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Learn more & apply here: holdenfg.org/career-and-i...

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!

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... 😇

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.

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).

Holden is seeking a Forest Health Coordinator to take the reins on the Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Collaborative.

See: holdenfg.org/great-lakes-...

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)

Anywho, find the Fall 2025 Forests & Gardens issue here: holdenfg.org/forests-and-...

Thanks for reading byeee ✌️

“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)

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.

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:

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.