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Anyway, here are some quick facts: Full-time, grant-funded through December 2026 with potential for renewal. In-person at Holden Arboretum (Kirtland, OH) or U.S. Forest Service office (Delaware, OH) with regular fieldwork across the region. Apply by December 31. Not sure on salary but you can ask!

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As a perk, whoever steps into this role will likely work with me quite a bit! So that's a bonus! Well, that, and, you're literally helping secure the future of our forests. Hard to say which is more compelling... 😇

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This means training people, facilitating research partnerships, maybe writing grants, while also managing things like candidate tree monitoring and seed orchard development. In other words, it's a big, complex role that requires resistance breeding skills, organizational skills, and people skills.

The coordinator will continue to build this network of folks from federal and state agencies, NGOs, universities, etc etc. The collective goal is to find, breed for resistance, and eventually replant pest-resistant trees. The Collaborative's goal is to support the people making that happen.

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The Collaborative leads critical regional efforts saving ash, elm, beech, and hemlock from invasive pests threatening their survival (think: emerald ash borer plus newer pests bothering different species).

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

YOU GUYS. Come work with me! Holden Forests & Gardens is hiring! 🧵

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the feeds are very UGH today but "Birds! 🦉" remains pure #birds

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

"I'm raising awareness!" you tell me, as you divert some of your limited bandwidth into "public outreach." OK, but: Awareness that accomplishes what? With which specific audience? Without those answers, "raising awareness" won't work. Here's why (and how to fix it): ampliflora.com/public-outre...

ampliflora.com

Beyond Events and Newsletters: Why Traditional Public Outreach Isn't Enough | Ampliflora

Your science or conservation organization hosts events and sends newsletters, so why isn't anyone new showing up? Learn why traditional public outreach falls short and what strategies you actually nee...

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Anna Funk🌻 @itsdrfunk.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

I can't wait to listen to this!!! I am so obsessed with the music and general americana in the show (whomst among us isnt)

Madhusudan 🦉 Katti @leafwarbler.myatproto.social · 11/11/2025

Reposted by Anna Funk🌻

Your windshields should be absolutely covered in a sticky mess of bug splats/insect carcasses every time you drive across open country forcing you to stop periodically at gas stations to use their wet squeegees to try and clean up your view of the road at night

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Reposted by Anna Funk🌻

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics" guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation

Basic light pollution diagram showing four different streetlight set ups ranging from more light pollution on the left to less light pollution on the right. The most pollution option, labelled "very bad" is a street lamp with a round uncovered bulb on top, making a sphere of light in the air. The next option, labelled "bad" has a tiny cap on top, that limits the upward pollution a bit. The "better" option is mostly uncovered on top, limiting pollution above the streetlight. The final option, labelled "best" has a full shroud overtop, limiting the light to only below the streetlight, where it is needed for pedestrians and vehicles.

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“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.)

It’s how we know what we’re aiming for with forest management and restoration efforts, and it’s how we know what is lost if we keep degrading the land.

It’s critical that these types of places are studied — we need to know the actual differences between these healthy ancient stands and the forests we have today.

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.

By some estimates MO has about 800 acres of high quality old growth, and only one site in the OGFN. ONE! (Big Oak Tree State Park.) Anyway, you get my point.

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For reference, I looked up how many old growth forests there are in Illinois, where I grew up. According to the Old Growth Forest Network (OGFN) registry, there are five. “But Anna,” you say, “Illinois is not a foresty place.” OK, fine, let’s do Missouri:

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When you see a forest near you, it was probably logged at least once in the past — if not completely plowed and planted in agriculture at some point. The trees you see today are what has grown back.

“Old growth” means the site has never been disturbed, never been anything other than a forest. And in most of America (and lots of other places too) these types of places are really, really rare.

Dr. Jenny Morber @jrmorber.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Letttttt’s talkkkk abouttttt old growth forests. Depending on where you live, you may have never actually set foot in an old growth forest. (I mean, I’m pretty sure *I* never have, and I was a field ecologist for a number of years.)

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Reposted by Anna Funk🌻

"I allow spiders the run of the house. I figure that any predator that hopes to make a living on whatever smaller creatures might blunder into a four-inch square bit of space in the corner of the bathroom where the tub meets the floor, needs every bit of my support." -- AD, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

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

Even before I was a writer, I was always certain that if you could say the exact same thing in way that is more accessible and more engaging to read, you should. Scientists are also humans, so why wouldn't scientists want to enjoy reading manuscripts instead of slogging through them? Be the change!

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Reposted by Anna Funk🌻

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 12/11/2025

You thought the pictures from last night were incredible? Look at this!

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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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Reposted by Anna Funk🌻

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

I'd like to share a personal anecdote that underscores just how entrenched the myth of the "welfare queen" has become. Because all sorts of people have bought into it. I'll be as concise as possible.... 🧵

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Reposted by Anna Funk🌻

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Not a hard question, except for the culture that pretends it's not the answer 1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else 2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one

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1. No such thing as overdoing Halloween 2. 😂😂😂😭

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Flipboard! Really! Please tell us about Flipboard, I think I tried it briefly years and years ago but it didn't stick, and I haven't heard anyone mention it since.

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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Ahahaha thank you for sharing, I missed this the first time around. #scicomm is hard. I almost said "at least they tried" but... 😬

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Reposted by Anna Funk🌻

Archaeologists 200 years from now are gonna be SO confused.

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Sometimes a really, really exciting research question is a little deflating when you get the results. But alas, such is science! It's still a very cool discovery and encouraging to know *something* is eating garlic mustard (not even the deer will touch it).

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The team also launched a region-wide #CitizenScience effort to find out how widespread the aphid already is: Of the 1,300 observations sent in, over 200 found the aphid, with sightings as far west as Nebraska. It seems that wherever garlic mustard lives, the aphid likely already lives.

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It's better than nothing, though: Plants with aphids were around 40% smaller in mass and 20% shorter, and importantly had 40% fewer seeds per pod. Further study will be needed to confirm whether this slows down the plant's spread.

I have been eagerly waiting for the results of her & @holdenrestoration.bsky.social's experiment at Holden Forests & Gardens to quantify how much the bugs are actually affecting the invasive plants. Will this European bug rid us of garlic mustard one day?? Spoiler: No, probably not. Darn.

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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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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Breakdown, It's Alright - Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Learn how fast leaves actually break down (spoiler: it can take a few years) and why some decompose so much faster than others: www.wildflower.org/magazine/bre...

wildflower.org

Leaf decomposition is a slow process with big ecological benefits

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This is why I was so excited to write about the science of how leaves decompose for Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Wildflower Magazine’s “Leave the Leaves” campaign.