Author & Ecologist
Filmmaker Jake Willers talks about the making of (Re)Connecting Wild at the 2020 North American Conference for Conservation Biology By February of this year, when Covid-19 was just making its presence known in the U.S., my summer calendar was booked. Early June, I planned to attend the Society for Ecological Restoration's (SER) global conference in... Continue Reading →
Prairie wildflowers brighten the summer months at Jerry Smith Park, Kansas City, MO There are small things I can point to as bright spots inside the pandemic. Among these, I've discovered the pleasure of podcasts. I know: I'm years behind on this one. I'd never listened to podcasts before March 2020, but being away from... Continue Reading →
Normally this time of year I would be at my annual Women's Writing Retreat, more affectionately known as Dollbabies Week. Like so many other spring activities and conferences, that plan was washed away by the tide of Covid-19. My literary colleagues and I have organized a remote edition instead. It won't be the same, but... Continue Reading →
Life has been transformed in the past couple weeks for pretty much everyone in the United States, and around the world. At Avila University, faculty, staff and students have undertaken a monumental effort to move our entire spring curriculum online. Virtual classes started yesterday, almost all of us wading into unknown territory. On the bright... Continue Reading →
I'm happy to report that my article on native bees in urban habitats is now available in this month's issue of Ecological Restoration. Based on work completed with my Honors Biology student Laura Presler for her capstone project at Avila University, the paper provides evidence for the important role of small remnant habitats in conserving native... Continue Reading →
My bee page is now updated - check it out for details about our 2020 field season. I'm excited about my projects, coordinated as always with KC Wildlands, KC Parks, and the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). We're going to conduct a standardized survey of a unique habitat in the Kansas City area, the rocky... Continue Reading →
We are a quarter of the way through the semester already, and I haven't given you the scoop yet on the awesome courses I'm teaching at Avila. Here they are: BI 112 Introductory Biology: Ecology and Evolution. Some professors shy away from newbie courses, but at Avila we say, "Bring 'em on!" More so with BI... Continue Reading →
According to many textbooks, an ecosystem is defined as a community of living organisms interacting with each other and the nonliving components of their environment. Whenever I introduce this concept to students, I ask them to consider what is meant by "living" and "nonliving." Common examples of "nonliving" parts of an ecosystem include air (oxygen, carbon... Continue Reading →
About four months ago, this lovely photo by Joe Neely of Diadasia bees sleeping together in a flower appeared on Bored Panda and promptly went viral. Based on my experience as a biologist, I concluded at once these individuals were two adult females, perhaps sisters, cuddled for warmth as they were sleeping. Recently, it occurred to me others... Continue Reading →
August already, and I am moving into late summer collections at Jerry Smith Park. This season I don't have students working with me in the field. Avila is a small college, and the timing of biology majors moving through our programs isn't always conducive to having research assistants on my summer team. Even when you... Continue Reading →
