Author Archives: cassykar

About cassykar

Cassandra Karlsson is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degrees in Biology and Environmental Science. She has worked for the North Carolina Botanical Garden as a horticulture intern and for the NCU Herbarium as the Felton intern, where she applied modern systematics to describe a new species of Eryngium under Dr. Alan Weakley. Through the Seeds of Success internship at Garden in the Woods, she is studying the flora of New England and learning of the region's unique conservation concerns. In the future, Cassandra hopes to further her education and to apply the skills of this internship toward a career in botany and conservation.

A Model System

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Life as a New Englander is settling in nicely. Unlike many Seeds of Success interns and programs, we work out of the big city of Boston and collect in areas that I consider far removed from what most would call wilderness. That being said, I am awarded the unique opportunity of working closely with town, state, national, and nonprofit organizations, as well as many dedicated conservation groups in the area. It is a true feat of society to pull together to prioritize conservation and wildlife in an enduring way.

With most of my botanical experience based in the Southeast, it is a daily shock to pull up maps that are swathed with different shades of green that indicate protected lands and conservation reserves. Having 40+ colleges and universities in the area, and working within Garden in the Woods of the New England Wild Flower Society provides a strong support system for conservation, botany, and resilient ecosystems in general. Even with care and dedication, more work is needed. And in the wake of the natural disaster of Hurricane Sandy, native seed collections are more critical in the fight to restore devastated sites with local plantings before non-native invasive species crowd them out.

As the collection season picks up, I continue to be impressed by the natural properties available to us, the willingness of different organizations to provide information and resources to our project, the efficiency of the collection process, and the rigorous but attainable goals set for our team. I am encouraged to see a system that might be implicated in other regions of eastern North America, where the fewest SOS programs are in operation. Following are some of my favorite experiences from the first two months on the job.

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Spending time in vast marsh systems, such as the Massachusetts Audubon’s Great Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary on Cape Cod

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Checking phenology for all my favorite coastal species, such as Limonium carolinianum, or Carolina

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Using multiple floras to key out cryptic species with my wonderful teammates and mentor Michael Piantedosi

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And of course, seeing the fruits of labor off to a new home!