Gretchen Stevens

2022 PCA Awardee

In her more than thirty year career, Gretchen Stevens, has made significant contributions to the fields of botany, habitat preservation, and biodiversity. Serving as Director of Hudsonia’s Biodiversity Resources Center and steward of the Hudsonia – Bard College Field Station Herbarium, she not only managed the herbarium but also mentored countless botanists and biologists as part of her commitment to nurturing the next generation of professionals. Her extensive fieldwork includes biodiversity assessments of parks, development sites, and even entire towns, emphasizing plant and habitat identification.

Gretchen played a pivotal role in Hudsonia’s notable projects, including the award-winning wetland and upland habitat creation for the threatened Blanding’s turtle. Her collaborative efforts with various experts resulted in the successful implementation of habitat projects and the publication of valuable guides and manuals. Gretchen’s influence extends beyond her research, as she has trained over 900 professionals in habitat identification, resource conservation, wetland regulations, and land-use review.

Nancy Slack

2021 PCA Awardee

Nancy Slack began her career as an undergraduate at Cornell studying ornithology and zoology. While her husband Glenn completed his graduate work in physics, she took several botany courses and was able to get a research assistantship studying the cytogenetics of flowering tobacco. After completing her Master’s degree at Cornell she received a NYS Museum grant to study Vaccinium oxycoccos ecology in the Adirondack High peaks. There she gained knowledge of and appreciation for alpine ecology, an area she has pursued ever since.

After Nancy moved to the Schenectady area she became involved with the Nature Conservancy, helping to preserve a number of important natural areas (including the Pine Bush, though she feels her attempt failed, it was the start of a movement recognizing the importance of that natural area). In 1966 Nancy’s family moved to Oxford, England when her husband won a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was able to get a job as a teaching assistant and part of the course involved ferns and bryophytes, which she did not know much about at the time. This started her on another lifelong path studying and spreading an appreciation of bryophytes. After returning from Oxford, Nancy completed her PhD in Plant Ecology at SUNY Albany. Part of her research included the study of the vegetational changes on Whiteface Mountain from the base, up through several forest types, and into the alpine.

Nancy has taught courses in biology, botany, ecology, and the evolution and history of Science at Russell Sage College for over 30 years, as well as numerous non-college courses and workshops, teaching for ECOS (Environmental Clearing House of Schenectady), the Adirondack and Appalachian Mountain Clubs, the Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and the Thursday Naturalists. She has written, along with her friend and alpine enthusiast, Allison Bell, field guides for the alpine region of the Adirondacks and the White mountains of New Hampshire. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Nature Conservancy Oak Leaf award, the  Adirondack Mountain Club Education Award, The Waterman Fund award for Alpine Research and Stewardship award, and now, the NYFA Conservationist of the Year.

Catherine Landis

2020 PCA Awardee

Catherine Landis has been devoted to the research and restoration of ecosystems, with a focus on plant communities, for decades. Catherine has a much-needed understanding of human relationships with plants, and everywhere she goes she helps inspire and guide people to deepen their knowledge, and to actually put it into action by tending the places where we live.

Catherine has done outstanding work on the historical ecology of Onondaga Lake, with a focus on plant communities. In respectful collaboration with Haudenosaunee community members, she created a document of these plants’ importance to indigenous peoples, and how they have long cared for these plants. Her work is an instrumental manual, carefully compiled and acknowledging many knowledge sources, on how to restore and live equitable and harmoniously with this lake, land, and people.

Catherine can be seen implementing her research on a day-to-day basis. She is often found helping young people get their hands in the soil and connect with plants, or, working with nurseries to grow wild seeds. She facilitates donations of plants to schools and organizations, and plants and tends gardens for traditional cultural knowledge such as at the Skanonh Great Law of Peace Center at Onondaga Lake. She serves as an advisor for students in the SUNY-ESF Botany Club, and she held a course on Wild Edible Plants of the Northeast. In addition, she serves on the board of multiple conservation organizations, helping to protect forest and plant communities in perpetuity.

Catherine is a humble and remarkable person. She would say she is just thankful to be able to do all this with all of your help, and on the beautiful earth we all belong to. But she has done us all a great service – so let’s join in, read her work, and plant more plants!

Richard Andrus

2019 PCA Awardee

Dr. Andrus, a graduate of RPI and ESF, began and developed the Environmental Studies Program at SUNY Binghamton in 1973. He was a world renowned bryologist, specializing in Sphagnum, with numerous publications to his credit, including several contributions specific to New York State. He was also a chief contributor to the Sphagnaceae treatment in Flora of North America. Dick led numerous forays for various bryological groups and mentored many young botanists. With his colleague, Dr. Julian Shepherd, he helped to establish the Binghamton University Nature Preserve. After 45 years of teaching, Dick retired in 2018, donating the bulk of his collections to Duke University.

Dick was also an active member of the Binghamton community where he resided, participating in several community organizations, including VINES (Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments), the City Shade Tree Commission and NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association). He practiced what he preached – environmental advocacy and sustainable living.

In his honor, Binghamton University has established a scholarship, the “Andrus Field Research Program”, to support student research. Donations can be sent to the Binghamton University Foundation, P.O. Box 6005, Binghamton NY 13902. Please designate “Andrus Field Research Program” with the donation.

Jon and Priscilla Titus

2018 PCA Awardees

Jon and Priscilla Titus have been dedicated and tireless advocates for native plants and habitats in Western NY for many years. Priscilla and Jon have made native plant conservation their life’s work. With great enthusiasm and generosity they have shared their knowledge and passion with students, colleagues and conservationists.

Jon and Priscilla are longstanding members of the New York Flora Association and the Niagara Frontier Botanical Society and have lent their professional expertise to the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy and the Nature Sanctuary Society of Western New York. Champions of nature preserves and natural areas, they have conducted inventories, searched for rare species, removed invasive plants and contributed thousands of native plants for restoration of natural sites and to enhance public and private gardens.

Individually and as a team, Priscilla and Jon are truly the embodiment of the NYFA Plant Conservationist!

Connie Tedesco

2017 PCA Awardee

Botanist Connie Tedesco has a B.S. in Plant Sciences from Cornell and an M.A. in Biology from SUNY Oneonta where she studied the pollination biology of Jacob’s ladder, Polemonium vanbruntiae. She has worked on compiling the floras of Montgomery and Otsego Counties and has added many new species to those and other nearby counties.

In Otsego County she has served as the field representative and operations coordinator for Otsego County Land Trust where she helped preserve plant habitats throughout the county. She continued that conservation role as Stewardship Director and Volunteer Coordinator for the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy through early 2017. In 2015 she began the Leatherstocking Botanical Society serving the central New York area.

She now volunteers as the curator of the Hoysradt Herbarium at Hartwick College and promotes native ferns and woodland plants for the Leatherstocking Region at her native plant nursery, The Fernery. Connie served for many years on the NYFA board and helped our organization tremendously with her hard work and forward-looking ideas.

Mike Kudish

2016 PCA Awardee

Prominent Botanist and Educator Mike Kudish is the author of The Catskill Forest: A History. Kudish has a B.S. in Biology from the City College of New York, an M.S. in Botany from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Plant Ecology from SUNY-ESF. His PhD dissertation on a ‘Vegetational History of the Catskill High Peaks’ began his life-long study of the region’s plants. It seems Kudish just kept heading north in New York and helped shape the next generation of botanists during his 30+ years as a professor at Paul Smith’s College from 1971-2005 teaching courses on dendrology, plant ecology, forest history and more.

An accomplished writer as well, Kudish authored Paul Smith’s Flora, Paul Smiths Flora II, Adirondack Upland Flora, the Catskill Forest: A History, and Mountain Railroads of New York State: Where Did the Tracks Go? He continues to pass on his amazing wealth of knowledge through lectures and field trips for numerous Adirondack and Catskill non-profit groups as well as with regular articles in Kaatskill Life Magazine.

Garden Club of East Hampton

2015 PCA Awardee

The Garden Club of East Hampton (GCEH) received the award for its project at Barnes Hole Road to revive the existing population of Platanthera ciliaris, the yellow-fringed orchid. The population, which was thriving as recently as 20 years ago, is the last known in New York State and has been reduced to one blooming plant.

The GCEH’s work at Barnes Hole Road is part of a multi-year project under the aegis of, and with funding from, the Garden Club of America’s (GCA) Partners For Plants (P4P) program. P4P is a joint program of GCA’s Horticulture and Conservation Committees to monitor and conserve rare plants, restore native habitats, and remove invasive weeds on federal, state and local public lands. Since its founding in 1992, P4P has sponsored over 375 projects across the United States.

At the Barnes Hole Road site, GCEH is working in partnership with the Town of East Hampton, the Broadview Homeowner’s Association, and The Nature Conservancy – the 3 landowners of the site in question. In 2015 they protected the one blooming plant with a wire cage and placed chicken wire cloches over about 20 sterile leaves. In March 2016, a team of volunteers from GCEH, The Nature Conservancy, and the community, led by Dr. Eric Lamont, consulting botanist, cleared brush and overhanging limbs from the site in order to provide more sun to the forest floor. Dr. Lamont noted that this will help the sterile leaves mature to the flowering stage. He is optimistic that we’ll succeed in providing the resources and resolve to maintain this site long term, given GCEH’s extensive history maintaining community gardens in East Hampton since the 1930’s.

Ed Miller and Nancy Williams

2014 PCA Awardees

Working together, Ed and Nan have been a dynamic duo and tireless advocates for the flora of New York. They have created and curated native plant and fern gardens at the Landis Arboretum in Esperance, NY, co-authored guides to the Trees and Ferns of the Capital District, and have shared their enthusiasm for native plants with innumerable aspiring botanists and natural historians throughout the region.

Anne Johnson

2013 PCA Awardee

Anne has been actively exploring the wild plants of New York for most of her life, particularly in her home county of St. Lawrence. She has performed plant ecology work at Fort Drum, conducted rare plant surveys for the New York Natural Heritage Program and works as a botanical consultant.

In 2010, Anne co-authored with Nancy Eldblom the Plants of St. Lawrence County, NY, An Annotated Checklist of Vascular Flora. This is the most comprehensive guide to date for the over 1300 species that grow in the St. Lawrence region, including many previously unreported native plants. Anne has been a member of NYFA since its inception, formerly serving on the Board of Directors.

Anne now volunteers as the editor of the quarterly NYFA newsletter. She has coordinated NYFA workshops and field trips, and leads hikes that connect people with native plants throughout the northeastern Adirondack region. Presenting the award at the NYFA annual membership meeting, President David Werier proclaimed the Plants of St. Lawrence County a botanical masterpiece, and lauded Anne’s tireless efforts to document the flora of this large and floristically diverse New York county.

Emily DeBolt

2012 PCA Awardee

Emily is a certified Nursery and Landscape professional, avid botanist, and environmentalist. Through her work with the Lake George Association she came to recognize the importance of incorporating native plants in landscaping, and as a result founded Fiddlehead Creek Farm and Nursery in Hartford, NY with her husband Chris in 2009.

The first 100% native plant nursery in the state, Fiddlehead Creek Farm is a labor of love. Emily and Chris grow native plants for sale to the public and provide lots of support and encouragement to those interested in using native species in their gardens and landscapes. “Emily has been a tireless advocate for native plants for many years in her role as Director of Education at the Lake George Association and as a partner with the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, as well as owner/operator of her native plant nursery.

Emily has been an integral and important part of our efforts over the years to address aquatic and terrestrial invasive species issues in the Adirondack Park. “She is a go-to person for planning and implementation of invasive species control efforts and information regarding native plant species” said Dan Spada, NYFA board member and President of the Adirondack Research Consortium.