Conservation & Ecological RestorationLeland Werden
2014 The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
Leland Werden is a student at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He will be conducting his research in Costa Rica. He will examine important factors in the initial establishment and effectiveness of a tropical dry forest restoration project. His experiements will lead to a better understanding of how to effectively restore TDFs (tropical dry forests) on degraded vertisols, (vertisols are clay rich soils that shrink and swell with changes in mositure content). Working in conjunction with restoration practitioners will ensure that lessons learned from this project will help define standard operating procedures for TDF restoration projects across Costa Rica and the Neotropics.
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).