Welcome to Anna Carragee, New Rare Care Program Staff Member
Anna Carragee is no stranger to the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH). From 2014-2016, she logged countless hours in the greenhouse and the Douglas Research Conservatory, attending classes and nurturing hundreds of native plants from seed to maturity while earning her Master of Environmental Horticulture (MEH) at UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
Today Anna is once again spending her days at CUH, but in a different role: she recently became the new Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for the Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program.
“Anna brings strong volunteer management skills from her experience coordinating volunteers at Kubota Garden,” says Wendy Gibble, UW Botanic Gardens Associate Director and Manager of Conservation and Education, Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation. “And she’s excited to build our volunteer program by offering new volunteer opportunities that engage communities and volunteers of diverse backgrounds.”
Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Anna had an affinity for the natural world and a desire to steward it. In 2012 she received her B.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont, and in 2016 she earned her MEH. (Check out this profile of her from 2015.)
Get to know her better below…
Who or what shaped your love of the natural world?
Oddly enough it was my dad! Even though he grew up in Manhattan as a bookworm and city kid he taught me how to identify oak leaves when I was young.
Also my work study position at the Intervale Conservation Nursery in Burlington, VT was fabulous. That was my first hands-on experience with the horticulture of native plants. Snowshoeing around to take cuttings of willows and dogwoods was really fun. My mind was blown when we stabbed them in the soil and they grew roots from stems and branches that had been growing high up in the air before we cut them!
What was the focus of your Master’s work?
My MEH project was focused on getting the Society for Ecological Restoration: UW Student Chapter Native Plant Nursery established. My fellow student and good friend Kelly Broadlick and I envisioned a student resource that taught people how to grow plants from seeds and cuttings. We did some major scheming to make it happen and this student-run program continues to this day.
A major part of that was building the hoop house. We learned so much about how to navigate the university system to make it happen. We received funding from UW Sustainability for the materials and the manager positions. We also managed two interns per quarter and heavily recruited and involved undergraduates looking for service learning credit.
My advisors Kern Ewing, Jon Bakker and Fred Hoyt were so supportive. My MEH cohort classmates were super rock star volunteers who helped build the hoop house, along with the UW Department of Construction Management.
What type of work have you been doing since graduating and how has it helped prepare you for the Rare Care position?
I have worked as a campus gardener at UW and as the Volunteer Engagement Coordinator for the Kubota Garden Foundation (KGF). From KGF I learned a ton about volunteer management, and really built on what I practiced with the SER nursery–communications, leading work parties, event planning, and databases.
What are some of the most rewarding parts of your role?
I love getting the reports back from rare plant monitoring volunteers–hearing how their searches went and seeing photos from successful hunts. We have over a hundred volunteers doing field surveys on public lands and their reports are essential to conserving our state’s rare plants.
Working in the seed vault is a nice change of pace from computer work and I love having everything organized and set up for the volunteers to work efficiently in there.
Have you had a chance to get out and do some Rare Care field work yet?
Wendy and I went seed collecting for Anemone patens var. multifida the other week. It was the fourth rare plant that I’ve gotten to see in person. We had a crazy bumpy ride into the forest and then a quick hike up to the population. There was an incredible view of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Stuart from our collecting site. We also saw the smoke from the Big Apple fire which had started the night before outside of Wenatchee. I really enjoyed getting out with Wendy, learning more about a rare plant, and visiting a new part of the state that I would never have thought to visit.
Do you have goals in the next year or two for the position?
Learn lots of new plants. Get the rare plant monitoring database improved. Implement a social media plan. Meet volunteers!