[HCCN] Winterport COA student, 3 others, receive national botany scholarships

[Donna Gold]

RELEASE
COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC STUDENTS SWEEP GARDEN CLUB SCHOLARSHIPS
Winterport Student, three others receive awards to continue botanical
research
CONTACT: Donna Gold, Public Relations: 207-801-5623, 207-266-4470,
dgold at coa.edu 

BAR HARBOR, ME-Each year, the Garden Club of America awards
scholarships in field botany and medicinal plant research to college
students. The scholarships are based on a competitive national
application. This year, says Nishanta Rajakaruna, faculty member in
botany at the college, four were given to students at College of the
Atlantic. 

Hazel Stark, a COA senior from Winterport, ME, and a 2007 graduate of
the Hampden Academy received a scholarship for medicinal plant research,
as did Joseph Layden a senior from Wautoma, WI. This award is given to
encourage US students "to expand their knowledge of medicinal botany by
pursuing summer study in various projects, courses, and/or internship
with supervision and structure."

Jillian E. Gall, a second-year student from Sewaren, NJ, and Maggie
Mansfield a senior from Worthington, MA, each received field botany
scholarships for ongoing field research. That award is given to
"encourage young men and women who are interested in furthering their
studies in field botany and offer an opportunity to gain knowledge and
experience beyond the regular course of study." All four students will
receive $2000 toward their research work. Gall also received a Garden
Club of New Jersey Scholarship.

Both Stark and Layden, a 2007 graduate of Marquette Union High School,
created guidebooks on uses of plants for their senior projects, at
COA-an intensive term-long thesis or capstone project that is required
of all COA students. Stark focused on mostly Maine plants, creating a
book titled, “Plants and People of New England: Our Contemporary
Reliance on Traditional Knowledge.” In addition to photos and
botanical information, she interviewed a variety of New Englanders on
how they currently use wild plants, whether for construction, food or
medicine, so as to emphasize the ongoing relationship between humans and
nature. Stark will be using the scholarship to prepare her guidebook for
publication. 

Layden's handbook, “Algonquian Ethnobotany: Medicinal, Edible, &
Ritual Native Plant Use,” is a reflection on the Algonquian's use of
various native edible, medicinal, and spiritual plants and fungi. In
addition to serving as a guide to these plants, it includes traditional
preparations as well as mythology incorporating the plants and fungi,
"manifesting a complete and distinct connection between the nature of
the plants and fungi and the Algonquian peoples," says Layden.

The work for which Gall received a scholarship is titled,
"Insect-Plant-Soil Relations on Serpentine and Granite on Deer Isles,
Hancock County, ME." Gall, a 2009 graduate of Woodbridge High School,
has been investigating areas with elevated levels of heavy metals, and
low levels of phosphorous, potassium, and other nutrients essential for
plant growth, what are known as serpentine sites. Despite the harsh,
even toxic environment, plants do grow on these severe soils. What Gall
has been focused on, however, are the herbivorous insects that live on
plants growing on these sites. She hopes to learn about which insects
have developed a tolerance to the heavy metals, and the implication this
has higher up on the food chain. 

Mansfield, who was homeschooled, is focused on the Callahan Mine, in
Brooksville, ME, which was designated a Superfund Site because of the
copper, zinc, and lead, at levels potentially dangerous to human health
and to the environment. She is surveying the vascular plants growing at
the site to look into the heavy metal accumulation in the plant tissue.
Like Gall, Mansfield is examining the implications to other species in
that environment.

Stark, Gall and Mansfield recently returned from the Northeast Natural
History Conference in Albany, NY, with Rajakaruna. Stark gave an oral
presentation of her work and Gall and Mansfield presented posters. To
see more botany work at COA visit
http://nrajakaruna.wordpress.com/research/.

Photos: Top: Nishanta Rajakaruna with Jillian Gall at the Callahan
Mine.
Bottom: Hazel Stark with winterberry, a member of the holly family. She
notes that it's a common plant on campus, and while the fruits are
inedible, the leaves can be used in tea. (Yerba mate, she adds, is also
a member of the holly family.)



Donna Gold
Director of Public Relations,
Editor, COA Magazine
College of the Atlantic
105 Eden Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
207-801-5623, office
207-266-4470, cell
dgold at coa.edu 
www.coa.edu