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The Echinacea Project depends on a team of volunteers to process Echinacea heads collected in the field. In 2014, our 19 volunteers devoted 1915.25 hours to the Echinacea Project! Below is a summary of hours for 18 volunteers (I will update this post once I track down hours for the last volunteer).
|
Initials |
Hours |
| 1 |
AA |
164.00 |
| 2 |
LB |
47.25 |
| 3 |
ACo |
106.75 |
| 4 |
ACr |
205.75 |
| 5 |
KE |
72.00 |
| 6 |
SG |
21.00 |
| 7 |
SH |
38.00 |
| 8 |
LJ |
130.00 |
| 9 |
SK |
16.00 |
| 10 |
MK |
26.00 |
| 11 |
ML |
41.00 |
| 12 |
BM |
219.50 |
| 13 |
LO |
68.50 |
| 14 |
LP |
105.50 |
| 15 |
NS |
93.00 |
| 16 |
CS |
230.00 |
| 17 |
ST |
122.00 |
| 18 |
WW |
171.00 |
We are so thankful for this incredible group of people, the Echinacea Project would not be possible without their hard work and dedication!
Naomi began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden in 2014 after working as an elementary school teacher and office manager. Since joining the Echinacea Project in 2014, Naomi has cleaned numerous Echinacea heads counted over 20,000 achenes! She appreciates the quiet lab work and the chance to learn about plant conservation. Outside of the lab, Naomi enjoys knitting, gardening, and spending time with her grandchildren.
This is one in a series of profiles recognizing the hard work and dedication of citizen scientists volunteering for the Echinacea Project at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Dwight and Stuart broadcast native prairie seed in experimental plots p1 & p8 on Friday. At 34 °F (1°C) it was the warmest day in a month. It was also very windy –great for spreading seed! We broadcast Bouteloua curtipedula, Schizachyrium scoparium, Galium boreale, and Phlox pilosa directly on the snow. There wasn’t much snow and it was melting. We broadcast Lathyrus venosus in p1. We stored about half of each species, except L. venosus, in the Hjelm house to broadcast in the spring. (Hedging our bets.)
After teaching middle school science in New York, Lois moved to the Chicago area and began volunteering with the Chicago Botanic Garden. Since joining the Echinacea Project in 2009, Lois (aka “the Achene Queen”) has counted over 430,000 achenes! Before teaching the United States, Lois received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach science in Burma and, after her stay in Burma, she traveled around the world writing for the Junior Scholastic Magazine. She has visited over 70 different countries!
This is one in a series of profiles recognizing the hard work and dedication of citizen scientists volunteering for the Echinacea Project at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Following a career in finance, Kathryn decided to pursue her long-time interest in gardening and began volunteering with the Chicago Botanic Garden. She started working in the outdoor gardens but soon switched to the research department in hopes of learning more about plants and plant science. Since joining the Echinacea Project in 2008, Kathryn has become a jack of all trades. She helps clean Echinacea heads and has counted over 150,000 achenes! Kathryn’s favorite pastimes are gardening and knitting.
This is one in a series of profiles recognizing the hard work and dedication of citizen scientists volunteering for the Echinacea Project at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
We arrived at the Botanic Garden on Monday and had a tour of the labs and a discussion with Stuart to introduce us to the Echinacea Project. We began our work by cleaning 82 Echinacea angustifolia heads, separating the top 30 achenes and the bottom 30 achenes. The rest of the achenes were labeled as mid or unknown (if we did not know the location the achenes came from). Once the top and bottom achenes were separated out, we affixed them to sheets in preparation to x-ray.
Graduate students and post docs shared information on their research and advice on graduate school options. Lynnaun introduced us to his graduate research involving fungus on orchid roots. Evelyn discussed her path to working at the Chicago Botanic Garden as a post doc researcher, including her PhD research on ferns and what type of work is available after getting a PhD. Rob shared his graduate research on the effect of buckthorn invasion in oak savannas on the ectomycorrhizal community. One evening after our work at the gardens, we attended a journal club for the graduate students who work in the labs at the Botanic Garden and attend Northwestern University. Jessa discussed with us her time spent after under-grad working in an arboretum and how that led to her involvement in graduate research here at the Botanic Garden.
Looking forward to next week!
– Emma and Jocelyn
Shortly after retiring from her career as a program manager with the National Opinion Research Center, Suzanne took a course on native prairie plants at the Chicago Botanic Garden and began volunteering at the Garden. She initially worked to restore the Garden’s prairies before joining the Echinacea Project in the early 2000s. In the lab, Suzanne is usually busy cleaning Echinacea heads or preparing achenes for weighing and X-raying. She enjoys gardening and volunteers with a bird rescue organization as well as the Butterfly Monitoring Network in her spare time.
This is one in a series of profiles recognizing the hard work and dedication of citizen scientists volunteering for the Echinacea Project at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
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