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.
For the past several years we have been investigating effects of prescribed fire on native ground-nesting bees in remnant prairies and restorations across our fragmented prairie landscape. We have a paper about effects of fire on the abundance and diversity of nesting bees in prep for a peer-reviewed journal. We are posting recommendations from this investigation now as a one-page non-technical document.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) and by the National Science Foundation.
For the past few years we have been studying effects of prescribed fire on pollination, pollinators, and plants across our fragmented prairie landscape. We have a paper about effects of fire on pollen that we are preparing to submit to a peer-reviewed journal. We are posting recommendations from this investigation now as a one-page non-technical document.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) and by the National Science Foundation.
For the past few years we have been studying effects of prescribed fire on pollination, pollinators, and plants across our fragmented prairie landscape. We have three papers we are preparing for submission to peer-reviewed journals. From each, we have recommendations for land managers interested in conserving native prairie bees and plants. We are posting these recommendations now in a one-page non-technical format.
The first paper is about prescribed fire effects on pollination and pollinator visitation. Read the recommendations that are based on the paper.
Expect two more one-pagers tomorrow.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) and by the National Science Foundation.
The Echinacea Project flog has been silent since shutting down lab activities at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Even though lab work has ceased, other work has been progressing quietly. After Thanksgiving we will post updates.
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.
As the season nears its end, the seasonal members of the Echinacea Project have all returned to school. This week, Grace flew back to California to start her junior year at UC Santa Cruz, leaving only a lone juggling ball for us to remember her by. Now only me (Maddie DiMarco) and Maddie Sadler remain as interns to conclude the field season. With measuring done in the experimental plots and (almost) all demo sites finished, our main focus is harvesting. We spent the first few days of the week harvesting whenever possible, filling up several bags with harvested echinacea heads. Soon, they will all be ready for cleaning and counting of achenes.
A monarch nectaring on thistleOne of the goats, which we have named DirtA leopard frog at ExPt02, who was not as fast as I am
However, we cannot harvest in the rain, and this week had lots and lots of rain. While we are trapped inside, Maddie and I have been working with our data, ensuring that there are no missing, duplicate, or incorrect records. During a break in the rain, I also trekked out to exPt01 to revisit some of the plants we needed to check.
Massive Chicken-of-the-WoodsA secret mushroom spotFound en route to exPt01
The rain has brought us many boones. Mushrooms were plentiful, found near the goat paddocks and the experimental plots, including a magnificent Chicken of the Woods. We have also seen our first salamanders of the season. Two eastern tiger salamanders were spotted on the roads—we shuttled them to safety. You can tell by my face how excited I was.
Me, clearly having the best moment of my lifeTiger salamander #1Tiger salamander #2 with Maddie and I
This week at the Echinacea Project we had a few visitors. On Monday and Tuesday Maddie, Grace and I worked hard in P2 to wrap up measuring and ran into an abundance of different creatures. From frogs, to spiders, a garter snake, and grasshoppers there was no shortage of helpers at the experimental plot.
Harvesting is in full swing as fall begins to roll around, also bringing many different caterpillars and monarchs along the way for our viewing pleasure. On Wednesday we had some real human visitors! Gasp! Riley and Amy W. came and paid Echinacea Project a visit and helped with the collection of measure data in P7 and P9 and contributed an abundance of harvesting in P1 and P8.
The gang back together!
In the final days of this week, we got an additional human visitor Aaron who came back to help us for a morning before returning back to school for the afternoon. We regaled on memories from this summer and thought about the ending of the season while reflecting on everything that has been accomplished by our mighty team of 8. Thousands of demo records, tons of surv records, measuring, and many healthy heads that have been harvested.
Aaron giving us the plot of Into the Woods in LOTS of detail.
For me, I spent many hours doing aster walks this week for my thesis encountering many different friends in the prairie along the way. This included monarchs, a mysterious caterpillar, many spiders, and a handful of wooly bear caterpillars (or as I like to call them wooly worms). The record for the most amount of aster species at a single site was broken this week at 27 different species at Staffanson E (previous winner was HeggW with 25).
Additional tidbit: We had found an injured monarch on the way to harvest and created a monarch motel for the little diva to recoup before hopefully taking flight again.
It’s been a chilly first week of September! After days of rain and temperatures in the 50s, the team is looking forward to more temperate conditions next week. We’ve been hard at work finishing up the last few sites of demo and surv, and are now halfway done with an expedited measuring of exPt2. Just this morning, Maddie S., Maddie D., and I (Grace) completed 602 records! In addition, a bountiful harvest is in full swing in exPt1 and exPt8–collecting the dried heads for multiple experiments on long-term fitness.
Storm chasing during total demoBaby bunny in exPt1gBags are filling up!exPt2 in autumn colorsFrog adventures gone awry in Hjelm
