Falcon Futures: UW-River Falls alum returns to campus to update landscaping project she created 40 years ago

When Tia Lisa Erickson of Osceola attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in the 1980s, she broke ground in a couple ways. She was the first woman to work on the university’s grounds maintenance crew and she created a landscape feature that still stands on the campus mall to this day. 

Forty years later, Erickson decided to come back and give the landscape an update.

“I contacted the department for grounds maintenance asking if I could redo the landscape to make it more of a usable and beautified campus project,” Erickson said during her visit to campus in October. 

Erickson graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in scientific land management and a minor in music. She worked as a summer intern with the grounds maintenance crew in 1986.

“It was one of the hardest labor jobs I've ever worked,” Erickson said. “I believe the grounds maintenance guys had a whole lot more respect for women after working with me.”

The university’s engineer proposed that she plan and plant a perennial landscape in front of what was then the Ames Teacher Education Building. It's now the location of the University Center (UC) which opened in 2007. Students and staff enjoying the UC patio have an up-front view of this renewed landscape including a non-fruit bearing apple tree and a 30-foot-tall balsam pine. Erickson chose the apple tree because she knew its berries would attract birds.

“Those are two of my favorite trees,” she said. “They were only seven feet tall when I planted them.”

Erickson recently retired after a career where she used the skills from her education at UWRF to serve her community. Her degree included a park and recreation emphasis that she used to work in the field of recreation management with geriatrics. She continues to use her music background to create engaging programming for the elderly. 

After her summer working on the grounds crew, Erickson never lost her love of working with her hands in the soil.

“To be at one with the earth is really a wonderful thing for me,” she said. “I think we need to get back in touch with that, in sync with nature.”

In reviving the garden, Erickson recruited her sister and a couple of landscaper friends to clear out some of the old brush and plant native, non-invasive, low-maintenance drought-resistant plants, including Jacob’s ladder, two varieties of ferns, native grasses and cone flowers to attract butterflies. The UWRF grounds maintenance team added a black bench and red mulch for bold color.

“The idea was to use the color palette of the school,” Erickson said. “I want it to really pop out and be a usable area where people can sit on the bench here to overlook the beautiful University Center.” 

Erickson plans to return in the spring to continue maintenance of the trees and plants. She adds that she is happy to have the chance to keep beautifying the project she started so long ago.

“After 40 years to be able to come back here and to do this, it just warms my heart,” she said.

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Photo: UW-River Falls alum Tia Lisa Erickson works to update a landscape she created in 1986 when she was a student working on the university’s grounds crew. Erickson recently retired after a career in recreation and music therapy management. UWRF photo.