Conservation & Ecological RestorationTheo Knowles
2026 The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
A Functional Guild Seeding Approach to Optimize Recruitment in Tallgrass Prairie Restoration
Seed-based restorations in Tallgrass Prairie rely on the successful recruitment of seeded species, yet recruitment is often low. This limitation may partly result from conventional planting methods, which typically involve either broadcasting the entire seed mix in the fall or no-till drilling the entire seed mix in the spring. However, different functional guilds of prairie plants often recruit more successfully under different planting methods (i.e., forbs broadcasted in the fall and warm season grasses drilled in the spring). Therefore, we are curious to know whether we can maximize overall recruitment of seeded species by taking these functional guild preferences into consideration: by broadcasting only the forbs in the fall combined with drilling only the grasses in the spring.
School: North Dakota State University
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).
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