High School Teacher- Peachtree Ridge HS, Suwanee GA
Pronouns: she/her
Research Interests
I want to learn all I can about prairie grass! I currently teach 9th grade biology. This summer I am focused on project based learning and incorporating Team Echinacea’s work into the classroom. I live far from any prairie but want my students to have the opportunity to learn from engaging and inquiry based lessons about prairie ecology.
Statement
I am from Suwanee GA
In my spare time I like to embroider and go on long walks.
Around 80 8th grade students from Morris Junior High came by and learned about tools used in prescribed burns, plant identification, how to develop hypotheses, and methods for finding and trapping native bees!
Meanwhile…
Other members of the team established points for our ENRTF-funded pollinator project, a rare species (Teeny catus) was spotted at the Hjelm House, and we all had watermelon at the end of the day to cool off.
As someone coming from a pre-health background, I am still exploring my interests in the different areas of plant research. I am interested in learning more about native plants, conservation, and plant ecology. I am also interested in learning more about human and animal interactions with plants.
Statement
I am from Chicago! I have always been interested in science and biology, so going into pre-med/pre-health seemed like the most rational decision to make. However, after taking more biology classes involving plants and ecology, I became more interested in plant ecology and human-plant/animal-plant interactions.
In my spare time, I like to knit/crochet (would love to get back into embroidery and sewing), spend time by the lakefill, watch dramas, and be a virtual farmer in Stardew. This summer, I would love to explore the garden more and to learn more plant names.
I’d like to pursue more research in pollinator-plant interactions and how the environment can affect pollinator behavior. I’m interested in conservation ecology and I’m excited to study how fire might affect bee nesting this summer.
Statement
I grew up in Texas, but luckily escaped and lived in Illinois for college. I became really interested in entomology and conservation while working closely alongside my professors, and I hope to dive into this intersecting field more in the future!
In my spare time I like to read, draw/paint, watch movies, listen to a ton of music, and go camping.
Today we were visited by Dr. Matt Kaproth, who came up from Minnesota State University Mankato! He is interested in investigating soil properties in our ENRTF pollination study, and we will hopefully see more of him this summer as he samples our sites!
The weather quickly turned stormy, so the team is now stationed at Hjelm, glued to our weather apps.
“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).”
Friday was my last day at the Chicago Botanic Garden (sniff). I bid a final farewell to the wonderful volunteers and cleaned out all of the miscellaneous papers in my desk, including an article about the top ten bagel restaurants in Chicago.
One great Friday accomplishment was finalizing new driving maps with Lindsey. During the field season, we drive to many remnants, restorations, and experimental plots between Kensington and Hoffman, so a map is helpful for finding sites and plotting efficient routes. We crafted two versions, one with the Echinacea sites that we visit frequently and one more complicated map that includes all the sites for the ENRTF project. The previous version of the driving map was missing some remnant sites like Dog, so we made sure to include all of the places that we visit regularly. On the back, we listed the site abbreviations and full names. I think I’ve been to all of the sites on the Echinacea map, but I haven’t seen most of the newly added ENRTF sites. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to visit some of them next week in Minnesota!
Lindsey shares the secrets of lamination
Our crowning achievement was laminating the new maps. I had never used a laminator machine before, but fortunately Lindsey is an expert, and she taught me the tricks of the trade. We now have a stack of shiny new driving maps, and I’m very excited to try them out!
This past week, Lindsey and I have been organizing the lab so it will be easy for volunteers to find what they need during the summer. I’ve also documented the status of remnant Liatris and Echinacea harvested from 2020-2022. The locations of data, physical specimens, and datasheets are recorded in readMe files in Dropbox. I’ve also updated all of the demap protocols and saved them in the demap repo in a new folder called learnDemap. Hopefully, it will ease the learning curve for future demappers.
I want to study all of the different native plants to Minnesota and how they can coexist with agriculture. I especially want to get a good understanding of how the natural world works without much outside help.
Statement
I am from Elbow Lake, MN.
In my spare time I like to run, read different books, garden, and hang out with my dogs.
Welcome back to this week’s episode of “What’s Flowering at Staffanson?”, where I will report to our avid flog followers the current blooms at one of our most beloved remnant prairies.
Pasqueflower (Anemone patens) is still flowering in some parts of the preserve, but most of the plants are producing fruits by now.
Only Paolo can take this……and give you a princess (let me know if you get the movie reference).
Next up we found some prairie buttercup (Ranunculus rhomboideus)
My camera decided to focus on one single flower.
Jared wanted me to get a photo of Carex media, but like the photo above, my phone camera wouldn’t focus on the slender sedge (I tried, I swear!). So, picture everyone’s favorite sedge ~here~. Meanwhile, I can show you a non-blurry photo of violet wood sorrel (Oxalis violacea).
According to minnesotawildlflowers.info, this is the only lavender-colored wood sorrel in the state of Minnesota!
We saw a handful of heart-leaved Alexanders (Zizia aptera) beginning to produce their yellow umbels (or umbellets?).
This was the yellow-est one I could find!
For some hemi-parasitic representation, we saw bastard toadflax (Comandra umbellata). Actually, we saw loads of Comandra, it seemed to cover large portions of Staffanson!
These plants really comandra my attention.
Hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens) was just beginning to show its Kraft mac-and-cheese-like colors.
One flower peeking out! So cute!
Perhaps my favorite photo of the day was of prairie violet (Viola pedatifida) and its dark purple striped veins. If you look closely, you can see Jared admiring the landscape in the background. Or is it Jared…?
Cryptid or determined ecologist? Who cares, look at the coloring of this violet!
The true mystery of the day was the usually-abundant prairie smoke (Geum triflorum). We ventured all the way to the west end of Staffanson before we found a plant. While I appreciated the treasure hunt, I wonder why it’s a poor year for prairie smoke!
Is the lack of prairie smoke a bad omen?
I made all of these observations of Friday, May 19th. I’m excited to return to Staffanson in a few weeks and see how the prairie has changed!
B.S. Botany and Environmental studies, UW-Madison, 2023
Pronouns: She/her
Research Interests
I am broadly interested in plant ecology, restoration ecology, and fire ecology. I am curious about plant functional traits, especially those related to fire adaptation, and intraspecific variation.
Statement
I am from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and fell in love with prairies during my undergraduate years in Madison, Wisconsin! In my spare time, I like to run, bike, do ceramics, knit, and read.
