Conservation & Ecological RestorationLeah Nagel
2016 The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
Leah Nagel is a master's candidate at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She will study vernal pools—small, temporary wetlands that provide important habitat for a variety of amphibian and macroinvertebrate species. She will work with the Natural Heritage Program in New York and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to develop rapid-assessment protocols to assess pool quality in natural and restored systems. This will help to evaluate the effectiveness of wetland mitigation efforts and prioritize pools for conservation.
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).