HOLD THE PHONE — The lover that Elizabeth Bishop lost in 'One Art' CAME BACK TO HER after the poem was published. I always assumed that the 'you' in the last stanza died, but she was just going to marry a man. WOW. www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Our celebratory issue of Rhodora is available! NEBS members have access through their membership AND we've made most of this issue open-access. We've been publishing since 1899, so there's a lot to celebrate and we want everyone to join in! bioone.org/journals/rho...

Reading the new alpine snowbank refugia paper at coffee shop while my kid attends a morning sewing camp reminds me of the years when her sister attended day camp at a sculpture park and I wrote manuscripts in a courtyard adjacent to a giant xylophone that kids whaled on with sticks.

My students' take on the xkcd 'types of scientific papers'. A very cool, interesting moment of reflection on the semester together. This exercise was inspired by Cindy Kohtala's blog about the meme www.cindykohtala.fi/2021/10/14/f...

We recently found Emerald Ash Borer on campus. I'm putting together a Fall 2025 pop-up course/seminar series to celebrate ash trees, mourn the arrival of EAB, and explore the ash's human and non-human relationships in the northern forest. Please share recommendations for speakers!

Spent the day in a DIY workshop with co-PIs from an NSF grant that was archived the day we were set to resubmit. Here’s the thing about scientists in a tiny state who work with small natural history collections: we get the science/teaching/conservation/outreach done. Our ROI is off the charts.

🌿 Stretching your research dollars? You’re not alone! Join us for the #Botany360 free virtual event, Botany on a Budget — a casual discussion with BSA members who have experience making research happen with limited resources. Thursday, May 8, 2025, 2–3 p.m. EST Register here: tinyurl.com/bot360

🌱 SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS 🌱 The #AJB announces a call for papers for a special issue, “Plant Resilience and Conservation for a Changing Climate,” led by guest editors J. Rentsch, E. Stacy, C. Mackenzie, J. Boyd & V. Negron-Ortiz.⁣ ⁣ Deadline for proposals: May 30, 2025. bit.ly/3GcyMUG

#WithoutNSF my PhD research on the impacts of climate change on plant communities in Acadia National Park would not have been possible. Managers use our work to protect resources. Park educators & interpretive staff use our work to create signage and talk to the public. We need to fund NPS and NSF.

Thread with an email being sent to @asn-amnat.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social @systbiol.bsky.social members today calling for a Tri-society week of action for NSF: Dear members: The tri-societies (ASN, SSE,SSB) are running a ‘Week of Action for NSF’. Your engagement is crucial.

Reminder that I'm looking for grad students. Canada just decided for sanity in government, Fredericton elected a musician MP, and UNB is a great place to be. Come join me! Position is fully funded.

Amy Angert & I are recruiting 2 field technicians for demographic surveys of scarlet monkeyflower in late summer-fall. Please spread word to any potentially interested candidates! jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/217...

So I’m in the New York Times today 👀 😃 in a nice piece on artists and invasive species featuring our new exhibition at Carnegie Museum on invasive plants nyti.ms/42fFzpa

A lot of blood sweat and tears put into this one: we revisit Robert MacArthur's classic warbler study—with @eliotmiller.bsky.social and colleagues—using, among other techniques, fecal metabarcoding. 🧪🦉 📸 Ronnie d'Entremont royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @psubiodept.bsky.social

Listen I know college kids aren't watching Seinfeld but I'm writing a lecture for my advanced Forest Ecology class based on Bizarro Jerry because that's where I'm finding joy at the moment...

“the process of knitting itself mirror ecological patterns — it requires attention to structure, repetition, and adaptability" — my student's written response to the prompt "Why would a forest ecology course include an assignment to knit a wool hat?"

Organizing the interactive activity for my talk in the 'Celebrating New England Herbaria: Research, Teaching, Community, and Outreach' session at this weekend's Northeast Natural History Conference. My kids created the first two specimens, mine is the Polystichum acrostichoides.

My maple sugaring students get a shout out for assisting at one of Emily's research sites! www.vnews.com/Dartmouth-st...

class project tracking the impacts of invasive vines on campus red pine trees

@stephenbheard.bsky.social I’m about to advise a 7-week tutorial for a senior thesis we named “Scientific Writing for Field Experiments”!

"It is not proposed to cite any of the extensive recent literature on these general subjects, since it is well known to all working ecologists." — Gleason in the first 'The Individualistic Concept of the Plant Association'

i feel like i should be more gleasonian: tell major ecologists their pet theories are imaginary, publish two papers with the exact same title, cite no one, wear this hat:

an op-ed from bennington's environmental scientists www.benningtonbanner.com/opinion/froz...

NSF is still freezing grant payments because of Trump's executive orders targeting DEI, despite NSF's congressional mandate to weigh how grants will expand participation in science. What that means for scientists/science (with more detail than yesterday's radio story) www.npr.org/2025/01/31/n...

The first ever US national nature assessment has been terminated and its USGCRP and DOI webpages have been removed. A PDF of the zeroth order draft is still available here: review.globalchange.gov/system/files...

I was invited to a zoom roundtable with my Senator this morning, where he listened to Vermonters talk about the ongoing effects of the OMB freeze. Funding remains frozen across fed agencies hurting hospitals, clinics, refugee resettlement programs, homeless & domestic violence shelters, colleges...

Exclusive: NSF this week began to search through billions of dollars of grants the agency has already awarded for anything touching on topics that President Donald Trump has criticized. And NSF has blocked grantees and trainees from accessing funds while the review is underway. scim.ag/3El0NZh

cool cool cool. love to hear what is happening with my ongoing funding from a grant we won over a year ago on the radio.

Ecology syllabus writing in the time of AI (inspired by @cjdenial.bsky.social)

Happy New Year! Whether you are a graduate student, early career academic faculty, or engaged in other botanical endeavors, NEBS has awards to support the work you do! The deadline to apply for 2025 is February 1st. Head to www.rhodora.org to see the available awards and criteria to apply.

Hey botanists — the New England Botanical Society provides small grants for grad students, early career faculty, and general botanical research. We are not federally funded and we have money to support your work. Applications due Feb 1.

OK scientists 🧪, it is time to start making noise about what the pause in NIH and NSF grant funding means to you and in your reps' states and districts. Share how this affects YOU! Here are fact sheets to share how much $$ comes into your state or district: www.faseb.org/science-poli...

I called my state's Congressional delegation and wrote a short summary of the proposal, the budget, and the unprecedented nature of having an NSF program archived the week that proposals are due for their staffers. Sorry this meant that I have not peer-reviewed the ms on my desk.

The NSF Research Coordination Network in Undergraduate Biology Education program was cancelled. I'm on a team that was proposing to incorporate small natural history collections into college biology classes in VT. We are no longer submitting the proposal tomorrow — there goes my winter break work.

Save the date! February 7 at 7PM, Dr. Robert Bertin will be presenting "Two Tales of Floristic Change in Southern New England: Orchids and Northern Species." In-person in Cambridge, Mass. and over Zoom. FREE for members and the public. Non-members register to attend. More info at www.rhodora.org

Examining the shifting “wild clocks” of spruce saplings in Norway’s Future Library, Sami reindeer herds in Scandinavia, and oyster colonies in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, David Farrier seeks ways to renew the rhythms by which we live. Read this week's essay, “Wild Clocks.” https://buff.ly/4aqhxdF

Look and see how important this is to your state then call your reps.

There's still time to apply for our awards, including the Les Mehrhoff Award! This award supports botanical endeavors of the sort that Les championed: field studies, herbarium, library, and archival research. You don't need to be a member to apply! Deadline is 2/1 www.rhodora.org/awards/mehrh...

finished reading! Such a great adventure, biography, botanizing love-letter, and there’s even a Kate Furbish shoutout!

Inject science into your Valentines Day with LOVE BUGS! Each card has a fact about the animal AND something you can do to help the animal. They come in packs of 20 😎 Art by Michele Scott! Supports @skypeascientist.bsky.social! Get 'em here 👇 squidfacts.bigcartel.com/product/love...

New blog post: Why I'm Saying No to Generative AI. (Does what it says on the tin.) catherinedenial.org/blog/uncateg...

syllabus planning… your favorite 19th century white dude conservationist’s favorite conservationist.

waiting for my little bagels to come out of the oven so I can see if the baking soda bath before baking gave them the authentic taste of my childhood: my-grandparents-just-drove-here-from-queens-with-a-garbage-bag-full-of-bagels-for-our-freezer

if you ever have the opportunity to hear @theferocity.bsky.social read, GO

my campus has an amazing MFA program & the writers are in residence now and sitting in on the evening faculty readings brings me back to when I was a baby STEM major using her one elective to take creative writing & get on the lit reading invite list for a semester of Zadie Smith & Jamaica Kincaid

A few years ago, my friend, outspoken climate scientist Peter Kalmus @climatehuman.bsky.social, moved his family out of LA because he could extrapolate from the data. This week the house where he raised his kids burned down. His words for us all (gift link): 🧪 www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/o...

treasure map

First #TruffleDog paper co-authored by my sister and myself is out! #SiblingScientists We demonstrated that hard-to-see Genea #truffle #fungi are almost everywhere in western Oregon, most of the time. #Mycology #Ecology #NaturalHistory #Biodiversity #OpenAccess 🧪🌎 doi.org/10.1002/ece3...