Botany and Plant Ecology Newsletter
August 2021

We extend a special welcome to our newest majors:
McKenzie Dasenbrock
Braden Jorgensen
Delcee Ramos
Brynley Spendlove
Joleen Summers
Kevin Wilson
We are glad to have you in the
Botany and Plant Ecology Department!

Congratulations 2021-2022
Scholarship and Activity Waiver Recipients!

Botany Scholarships and Activity Waivers

Dr. Cyrus M. McKell Scholarship
Lily Evans

Dr. Eugene G. Bozniak Scholarship
Jace Van Leer

Botany Club Scholarship
John Carden

Botany Activity Waiver - President of Botany Club
Ashton Capps

College of Science Academic Waivers and Scholarships

College of Science Private Foundation Scholarship
Lily Evans

College of Science NaDene B. Carver Scholarship
Celina Patino

Awards Ceremony

The Botany and Plant Ecology department will be holding an awards ceremony this fall to recognize the 2019-2020 and
2020-2021 scholarship and award recipients. It will be held
Tuesday, September 14 at 5:30 p.m. in TY 234.
Invitations for recipients will go out soon.

The Botany and Plant Ecology Office
is Open Again!

After an extended closure, the Botany and Plant Ecology office is open again! Some of our fun plants are temporarily residing in the office. Be sure to stop by and see them.
Photo Credit: Sonya Welsh

News From the Herbarium

Our herbarium has received gifts of almost 100 specimens from the herbaria at Utah State University and from Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX, which is near Big Bend National Park! It's exciting to be able to incorporate these specimens in our collection, especially as those from Sul Ross are from another arid region in the US.

If anyone made plant collections over the summer and would like to deposit them in the herbarium, please contact Dr. Jim Cohen at jamescohen@weber.edu. It would be wonderful to add specimens from students into our collection.

Where are they now?

We received the following update from Botany graduate Colleen Mills.
We’re always happy to hear from our graduates!

Today concluded the largest of my adventures for the summer, aside from the upcoming adventure of moving. As many of you may know, I applied for several summer jobs, including a USU field research technician position, Red Butte Gardens, the Hogle Zoo, and even some remote jobs, including working as an iDTech tutor. In the end, I had to make a decision on where I wanted to work. I decided to follow one of my childhood dreams for the summer and work at Utah's Hogle Zoo as Seasonal Grounds Crew.

Colleen at Hogle Zoo

Working on the grounds crew, I expected to just be taking care of the plants on grounds and correcting soil chemistry, as my interview had somewhat led me to believe. I was wrong, but that's okay. I gained so many skills by working on irrigation, learning to work with power tools, performing landscaping work, and even operating heavy machinery such as a skid steer (which was way too much fun). Due to my specialty, however, I was often assigned to pruning and trimming, as well as planting and watering, including purchasing flowers, designing flower box arrangements, and executing the design, rather than fixing broken sprinklers.

Working at the zoo comes with its own adventures and perks. I can now say that I have had my hand in a rhino's mouth, had my feet pecked at by Patagonian conures while watering the rainforest, fed elephants and meerkats, and worked inside of zoo enclosures planting trees while trying to avoid hitting a tortoise. You also get to spend the early mornings watching the animals up close and observing their behaviors and interactions while they are active in the mornings.

Other adventures at the zoo included working with the Life Support staff (they take care of the water features and tanks inside the zoo) on some dives during my last few weeks. This was so much fun since I got paid to dive and help clean the polar bear pool. They handed me an algae brush (really just a glorified vegetable brush), and had me scrub the algae off of the rocks and ledges in the pool.

Colleen in the Polar Bear Pool at Hogle Zoo
Photo Credit: Jamieson Sather

Honestly, working at the zoo was an amazing time. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a seasonal or full-time job. The people there love to have fun (we had an ongoing water fight and weekly softball league), and are so passionate and talented. Everyone knows each other's names, and there is so much interdepartmental communication and collaboration. People think that certain theme parks are the happiest place on Earth, but I have to say that I disagree.

This summer, I also had the chance to hang out with Blake Wellard for a couple of days (who was also kind enough to arrange a plant donation for the zoo), and we surveyed more lakes and wetlands than I can count in the Uintas, in the space of 48 hours to try and find sundews. Alas, we found none, but found some beautiful Nuphar polysepalum, and summited mountains in search of Eritrichium nanum.

Nuphar polysepalum
Photo Credit: Colleen Mills

Now that my adventures at the zoo have finished, I am off to graduate school on September 2. I will be making the long trip to CA by car, but will be living my life by bike. I will be working in the Buckley Lab at UC Davis on an FFAR grant to create a small on-leaf chip that can determine leaf water status using terahertz radiation. I am so excited to get to work in this lab and on this project since it involves using the best of both of my worlds. My advisor has thus far been amazing to work with, and I am hoping that that will continue. If anyone has tips for moving to grad school, I would be open to suggestions!

Botany and Plant Ecology Advising

Botany and Plant Ecology advisors are assigned by the first letter of the student’s last name. Here are the Fall 2021 advising assignments:

Fall 2021 advisors:

A-D: Dr. Cohen

E-K: Dr. Root

L-R: Dr. Hilbig

S-Z: Dr. Schramm

Field Botany Certificate: Dr. Wachocki

Minor, BIS, Departmental Honors, and initial advising of Botany majors: Dr. Harley

Photos! Photos! Photos!

Lake Tahoe, CA
Photo Credit: Dr. Kat Schramm

Millcreek Canyon, UT
Photo Credit: Dr. Kat Schramm

Wasatch Hollow, UT
Photo Credit: Dr. Kat Schramm

Send us your photos!
Have you taken any awesome Botany related photos? We'd love to see them and publish them in the newsletter. Send them to botany@weber.edu. We’ll include as many as we can.

Please include who is in the photo, where it was taken and who took it. People appearing in the photos will need to sign or have signed a photo release form.

Wildcat Block Party

Friday, September 3, 2021
8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
WSU Ogden campus
President's Purple Pancake Breakfast: 8 a.m.
Weber Dining Free Food Lunch Ticket: 11 a.m.
Theme: Weber is Your Winning Ticket

Click below to get the details.

The Botany Club will have a booth set up that day and is looking for volunteers to sit at the booth anytime from 8 am to 2 pm. To sign up, please find Sonya Welsh (TY 346) to fill out a sign up sheet.

Saturday Hours

Selected WSU offices and services will be open at both the Ogden and Davis campuses on
Saturday, August 28, from 10: a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information and details, click below.

WSU Mask Requirements

WSU continues to welcome face coverings. We encourage you to review the new CDC guidelines and make informed personal decisions on when and where to
wear face coverings.
To read more about mask requirements, click below.

COVID-19 Vaccines

Weber State has partnered with area health departments to offer free vaccination clinics.
Click below for locations and details.

COVID-19 Testing

WSU is offering free COVID-19 testing for symptomatic members of our community.
For more details, click on the button below.

Contact the Department of Botany and Plant Ecology

Weber State University
Department of Botany and Plant Ecology
1415 Edvalson St., Dept. 2504
Ogden, UT 84408-2504

botany@weber.edu
801-626-6174

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