Certificates in Native Plant Studies were awarded to eleven graduates on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at our Annual Native Plant Lecture and Certificate Awards Program. Graduates complete a series of core courses, electives, and field trips as well as fulfilling a native plant community service requirement.  The Society is very proud of their accomplishments on behalf of native plants throughout New England.

Sonia Baerhuk – Certificate in Native Plant Studies and a Focus on Horticulture and Design 

Sonia and taught a course for the Society on “Sustainable Gardens at Perkins School” in Watertown, MA, focusing on her work there with rain gardens, composting, and sustainable gardening practices.

Ellen Bisshopp – Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Field Botany

Ellen worked with the Aquidneck Land Trust to control invasive species at Oakland Forest in Portsmouth, RI. Her efforts helped protect one of the few remaining examples of old growth American Beech forest in New England.

Dorothy DeSimone – Advanced Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Field Botany

Dorothy conducted botanical inventories of three ponds in Eastham, MA providing the Department of Natural Resources in Eastham with baseline data for future use.

Ann Estabrooks - Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Horticulture and Design

Ann worked with residents of the Norwell Nursing Center in Norwell, MA to plant seeds and build a raised-bed garden for their facility.

Mona Funiciello - Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Field Botany

Mona worked as Plant Conservation Volunteer with the Society, completing surveys of Large Whorled Pogonia, Isotria verticillata in Lincoln and Concord, MA and other rare species in Woburn and Waltham, MA.

Theresa Laurie - Advanced Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Field Botany

Theresa worked as a Plant Conservation Volunteer with the Society, monitoring Mountain Sandwort, Minuartia groenlandica, and Pale Green Orchis, Platanthera flava, in Maine, as well as other site management and invasive plant removal actions.

Judith Pierce – Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Horticulture and Design

Judith designed and installed several shade garden plots at the entrance to an accessible boardwalk trail at MA Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton.  She also volunteered at Nasami Farm, learning to propagate and raise some plants for her project.

Dori Smith - Advanced Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Horticulture and Design

Dori designed and taught a course for the Society, “A Sustainable Landscape: Gardens of a Co-Housing Community” in Acton, MA, a 20-acre community with a strong sustainable landscape design philosophy and practice.

Debora Stratford - Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Field Botany Debora volunteered in the Nasami Farm propagation greenhouses transplanting seedlings this past spring and also volunteered earlier with the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England project, mapping invasives in RI.

Jordan Takvorian – Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Field Botany Jordan,  the first of our Conservation Fellows to earn a Certificate in Native Plant Studies, volunteered with a variety of rare plant surveys in CT and RI and plans an upcoming hunt on Nantucket for the rare Eastern Silvery Aster, Symphyotrichum concolor.

Beth Wilkinson – Certificate in Native Plant Studies with a Focus on Field Botany

Beth worked with our Seed Ecologist collecting, cleaning, and packaging seeds at Garden in the Woods. Recently she has been a regular volunteer in our Horticulture Department, working on plant nomenclature, weeding and planting.

Photo: From left to right: Jordan Takvorian, Judith Pierce, Theresa Laurie, Dori Smith, Sonia Baerhuk, Mona Funiciello, Beth Wilkinson, Dorothy DeSimone, Debora Stratford, (not shown) Ellen Bisshopp, Ann Estabrooks