Welcome to Switzer Network News, a regular series of news reports produced by Jerry Kay of Media Interchange and Switzer Fellows. These reports profile the environmental accomplishments and innovations of Switzer Fellows as leaders in their respective fields. We encourage you to subscribe to our reports which are available via iTunes, Google, and Yahoo, as well as email.
Go Botany! Engaging Budding Botanists Using Technology
Sunday, April 1 2012 | by jkay
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Elizabeth Farnsworth is Senior Research Ecologist with the New England Wild Flower Society (NEWFS), and a biologist, educator, and scientific illustrator. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the botanical journal, Rhodora. She is the principal investigator on Go Botany!, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. She previously coordinated NEWFS planning for the conservation and management of over 100 species of rare plants.
She has illustrated the forthcoming Flora of New England for NEWFS and the Natural Communities of New Hampshire with the NH Natural Heritage Bureau, and is currently illustrating and co-writing The Ants of New England (Yale University Press). She is co-author of the Connecticut River Boating Guide: Source to Sea and the Peterson Field Guide to the Ferns.
She is a member of the graduate faculties of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Rhode Island, a Master Teacher at the Conway School of Landscape Design, and has taught at Smith College and Hampshire College. She formerly served as Ecologist with the Connecticut Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
She has conducted scientific research on many ecosystems throughout the world, focusing on restoration, conservation, and climate change. She was awarded a Bullard Research Fellowship by Harvard University in 2005 and a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1999. She has been a scientific consultant to the National Park Service, The Trustees of Reservations, U. S. Forest Service, Massachusetts and Connecticut Natural Heritage Programs, United Nations, and the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust. She obtained her Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University, M. Sc. from the University of Vermont, and a B.A. with honors in Environmental Studies from Brown University.
When is a pretty plant a problem? When it displaces native vegetation and disrupts the food chain. Doug Johnson, Executive Director of the California Invasive Plant Council, is a Switzer Fellow working with private and government agencies to identify invading plants, arrest their spread and educate the public to healthy alternatives.
Scientists around the world are studying global climate change and developing various scenarios regarding its potential impact. But the real action and impact will occur at the local level. This is what Switzer Fellows Lisa Micheli and Healy Hamilton are working on in a project they call At the Water's Edge.
In 1997, Oakland, California, began to face the challenge of sustainability on a community level. Today, Oakland enjoys cleaner air, improved recycling, more bike lanes – and a consistent ranking in the Top Ten U.S. Green Cities. Garrett Fitzgerald, Oakland’s Sustainability Coordinator and a Switzer Fellow, shares key steps.