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In 1993, Art retired from the Sears footwear department but he was in no hurry to occupy his spare time until one fateful day at the Chicago Botanic Garden. During this visit, Art asked a volunteer what volunteers at the Garden do. The woman replied, “WE HAVE FUN!” With those three words, Art was convinced and he has since devoted 21 years and over 11,000 volunteer hours to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Art joined the Echinacea Project just over 10 years ago. He primarily weighs achenes to determine whether they contain fertilized embryos (he has weighed more than 100,000 Echinacea achenes!) but Art has also written detailed lab protocols for weighing and x-raying achenes. Outside of his work at the Garden, Art enjoys swimming and gardening.
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.
In 2014, Cam Shorb continued an experiment designed to assess the effects of aphid herbivory on Echinacea angustifolia survival and fitness. The plants are located in experimental plot P1. Cam removed aphids from the 44 plants in the exclusion treatment and added over 220 aphids to the 43 plants in the addition treatment.
Read previous posts about this experiment.
Start year: 2011
Location: P1
Products: Fitness measurements were collected during our annual assessment of fitness in P1. A list of focal plants and addition/exclusion datasheets are located in Cam Shorb’s Dropbox folder.
Overlaps with: Overlaps with: Phenology and fitness in P1
After retiring from a career in which he wore a number of different caps (physicist, mathematician, professor of computer science and rocket scientist to name a few), Lou began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden in 1993. Lou has put the full range of his diverse skillset to use at the Garden. For the Echinacea Project, Lou has written a computer program to mathematically describe flowering phenology in Echinacea, built face shields and scanning trays to help process Echinacea achenes in the lab, and constructed survey grids to help us locate seedlings in the field. Most recently, he created a device to help us calibrate the levels on our GPS units. In his spare time, Lou enjoys woodworking.
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.
Greetings from Chicago Botanic Garden! A new year is upon us and it is time to recap a busy 2014 summer. Over the next several weeks, we will be posting flog updates describing research projects from the summer and the status of the Echinacea Project’s long-term experiments. Stay tuned!
Click here to Browse all of the updates!
After retiring from a career as a preschool teacher, Leslie began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Although her initial volunteer work involved maintaining the outdoor gardens, she soon joined the Echinacea Project and has been a member of our volunteer team since 2009. In the lab, Leslie specializes in quality control. She checks each envelope of cleaned Echinacea material to ensure that it will produce clean scans and x-ray images. Leslie is an avid gardener and is currently enrolled in the Illinois Master Gardener course. She also enjoys attending vintage car races with her husband.
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.
Bill, a former state attorney, began volunteering at the Chicago Botanic Garden after his retirement in 2002. In his time at the Botanic Garden, Bill has removed invasive species from the Botanic Garden’s restored habitats, monitored rare plants through the Plants of Concern program, and helped clean and count Echinacea achenes. Since joining the Echinacea Project, he has counted over 340,000 achenes! Outside of the lab, Bill enjoys playing the piano and collecting stamps from around the world.
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.
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.
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