Each Year Rare Care recognizes volunteers for their outstanding contributions

Jane Engle is a relatively new Rare Care volunteer, having completed the training in 2022; however, she has come out of the gate running. Jane contributed over 147 total hours in 2023. As a first year seed collector, Jane collected seeds for Veronica schizantha in Gifford-Pinchot National Forest with the help of her assistant and mapper Duane Engle. She also spent over 66 hours last fall in the often chilly Miller Seed Vault cleaning and processing seeds collected both by Rare Care volunteers and partner agencies. We are so appreciative of Jane’s contributions and look forward to many more years of her help at Rare Care.

Jeff Thorson and Marilee Henry have been Rare Care volunteers since 2008, and between the two have completed 30 monitoring assignments, five seed collections and over 1500 volunteer hours. In 2023, they logged almost 300 hours on monitoring and seed collecting projects, submitting three monitoring reports and one seed collection for the Miller Seed Vault. We are happy to recognize two volunteers who have long been valuable contributors to the Rare Care program and look forward to working with Jeff and Marilee into the future.