iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

“We say a lot that it feels like Lord of the Rings. Just these giant trees you can’t wrap your arms around,” Sarah Carrino-Kyker, who does a lot of work there, told me. So jealous!! (Image: Thranduil’s Halls by John Howe)

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Besides being important to research, old growth forests are also just awesome to see. (Bonus photo: Me in a cool forest that is not an old growth forest, as usual.)

There are two of them at the Holden Arboretum (in Ohio) — Stebbins Gulch and Bole Woods — and the science team at Holden has the great privilege of having them on-hand for their research.

In the fall issue of Forests & Gardens magazine, I wrote about why old forests like this matter.

Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

If you want to impress a small child, I highly recommend a headstand.

Anna stands on her head in the lawn while a small child looks on, impressed.

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

A couple years ago, my colleague Rebecah Troutman found an aphid munching on garlic mustard that turned out to be the first documented sighting of the insect *ever* in the U.S. (I admit I'm a little jealous, that's so cool!!)

Close up of a blackish-brown aphid that would turn out to be the first-ever U.S. sighting of a European garlic mustard aphid (Lipaphis alliariae).

Snapshots from the field of garlic mustard plants found affected by aphids. The leaves and stems appear wrinkly, stunted, deformed.

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

And this fall, I encourage you to #LeaveTheLeaves! But, like, not on your grass. (Unless you're trying to #KillYourLawn but that's a project for another day.) Thanks!

A bit of front yard, March 2025, with enough crispy brown oak leaves from the previous fall to start killing the greening-up grass. Excuse the callery pear across the street (ew).

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

And all along the way, the woods are being restored, meaning they support more native species and will be more healthy and resilient in the future. 📷: Conservation staff control nonnative shrubs in Working Woods. (Credit: Jessica Miller Mecaskey/HF&G)

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

It's a laboratory: a study site where ecologists ask questions about invasive species and more. 📷: Interns and HF&G staff survey plants in the Working Woods. (Credit: Emily Hilpman/HF&G)

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Short 🧵: The Working Woods Hub has it all. It's a place: a woodland where they demonstrate different forestry management practices and landowners can come see the results. 📷: Forest management plots with (R) and without (L) non-native shrub removal. (Cred: Jessica Miller Mecaskey)

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It’s really hard to describe “canopy loss” in words, and it doesn’t really show well in pictures. But walking through an Ohio beech forest is surreal. Its prevalence is shocking.

It’s not unusual for me to cover a topic that I’ve never actually encountered in person, it’s part of the job. But during a visit to the Holden Arboretum in June 2023, I got to see BLD first-hand.

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Recent reports from Holden show 30% of trees have died, almost all of them saplings. And it’s ALL the saplings. So even if mature beech make it, if BLD prevents young trees from growing up, we’re still one tree-generation away from losing all the beech. Trees still die of old age.

BLD was first spotted in 2012, not far from Holden Arboretum in Lake County, OH. It took a few years before researchers figured out the cause (nematodes) and later the mechanisms (nematodes wrecking havoc inside leaf buds). Biologically speaking, it’s all very new.

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I update it whenever there’s a new development, and folks reach out to me with questions every now and again. I love being able to help in this small way — I’m no expert, but I have read all the research papers, which I suppose counts for something.

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But as far as I know, it’s the only reference out there of its kind — the only comprehensive reference practitioners and members of the public can rely on for the latest updates on the disease’s spread and recommendations for control.

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It’s just a webpage, a collection of information, including links to stories and scientific research, treatment recommendations, and FAQ.

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The pest of the new millennium is BLD, and it’s sweeping through the northeastern U.S. and into Canada faster than you can say “nematode.” This project, the Beech Leaf Disease page at Holden Forests & Gardens, is one I'm particularly proud of.

If you live in the U.S. west (or south, for that matter) of Ohio, you may not have heard of beech leaf disease. You’re more likely to have heard of — or lost trees to — Dutch elm disease, or emerald ash borer, or if you’re collecting social security, chestnut blight. 🧵

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Ultimately, the whole situation is terribly inspiring, and a perfect example of people coming together over shared values to accomplish something that benefits everyone. Read the full story here: www.naturalareas.org/docs/Collabo...

Screenshot of the story featured at the link in the post.

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Everyone talked highly of the strong spirit of volunteerism among Kansans. As strongly as some folks don’t want to be told what to do, they feel equally compelled to do what is right — for their land, for their families, and for future generations.

One of those sunset photos that seemed absolutely irresistible to take at the time, but turned out slightly blurry and shows off way too much of the grime on the car window. But trust me, this sunset over the Flint Hills was amazing.

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Today, the Flint Hills have some of the best examples of lands that are serving people *and* nature — cattle *and* prairie chickens. “If it’s good for the bird, it’s good for the herd,” was one rancher’s mantra. (pictured: not a cow)

A bison at Konza Prairie in the Flint Hills.

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Here's a story for you about Americans doing GOOD things together #FourthOfJuly #TimelineCleanse The Flint Hills of Kansas are home to some of the biggest and best prairie lands that still exist in the US. They’re also almost entirely privately owned by cattle ranchers.

Landscape shot of Kansas' Flint Hills -- prairie rangeland as far as the eye can see under a hazy blue sky.

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Another day, another magazine for you! One of my favorite publications to write for is the Marquette University Alumni Magazine. (Pictured: Photos of the cover and inside pages of the magazine)

Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I got to write about some amazing work from Dr. Chelsea Miller (U of Akron) and @holdenrestoration.bsky.social, who led a multi-botanic-garden project on spring ephemerals [pictured for your viewing pleasure]. Volunteer #communityscientists tracked when wildflowers leaf out, bloom, and fruit.

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

My latest story is out in Public Garden magazine! Got my copy in the mail just last week. It's a feature on how ecologists and #communityscientists teamed up to study #climatechange and #phenology at wildflower gardens at botanic gardens across the country.

Photo of the cover of Public Garden, the journal of the American Public Gardens Association, volume 40, issue 2, 2025. One of the headlines is "climate change research."

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

This lil gem made it all the way over to my *husband's* *Facebook* I now return it to Bluesky where it belongs @francisgasparini.bsky.social

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

It's a tiny hat for your dog. Or a mane. Or angel wings. It’s superheroes, it’s pop stars, it’s stupid puns. It's Beetlejuice, it’s Practical Magic, it’s Matilda. 12/

Samson the dog in a lion mane, three ways.

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

Well, let me tell you what’s so bad about pink: It’s girly. People won’t take me seriously if I’m in a pink booth. People won’t take my business seriously if it’s girly. Is that so? Elle Woods would like to have a word. 13/

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

Friends, I did not think this through. It's a LOT of pink. 5/