The UW Botanic Gardens is a member of the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), a network of botanic institutions whose mission is to prevent the extinction of U.S. native plants. The CPC was founded in 1984 and operates the only national program of ex situ conservation of rare plant material in coordination with 40 leading botanic institutions. They maintain the National Collection of Endangered Plants with over 1,400 species represented and also conduct research, restoration, education, and advocacy programs. 

The John A. Wott Botanic Gardens Endowed Fellowship was awarded this spring to Sarah Shank, a first-year Master of Environmental Horticulture student at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
A native of Pennsylvania, Sarah recently moved to Seattle for graduate school and is enjoying the opportunity to learn about the diverse flora of the Pacific Northwest. Although she pursued a fine arts degree, she worked as a gardener throughout her undergraduate career and eventually found her way back to horticulture post-graduation as a nursery horticulturist.  

Stacy Kinsell is the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for the Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care), but it hasn’t been a straightforward path to get there. Kinsell’s undergraduate work was in social work and urban studies. After school, she packed up for an adventure in a new city far away from her native Georgia and moved to Seattle. She quickly fell in love with the city, but not the career and after a few years of working in her new field, Kinsell was feeling burnt out. 

Myesa Legendre-Fixx spent the summer as an intern for the Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care). She completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology and Oceanography at UW June 2017.
Working as a Rare Care intern has been a thrilling summer! Over the summer, Ceci and I monitored 17 different plant populations, did 10 seed collections, worked with the US Bureau of Land Management doing rare plant and weed surveys and fire severity assessments of burned areas, improved the seed vault and started almost 500 seeds of Whited’s milk-vetch (Astragalus sinuatus) for an outplanting. 

Cecila Henderson spent the summer as an intern for the Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care). She completed her Bachelor of Science at the UW School of Environmental And Forest Sciences in June 2017.
This summer I was lucky enough to work with Wendy Gibble as an intern for Rare Care, and I can hardly express my gratitude for what has been an incredibly rewarding experience.