Conservation & Ecological RestorationJoan Dudney
2017 The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration

Joan Dudney is a PhD candidate in the Environmental Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She is studying the current spread and severity of white pine blister rust (WPBR) in California. She aims to develop science-based management for climate change and invasive rust. An exotic fungus from China, Cronortium ribicola, causes WPBR, which is attributed to precipitous population declines in several white pine species. She plans to incorporate drought impacts on the WPBR pathosystem to develop a more accurate habitat refugia map that will establish the baseline for white pine management in the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range.
The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
The Garden Club of America (the GCA) offers an annual Fellowship in Ecological Restoration. Established in 2000 with funds from the John B. Young Charitable Trust as well as GCA members and clubs, the fellowship’s goal is to support research that will advance knowledge and increase the number of scientists in the important field of ecological restoration, the active healing of the land. The $8,000 grant is awarded annually to exceptional graduate students to support specialized study in ecological restoration at an accredited U.S. university. Preference will be given to projects that include field research conducted in the United States. A panel of experts associated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum reviews the applications and makes recommendations to the GCA Scholarship Committee.
For the purposes of this scholarship, The Garden Club of America agrees to the definition of ecological restoration as stated by the Society of Ecological Restoration (SER).