Lea Richardson died on Friday April 3rd due to complications from melanoma. She was surrounded by friends and family in a hospital in California.
Lea joined Team Echinacea in June 2015 when she participated in a Research Experience for Teachers internship at our field site in Minnesota. It was a bold move for a teacher from Los Angeles public schools to try out research in rural Minnesota. She loved working with the team and developed a passion for fieldwork. She also relished fun times like swimming at the lake after work and adventures with the team. Lea liked it so much she stayed longer than she planned that summer and returned the next summer.
Lea joined the Ph.D. program in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern University and conducted research at our field site in Minnesota. Lea was a valued member of the department and looked out for those excluded from opportunities and advancement in science. She was a stellar student earning many academic honors.
Lea was an accomplished teacher and believed in the power of education to empower students—especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition to classroom teaching, Lea engaged students from diverse backgrounds in her research and conservation activities in the field and in the lab. She modeled a growth mindset in formal and informal settings.
Lea enjoyed facing the many challenges (physical, intellectual, and logistical) of conducting ecological research. Lea’s dissertation made substantial contributions to basic science and to conservation. She used multi-year experiments to investigate how prescribed fire and other disturbances affect the timing of flowering of prairie plant populations and their persistence in the face of environmental change. We are proud of Lea and of the good work she did for people, the prairie, and the planet. She made many diverse contributions through her work with Team Echinacea.
After her graduation Lea returned to California as a post-doctoral research fellow. Lea dedicated her substantial talents to science, mentoring, and conservation. She continued to collaborate with Team Echinacea on research papers and projects until she fell ill in spring 2025.
Team Echinacea gained so much from Lea. Lea will be missed.
Team Echinacea has been using discord for communication during the field season, for announcements, and for organizing. If you want to join our discord server, please contact Stuart. We’d love to hear from you.
We are continuing to monitor the Viola pedatifida (Prairie Violet) and Comandra umbellata (Bastard Toadflax) experiments. The Viola plants are continuing to develop new growth and produce pods consistently, with dried seed pods collected daily. Between August 20th and September 21st, 131 pods were collected! The seeds will be sorted into randomized groups for use in remnants and experimental plots. At the end of the field season, the Viola will be covered in a mulch of straw for overwintering.
The Comandra initially struggled with sun exposure in the transplant tub, but have since rebounded! There are currently 12 plants growing, alongside gallium and a large number of volunteer species. These have been left undisturbed to avoid accidentally removing any Comandra host plants. See the spreadsheet below for a full update on each plug.
I want to be in two places at once. I am shutting down & packing up my lab at Chicago Botanic Garden and wrapping up the field season in Minnesota. The lab’s been running for decades and there is a lot of stuff to pack. The annual harvest of Echinacea heads from experimental plots is also underway–this year the crop is big and it’s late due to late spring fires. Two big jobs in two distinct places. Thanks to everyone who is helping!
Due to technical issues I can’t be in two places at once. Please stop by the lab or field site and say hello or goodbye.
Monday, 24th In the morning Aaron, Grace, and Maddie D. went out to East RILEY to do some total demo, while Maddie S. went out to work on her thesis and did some Aster Walks. In the afternoon, all four of us went out to ExPt02 to do some double checking on the twist ties to get ready for measuring and harvest.
Tuesday, 25th In the morning Aaron, Grace, and Maddie D. went out to RHS, NTH, and REL for total demo, while Maddie S. went out to do some Aster Walks. In the afternoon, all three as well as Maddie S went out to ExPt02 to do twist tie again!
Wednesday, 26th In the morning Aaron, Grace, and Maddie D. went out to RILEY for Total Demo. After, Grace and Aaron went out to RKW for more Total Demo. After lunch, Grace and Aaron went out to ExPt02 to finish twist tie.
Thursday, 27th In the morning Aaron, Grace, Maddie D, and Maddie S. went out to ExPt02 for measuring. After lunch Aaron and Grace went out to RKE for Total Demo, and the two Maddie’s did computer work. After Aaron and Grace finished, Grace went out to NICE.
Friday, 28th In the morning Aaron and Grace went out to NICE to survey five plants that were involved in the Ag. Virescens experiment earlier this summer. While that was happening, Maddie D. was working on cleaning up ExPt01 forms for harvest. After lunch, all three went out to ExPt01 to harvest, and it was bountiful.
P.S. This was my last week with the team and it was great! I learned so much about the Prairie and got to meet so many new people and creatures outdoors. I had so much fun and I cannot wait to get back in the field in the future! – Aaron
Maddie S. with a Painted Turtle near ExPt01Monarch Butterfly near Hegg LakeKatydid near RKEGrace with a Green DarnerAaron with a Garter Snake found in ExPt02
To start the week, the team measured echinacea that was planted in 1996 in p01. The morning flew by, and after lunch the team split up into teams of two, and set out to do total demo in the remnants. We have been tackling larger remnant sites while we have a larger team since it is my (Kyra) last day tomorrow and Gael’s last day this Friday.
Tuesday 08/12/2025
After it rained about an inch last night, the six foot grass in the remnants and experimental plots was soaking wet so we decided to have independent project time (look out for updates). Grace and I worked on summarizing and analysing the data from our pollinator project, while Maddie did a meandering protocol for her thesis, Gael wrote a summary of pesticide project, and Maddie D. organized the data for the experimental plots. After lunch, we went to p08 for more measuring, and we’ve completed about 80%.
This morning the whole team headed to P2 where we finished twist tying Echinaceas, we did 40 rows yesterday and another 40 today! To be honest this morning’s experience in P2 has been the best one so far! Past visits have been full of rain, misery, and soggy socks. After finishing P2 we went on a little quick field trip to a sunflower field right in front of West of Aanenson, it was quite beautiful!
When we came back to Hjelm, half of the team and me (Gael) went around P1 on Tower Road to exterminate some of the Bird’s Foot Trefoil that has been spreading around the common garden. While the rest of our team was pulling some BFT I checked around for the plants I recently treated with herbicide and THEY WERE DEAD! I was very happy to see that not only the plants were completely dead but also that the surrounding plants weren’t affected at all!
After exterminating some BFT, we came back to Hjelm to have lunch. I had some really good chicken fajitas made by my dad, and we shared some cucumbers from Stuart’s parent’s garden and some cool grapes from Maddie’s aldi’s bag.
After lunch we got some time to work on our independent projects. I went around the enclosure of the goats (now near P1) to continue my work on herbicide and pulling BFT. Aaron worked on his plants with aphids, Maddie D. worked in setting up visors to measure in P2, Grace and Kyra worked on their Bee paper, and Maddie S. went meandering (species identification walks for her thesis).
Here are some really cute pictures of today!
Echinacea picture taken by Maddie S.Me at the Sunflower field.Maddie’s picture of a bumblebee on a Sunflower.The view of P2The view of the Sunflower field.Cool frog I found by P1.
And that concludes the update of the day! Thanks for reading, see you next time, love you bye!
Today on Team Echinacea, we welcomed on a new week, got on our sunscreen and bug repellent, and headed off to ExPt01. We measured the 99-North Garden and finished! We are now over 50% done with measuring ExPt01. It was then time for lunch, and after many though provoking conversations, we were off to twist-tie in the 99-South Garden. We finished that up, then took a little break and went back off to 99-South to measure. We did not finish measuring in 99-South but we made a large dent in the progress. Finally, we cleaned up and did support activities and left ready for the new week.
Maddie with a Frog!Monarch in ExPt01Aaron with a different Frog!
This summer with Team Echinacea, I developed a storyline-based ecology curriculum for high school students, using the team’s ongoing tallgrass prairie research as the anchoring phenomenon. The goal was to design a unit that moves beyond textbook facts, engaging students in authentic, place-based science that mirrors the work of real ecologists.
Traditional high school ecology units often feature distant or abstract examples—ecosystems in the Serengeti, Arctic wildfires, or urbanization in far-off cities. While these are important, they can feel disconnected from students’ own communities. My curriculum instead places the tallgrass prairie, and specifically the fragmented habitats of the upper Midwest, at the center of the learning experience. This approach ensures relevance for students in the central U.S. and for any community impacted by agricultural land use and habitat fragmentation.
The unit uses real graphs, models, datasets, and field techniques generated by Team Echinacea’s long-term studies. Students will engage with authentic data on plant reproduction, population dynamics, and pollinator interactions, learning the same methods our team uses in the field—such as pollinator mark-recapture, flowering plant demography and measurements, and mapping remnant populations. These activities are paired with opportunities for students to collect and analyze data from local sites, allowing them to connect global ecological concepts to their immediate environment.
By aligning with NGSS and applying a storyline structure, the curriculum guides students through a sequence of investigations driven by their own questions. Each lesson builds on prior discoveries, deepening understanding of ecosystem function, biodiversity, and conservation strategies. The emphasis is on sense-making, not memorization, fostering higher-order thinking skills and scientific reasoning.
Ultimately, this project aims to make prairie ecology personal, urgent, and inspiring. Students will see themselves as active participants in ecological research and conservation, gaining not only knowledge but also the confidence and skills to address environmental challenges in their own backyards.
Stay tuned for updates as I pilot this curriculum in my high school ecology and environmental science classes, and with my school’s Environmental Awareness Club. I’m excited to see how this collaboration between Team Echinacea and the classroom can cultivate the next generation of conservation-minded scientists!
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Stuart, Ruth, and the entire 2025 Echinacea Project team for welcoming me into the work this summer and allowing me to learn from the many individual projects—both short- and long-term—that make up this incredible research effort. I’m excited to bring my love for prairies back to my students, but I’m equally grateful for the personal learning this experience has given me. It reconnected me with my “research brain,” something I know will only strengthen my doctoral work on science literacy equity. While I won’t miss pulling weeds or walking around in soaked socks and shoes all day, I will miss searching for Echinacea in prairie remnants, the thrill of correctly identifying stipa (porcupine grass), and the stunning Minnesota sunsets. This truly has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience—at least until I reapply in a few years because I will miss the prairie too much!
With a brand new week upon us, we were met with a few less faces than usual. Chelsea Miller is spending her final week out in Wisconsin studying prairies, and Brittany House spent her last day her on Friday. Regardless, work still needed to get done so we marched our way to ExPt01. While Gael, Maddie D, and Grace started to measure, Maddie S. and I (Aaron) went off to help Stuart’s pollinator exclusion experiment. Afterwards I joined the group in ExPt01 while Maddie S. went off to survey at NRRX. Soon it was lunch and we ate together and discussed plans for the afternoon. I went off to Landfill to see if I could harvest any Aphids. Grace worked on her and Kyra’s draft for their mark and recapture study. Maddie D. made maps about progress in ExPt01. Gael worked on his herbicide work. Maddie S. worked on her Aster Survey study for their thesis. Support activities were finished and we headed off back home for a brand new day tomorrow.
