Caitlin MacKenzie

@cmacmtns.bsky.social

2865 Followers 687 Following

Plant ecologist, lover of tiny alpine communities on small mountains, faculty at Bennington College, Plant Love Stories co-founder, she/her

a view of a very clean ecology faculty office with freshly painted walls (white), a very clean blackboard, bookshelves full of newly organized books, a freshly vacuumed rug on a freshly waxed and buffed linoleum floor, an immaculate clean desktop and sun streaming through extremely clean windows.
A figure from a forest ecology paper published in 1984 that features stick-figure-style illustrations of a hemlock tree and adorable sketches of helmock needles, maple leaves, and beech leaves to represent the distribution of sapling species under a hemlock canopy in different old growth sites. The figure shows that hemlock saplings are almost always more prevalent under hemlock canopy than the maple and beech saplings.
A BuzzFeed-style quiz with a knock-off logo that says "BotanyFeed" and underneath there is a bold text subheading that reads "QUIZ Are You a Charles Darwin or Are You an Asa Gray?"
stickers with illustrations of plants & puns written underneath: "good chives only", "i'm kind of a big dill", "its about damn time", "lookin' sharp", and "mint to be"
A college science building hallway with a large poster titled "Plantsgiving" and a blank histogram with an x-axis with Plant Families listed on the bottom. There are photos of corn (Poaceae), coffee (Rubiaceae) and Brassica oleracea (the species that gives us cabbage, brussels sprouts, kohrabi, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower — Brassicaceae). The poster is waiting for students to add their Plantsgiving data.
One Art By Elizabeth Bishop The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster. —Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
a comic that comprises three rows and three columns of mock-scientific papers where only the titles are legible. The title of the whole comic is: "Types of scientific paper we read in advanced forest ecology & conservation (with lab)". The titles of the first row of papers are: "We made a computer model and called it a day"; "It was the past and ecology was easier back then"; "If you ignore the other variables, this finding is shocking!" The titles of the middle row of papers are: "I hope you like graphs…"; "I found these old documents so now I can do research for free*"; "FIA did the field work so we don’t have to" The titles of the bottom row of papers are: "Mars Attacks: Forests Invaded by Evil Alien (plants)"; "Oh, god, that’s right, there’s fauna out there"; "Some good news, actually"
a scientist sits on the summit of a mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine. She is wearing a purple jacket and blue baseball cap, writing in an orange notebook. Behind her, the view stretches out across Mount Desert Island forests into the Gulf of Maine and distant islands.
three small lego plates decorated with a single layer of brown and green flat, square legos that create three pixelated pictures of an herbarium specimen, complete with label (blank white 2x2 square) and envelope packet (1x2 piece with envelope styling).
a row of 4 mason jars full of maple syrup — the syrup ranges from a light golden amber to a deep rich coffee brown.
a mounted tree core with a post it note. the tree core is blonde with distinct tan lines from the tree rings; the core is mounted on a piece of blonde wood that also cradles a cross-section of a bittersweet vine. the post-it note says “I’m 40 years old and I have vines!!!”
a black and white photo of ecologist Henry Gleason as a grad student in 1905. He's a handsome young white dude looking off in the distance while wearing a sweater over a collared shirt and tie, with a jaunty formal wool hat that's half park-ranger half-godfather style.
a screen shot of a paragraph in a syllabus for a college biology course that reads: Generative AI, including ChatGPT, is not permitted in this class. The environmental costs of AI — the energy to power data centers, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with this energy demand, the clean water required for cooling data centers, the mining required to source the rare earth minerals in computing chips — are in opposition to the goals of this class and ecological stewardship broadly. Nothing you are writing or researching for this course is worth this tradeoff; just do your work. For more information: UN Environmental Programme, MIT News
a hardcover copy of the book Brave the Wild River the Untold Story of Two Women who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon. the book is propped up against a window, snow is falling outside.
a stack of books in an office window backlit by a snowy field. The books are: George Perkins Marsh’s Man and Nature; Elder’s Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa; Pastor’s White Pine; Trombulak’s So Great a Vision; McKibben’s American Earth; Tonino’s The Animal One Thousand Miles Long; the DVD of A Place in the Land; and leaning against the stack is The World of George Perkins Marsh an illustrated biography
a hand drawn map of a college campus speckled with colored circles with the title “A Tree Count of Bennington College from 1970-1985” and a little printed pamphlet from the 1970s titled “Trees and Shrubs of Bennington College”
a museum gift shop display showcases a pop-up paper “winter tree” with colorful paper bird accessories
a “knitting pattern” created by a forest ecology student as part of a final project describing the composition and structure of their forest plot. the pattern includes a photo of an herbarium specimen of marcesent beech leaves and the gridded pixel chart of the same image that the student used to knit a color work design on their hand knit sweater.
a cartoon beaver adorned with a hair or and little star stickers says “hey, hey you there… be the ecosystem engineer of your own life ❤️” The beaver is holding a gift and an arrow pointing at the gift notes “the present is you, and the knowledge you gain in this class.” above the beaver are bullet points of advice: don’t panic; shine bright; always bring snacks; you go girl!
12 papers posted on a chalkboard — chalk arrows connect papers showing citation connections. squares are sketched next to research papers, triangles next to review papers. C = papers about common species; R = papers about rare species
A screenshot of a problem set for an intro ecology course: BIO 2217 Fundamentals of Ecology Fall 2024 Problem Set 8 Name: Collaborators (friends & family): The #PlantsGiving Challenge was created by Professor Chris Martine at Bucknell University. Dr. Martine asks his students — and botanists on social media — to record all the plants that they cook in their Thanksgiving meals. There’s a friendly competition to incorporate high diversity in plant families into your menu. For this problem set, you will choose one meal during Thanksgiving break and record the plant ingredients in each dish. You do NOT need to choose Thanksgiving dinner; you just need a meal with at least three dishes. Step 1: Make a Table. Copy the google sheets template from moodle, or use a print out, to record dishes, plant ingredients, and plant families. See our class slides for an example. It is okay to have duplicate plants — if you baked corn bread and a corn pudding, you can list corn under two different dishes. Check for plant families on the list of common cooking plants, or use wikipedia or USDA Plants. Step 2: Biodiversity Metrics. Look at the Part Two tab on your google sheet (or page 2 on your print out). Transcribe your data from Part One into this list of Plant Families. ‘Abundance’ is the number of times the Plant Family appears as an ingredient in your meal across all dishes. Which plant family had the greatest number of ingredients (ie highest abundance) across your whole meal? (1 point) Calculate the Family Richness for your meal. How many unique plant families were represented on your plate? (1 point)
A table of common plant ingredients, species names, and plant families in preparation for #PlantsGiving: Plant Ingredient Species Name Family Apple Malus domestica Rosaceae Black pepper Piper nigrum Piperaceae Broccoli Brassica oleracea Brassicaceae Carrot Daucus carota Apiaceae Celery Apium graveolens Apiaceae Chile peppers Capsicum spp. Solanaceae Chocolate Theobroma cacao Malvaceae Coffee Coffea arabica Rubiaceae Corn Zea mays Poaceae Cranberry Vaccinium macrocarpon Ericaceae Garlic Allium sativum Amaryllidaceae Green beans Phaseolus vulgaris Fabaceae Lettuce Lactuca sativa Asteraceae Onion Allium cepa Amaryllidaceae Oregano Origanum vulgare Lamiaceae Parsley Petroselinum crispum Apiaceae Peas Lathyrus oleraceus Fabaceae Pecan Carya illinoinensis Juglandaceae Potato Solanum tuberosum Solanceae Pumpkin Cucurbita pepo Cucurbitaceae Rosemary Salvia rosmarinus Lamiaceae Sage Sativa officinalis Lamiaceae Sweet potato Ipomoea batatas Convolvulaceae Thyme Thymus vulgaris Lamiaceae Tofu (soy bean) Glycine max Fabaceae Tomato Solanum lycopersicum Solanaceae Wheat Triticum aestivum Poaceae
the trunk of a dying white ash tree: bark is flaking off to reveal exit holes for the beetle, as well as lots of woodpecker holes from birds trying to feed on them
a pencil-sized core of a tree with visible annual rings mounted on a wooden block. the rings at the bottom (center of the tree) are wide — the seedling grew fast to become a sapling! — while the rings near the top (from recent growth) are narrow and more tightly arranged as the tree grew more slowly as a mature canopy tree
a polished wood sign with a laser cut engraving that says “certified academic weapon” in comic sans font
an undergrad holds a thin pencil-sizes core of wood capturing the growth rings of a red pine. the core is fresh from the auger of an increment borer and still balanced on the metal scoop
a close up on the bark of a white pine with a diameter tape measuring 113.5 cm wrapped around it. the triple-digit section of the diameter tape is bright white against the faded single-digit section of the tape because we rarely get to measure trees this big with our d-tapes in southern vermont
two professors dresses up for halloween as the grandfather and grandson in the movie the Princess Bride. The “grandson” is lying across a faculty lounge couch in a bears jersey and pajamas pants, holding a video game controller. the “grandfather” sits next to her in a suit, reading from The Princess Bride and looking over his glasses at the camera.
a view looking out on the green mountains in fall with three pairs of hiking boots poised on a ledge in the foreground (one pair of mom boots and two little kids)
A lecture slide decorated with photos of children's craft pompoms presents "Minimum Set with Pom Poms" and asks "Which pompoms move the most pollen?" above a table displaying the efficiency rating of pompoms by size (small/medium/large) and hairiness ("hairy"/not "hairy").
a mossy spot by a hiking trail is dappled with the slightly shiny evergreen toothed clover-ish leaves of goldthread. a single fruiting stem stands above the moss and the sunlight catches on delicate strands of an old spiderweb
a dark navy Medeola virginiana berry against a bright pink peduncle held above a whorl of yellow leaves
a twisted skein of wool yarn wrapped around a matching mini ball of yarn with a rich, earthy green-yellow color
dried marigold blossoms scattered on the grate of a greenhouse bench
Materials Each group has: ● Snail puppet ● Habitat patch ● Coin Introduction You each have a habitat patch. This patch represents a great habitat for an eastern glass-snail, one of New England’s land snails. Your patches do not differ in their size, isolation, habitat quality, or resource levels. All of these patches could support a population of eastern glass-snails. First Coin Flip (Slides off) Flip your coin. If your coin lands on HEADS, hold up your snail puppet. These are the patches currently supporting snail populations! Now unlike all our population models up to this point, these snails are OPEN populations. Our snails can immigrate and emigrate. A snail could move into a new patch! So, flip your coin again. If your coin lands on HEADS, hold up your snail puppet. If your coin lands on TAILS, drop your snail puppet. Who had TWO HEADS in a row? Your snail population persisted! Who had TWO TAILS in a row? Your patch remains empty of snails. Who had ONE TAIL, THEN ONE HEA
A collection of construction paper props: six "habitat patches" that are a blue pond surrounded by green and brown construction paper and six "snail puppets" which are cut outs of a snail cartoon on a construction paper background that are taped to wooden paint mixing sticks in a style reminiscent of an auction paddle.
a flyer for an ecology seminar: Fall 2024 Environmental Sciences Seminar Series Wednesday, October 2 2:30-3:30pm James Hall G46 Forest mini-series: Plant ecology and climate change in Acadia National Park: conservation lessons from fossil pollen, historical floras, and field manipulations Dr. Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie Faculty, Bennington College Conservation practitioners need assessments of climate change vulnerability in order to most effectively allocate limited resources towards protecting and stewarding species, communities, and ecosystems. The granite ridges of Acadia National Park are an iconic New England landscape in the oldest National Park east of the Mississippi. Acadia represents less than 1% of Maine’s land area, but supports over 40% of the state’s flora, and harbors subalpine communities at extremely low elevations in the harsh, foggy coastal microclimate. Over the past decade, my research in Acadia has explored plant responses to environmental change drawing on t
A syllabus for a course called 'Reading and Knitting the Forested Landscape' Course Description: Why would a forest ecology course include an assignment to knit a wool hat? In this class we will explore the lasting impact of sheep on the Vermont landscape, from the earliest settler-colonizers through today’s small batch fiber mills and second growth forests studded with stone walls. Sheep, and especially a 19th century boom in merino sheep, radically altered Vermont’s forests and inspired early writing on conservation and sustainable land management. We will hone our field ecology and natural history skills to recognize signs of past land use in the forests today, learn to knit with local wool and explore botanical dyeing, and consider the impacts of our fiber and clothing choices on the environment today. No knitting experience required.
A lecture slide with a quote from a scientific paper about dormice that reads "Huddling, torpor, hibernation, and reproduction skipping do not merely optimize energy-budgets but also help to balance individual predation risk against reproductive success (Ruf 2020)" Next to the quote is an image of a sticker with a floral motif that says "Rest is Productive."
two frog life cycle diagrams are laid out on a kitchen counter. each one comprises laminated photos of the life stage and separate laminated fecundity and survivorship arrows on colorful construction paper
four sketches of an Asplenium (spleenwort) fern: a tiny single-leaved individual, a small two-leaved individual, a medium individual with five leaves, and a large individual with seven much longer leaves.
The title and first few sentences of a paper published in Ecology in 2003 by Andrea Pilastro et al: LONG LIVING AND REPRODUCTION SKIPPING IN THE FAT DORMOUSE Abstract: We studied the reproductive strategy of a population of fat dormice (Myoxus glis) breeding in nest boxes in a beech forest on the southern Alps, Italy. In eight years of data collection (1991–1998), we observed births only in 1991, 1992, and 1995. We did not observe young during the autumn dispersal in the remaining five years. Reproduction was not correlated with high rainfall, low temperature in summer, or with population density. Reproduction was only observed in years of beech mast seeding. Body condition of adults when they emerged from hibernation did not differ between years with and without reproduction, suggesting that the adults may avoid breeding when the young have a low probability of surviving their first winter.
A dichotomous key designed to walk Bennington students through where they attend college: 1. Do you go to college in Vermont? YES ➡ GO TO 2 NO ➡ Transfer. Vermont is gorgeous. 2. Is your college a part of the State College system of Vermont? YES ➡ GO TO 3 NO ➡ GO TO 4 3. Are you enrolled in a Community College? YES ➡ You attend a Community College of Vermont NO ➡ You attend Vermont State University 4. Does your college have an undergraduate population over 10,000 students? YES ➡ You attend University of Vermont NO ➡ GO TO 5 5. Does your college share a name with its town? YES ➡ GO TO 6 NO ➡ GO TO 7 6. Is your college the dark academic setting for Donna Tartt’s The Secret History? YES ➡ You attend Bennington College NO ➡ You attend Middlebury College
A list of slide decks for an ecology reading seminar. The first class is titled 'Welcome to Rare and Common'; the second class is 'Common Ecology.' The third slide deck is highlighted and titled: 'Our Queen Deborah Rabinowitz'
a sunlit faculty office with a cute short couch positioned facing a professor’s desk. the wall to the left is lined with bookshelves, directly behind the desk is a huge window with views of a green campus. the desk is cluttered with papers and books and a coffee mug, it’s a warm and inviting space
A screenshot of a syllabus for a course titled 'Fundamentals of Ecology'. There's basic info on the course meeting time and classroom, etc placed next to a four-panel comic. Panel 1: a small yellow and grey bird sits on the back of a cetacean. The text reads "Alaska Rare Bird Alert. A wayward YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER (Myrtle) found feeding on a whale carcass on the shorefast ice a few miles north of Point Barrow yesterday." Panel 2: zooming in on the wabler, still sitting on the back of the cetacean. Panel 3: zooming in even more. Panel 4: zoomed in to see the warbler's mean mug. A speech bubble from the warbler reads "anyone else want to try me"
an urban turkey hangs out on a residential street in cambridge, ma.
A woman holds a glass of beer in one hand and balances a book on her lap. The book is Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science by Erin Zimmerman
A white woman sits among gorgeous alpine plants on mt washington in a nice rain jacket and quick-drying comfy hiking pants. The clouds above her are parting to reveal a patch of blue sky. She is holding a stack of data sheets that seem to imply a successful day of research and yet her face is extremely disgruntled.
four gallon-bags filled with trail mix — chex cereal, peanut butter m&ms, dried fruit, salty peanuts & almonds, pretzel goldfish, and chocolate chips
a 3x3 bingo board: each square contains a natural history activity for students to complete. The activities are: Goldenrods and witch hazel bloom in the fall. Use a field guide to find an example of one of these species behind Dickinson. Then, spend 10 minutes quietly observing a flower. What do you notice? Read A Country Year outdoors Find and sketch evidence of herbivory (animals eating leaves) Collect and sketch six acorns Use the Sound Map kit. Find a comfortable place to sit outdoors. Draw your Sound Map. Read World of Wonders outdoors Read Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape outdoors Find and sketch three different plants with berries There are two species of pine trees that grow by Dickinson. Use a field guide to find an example of each pine. Then, find an example of a needle-leaf tree by Dickinson that is not a pine.
a paperback copy of Sue Hubbell’s amazing book A Country Year with little blue sticky notes bookmarking favorite chapters
a stack of great ecology books mostly aimed at general audiences on a patio table: The Triumph of Seeds by Thor Hanson, Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller, Dispersals by Jessica J Lee, and Rarity by Kevin Gaston
two slides from a lecture explaining the peer- reviewed research on “availability of cookies during an academic course session affects evaluation of teaching”
a jar of fresh maple syrup sits on a professor’s bookshelf. There’s crystallized sugar precipitated at the bottom of the jar; the syrup is has a golden brown glow
a stack of beautiful topographic maps with shades of light blue and green depicting a quaint little community on the shore of lake champlain circa 1916
a bright teal rug with a pattern of moths and beetles rolled out in a mostly empty office with a table serving as a temporary desk. there’s a big window behind the table looking out on an idyllic rural college campus
a closet of ecology field gear with clean shelves and labeled cardboard bins neatly lined up
an intricate 3-D paper tree with “over 36 colorful assorted birds” that you can place on the branches. the effect resembles a famous figure from a scientific paper about six warbler species sharing a coastal spruce tree habitat because each species uses a different portion of the tree and with different strategies for hunting insects