Drought conditions exist throughout Illinois and Eastern’s plant life suffers right along with the corn crops.

Rain, which obviously moisturizes top soil with nutrients needed to sustain plant life, has been lacking more than usual this summer.

Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel said his records show that since March 1, Charleston has had 7.68 inches of rainfall when the average is16.47 inches; Mattoon has had 6.31 inches of rainfall when the average is 15.91 inches; Paris has had 8.56 inches when the average is 16.46 inches; and Windsor has had 6.78 inches of rainfall when the average is 15.70 inches.

To combat the lack of rainfall, Grounds Superintendent Jon Collins said, “We’re doing a lot of watering.”

Despite the ground crews watering efforts, Collins said that some bushes and trees have died and the grass is going dormant.

Greenhouse manager for Thut Greenhouse, Steve Malehorn, tends 1,000 plant species in the Eastern Greenhouse, in addition to the outside and courtyard gardens located on the greenhouses north and south sides. He said he has been watering two to three times a day, especially the outside garden where two large trees grow.

Collins said that workers could tell if a plant needs watering by whether or not its leaves are curled or it has turned brown.

Malehorn echoed Collins’s tell tale signs. If a tree’s leaves are curled, then it needs to be watered, he said while pointing out the curled leaves of a cherry tree growing next to the walk way on greenhouse’s south side.

“Since it is July it’s going to be hard to keep it watered enough so that its leaves will uncurl,” he said.

The cherry tree’s location next to the walk way decreases its ability to absorb water because its roots extend underneath the walk way, and it is hard to water under the concrete, Malehorn said.

Bigger trees on campus, the grounds staff does not worry about watering, Collins said, because they have already survived previous droughts. The crew mainly waters the younger trees that were planted in the past two or three years that have not dealt with a drought, Collins said.

To help campus plant life cope with summer’s heat, Eastern has installed several in-ground automatic irrigation systems that run out of the campus pond. These systems keep the varsity softball, rugby and baseball fields watered, Collins said. Other on campus irrigation systems water the soccer field, the practice soccer field, the planted islands out on Lincoln and an area surrounding the flag pole in front of Old Main.

As for Eastern’s water bill, Collins said, “The big users are the athletic fields and those are coming out of the pond, so there’s no charge for that.

“I’m sure it does impact it somewhat, but it’s summer, so we don’t have as many students, so it might be lower.”

If the rain does not come soon, some of the plant life will die, but most of it is resilient so it will go dormant and will come back when it rains again, Collins said.