Echinacea Field Log

Hi, my name is Ben Iberle and I'm going to be a junior Biology and Music major at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA. I was born in Seattle, lived in the Willamette Valley of Oregon for nine years, then finished off the job in Vancouver, WA, right across the mighty Columbia from Portland. I love the Northwest, I love backpacking and hiking through it. I love the prairie, too, and I wish there were better places to backpack through big bluestem. I play ultimate frisbee, soccer, saxophone, and Scrabble. I think Kraken is my favorite word.

Posted by Ben Iberle at 9:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi, I'm Julie Stutzbach from Pitman, NJ- a small town near Philadelphia in the southern part of the state. Presently, I am a Bio major at Beloit College where I run cross-country. About a month ago, I returned from Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands where I studied Ecology, Evolution, Botany, Conservation, and assisted Luis Vinueza with a research project on algal distributions. Last summer, I worked at Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, NJ on a Botany Invasive Species team trying to control some invasive plants in the park such as Mullein, Autumn Olive, and Tree of Heaven. I especially enjoyed the cut and stump method using chainsaws. You can see me sawing down a Tree of Heaven on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=cAzu5XQLF30. I am especially interested in Ecology, Botany, and Conservation science making the Echinacea team a solid match for me. After graduating, I want to see as much of the world as I can and then continue on to graduate school.

Posted by stutzbachj@gmail.com at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Rachel is a 3rd year master's student at the University of Minnesota in Ruth Shaw's lab. Her research is focused on the rapid evolution of invasive plant species in prairie fragments. She received her bachelors degree at the Central Washington University, and did post-bac work in the Australian rainforest with the School for Field Studies. She is a native of Washington state.

On the side Rachel enjoys breakdancing, hip-hop dancing, and gripping/gaffing on movie/television sets.

Posted by Julie Nicol at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello everyone, this is Andy McCall reporting from the farmhouse in Douglas Co. Minnesota.

I'm currently an assistant professor of biology at Denison University, a small liberal arts college (a SLAC!) in Granville, Ohio. I, like many people on the project, graduated from Carleton College , where I first learned to appreciate and love the prairie landscape under the tutelage of Mark Mckone .

Needless to say, I love teaching and learning and have wanted to be a professor since my time at Carleton. After Carleton, I studied alpine flies in New Zealand while earning my Master's degree at the University of Canterbury, leafcutter ants in Costa Rica, and wild radishes in California.

I received my doctorate in population biology from UC-Davis in 2006 with Rick Karban and spent some time in Ruth Shaw's lab at the University of Minnesota last summer, thinking about inbreeding, flowers, and insects -- a few of my favorite things! I met Ruth when she came to UC-Davis for a week as a workshop speaker in the Center for Population Biology and we immediately hit it off because we both have done work on the lovely annual plant, Nemophila menziesii . She introduced me to Stuart and the Echinacea project, and the rest is history!

Ruth, Stuart, and I were lucky enough to receive funding through the National Science Foundation to support our work on pollination and seed predation this summer, and I have received generous funds from Denison and the Battelle Foundation to support the students I brought from Denison this year: Josh Drizin, Jameson Pfeil, and Colin Venner. I'm psyched to be part of the project as I am certain that we are learning brand-new things about both Echinacea biology and prairie restoration.

Posted by Andrew McCall at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm Josh Drizin, a rising senior at Denison University. I'm majoring in Biology (minor in Chemistry). I'm interested in plants, and possibly more specifically in population ecology. I joined Team Echinacea because I wanted the experience in field work and the project sounded interesting. My tick count to date is 10. I rather enjoy photography and quite like listening to music (I need to get back into playing guitar, though).

Posted by Josh Drizin at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let me reintroduce myself. In rare forgetful moment, I left my self logged into the team computer at the farm house, and a prankster who shall not be named shared with the readers of this blog a couple of facts about my life. All of these facts, with the possible exception of the title of the entry are true. I'm a biology major at Carleton, and will be spending the fall semester studying rain forest ecology in Costa Rica. I like being outside in any and all capacities, love ornithology, and enjoy making and consuming delicious food.

Posted by Amy Alstad at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm Jameson Pfeil, the hairiest member of team Echinacea. I'm a rising senior at Denison University in Granville, OH. At School I live at an intentional community called the Homestead. I'm majoring in Biology at Denison and I'm trying to specialize within Biology, but I haven't settled on anything quite yet. I joined team Echinacea to get experience in the field and to learn a new discipline of biology. I'm originally from southeastern Pennsylvania, most recently Lancaster, PA, just west of the city.(and no I'm not Amish).

Continue reading "Jameson" »

Posted by Jameson Pfeil at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi i'm Amy Alstad. I'm 5' 113/4". The saddest part of life is that i'm not 6' tall. I'm from MN and i'm going to be a junior at Carleton college

Posted by Amy Alstad at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My name is Julie Nicol. I graduated from Carleton College (Northfield, MN) with a degree in biology in 2007. I am from Seattle, WA and hope to move back at some point. In the meantime I'm here working on the Echinacea project. I really enjoy the area; it's quite beautiful. In the fall I'll be heading to Chicago to work for Stuart at the Chicago Botanic Garden until next spring. Eventually I will (most likely) go to grad school, but I intend to spend the next few years figuring out exactly what I want to study.

On a more personal note, I enjoy being outside (hiking, kayaking, diving, windsurfing, etc.), reading (one of my favorite books is The Master and Margarita), and music (I have wide-ranging tastes from joy division to dar williams). I am also interested in and concerned with social justice and environmental issues.

Posted by Julie Nicol at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)