University of Illinois.

The fundraising vehicle is modeled after the successful Fermilab Friends for Science Education that is run out of the education office. With little extra money around the lab, the group will take on the projects everyone wants to do, but can't afford by taping donations and grant monies.

Tax-deductible donations may be made to Fermilab Natural Areas, PO Box 500, MS 214, Batavia, IL, 60510. For more information, contact Rod Walton at (630) 840-2565.

-- Tona Kunz

Fermilab's "mother hen" retires Thursday

Dianne Snyder

When Dianne Snyder says her final farewells at a retirement coffee Sept. 6, Fermilab will lose its "mother hen".

Having spent the last 11 years of her 29-year career in the User's Center Snyder has taken thousands of graduate students, visiting scientists and their families under her wing. She guides them through the process of getting to the laboratory, the plethora of experiments onsite and how to find things in the surrounding communities. "Dianne would be the beacon that they would be drawn to in order to get help with their situations," said Jack Hawkins, accommodations manger in the Business Section Services. She has arraigned for rental cars and visas, taken reservations for Chez Leon, found housing and simply lended a friendly ear when needed.

"Dianne was un-failingly helpful and always made me, and members of my research group feel welcome at the lab," said William Trischuk, who met Snyder first as a researcher and later worked with her as a past chairman of the User's Executive Committee.

Many of the researchers who started out as clients became like family as she witnessed them grow in their work and in their personal lives. "I have made friends that are in Russian, Italy.all over," she said. "From the Children's Center, I remember some people from when they were babies and now they are in college. Their parents still work here, and I still see them."

Snyder started working at the laboratory cleaning buildings in the Housing Office after a friend kept nagging her to apply for a job. She moved on to the User's Office. She also created the file maker program for the housing office and the billing program for the Children's Center. Snyder's adaptation of Fermi policies to DOE changes in visa and passport rules reduced the bureaucratic burden on foreign scientists, Trischuk said. "She was just faced with really a huge workload and she definitely took it on with a happy face," Hawkins said. "She was always light-hearted, very efficient and dedicated to a fault." She would volunteer to stay later or work weekends to get meetings and events ready for the User's Executive Committee, said Borys Jurkiw, manager of Human Resource Services.

-- Tona Kunz