Caitlin MacKenzie
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cmacmtns.bsky.social
Caitlin MacKenzie
@cmacmtns.bsky.social
2.7K followers 680 following 290 posts
Plant ecologist, lover of tiny alpine communities on small mountains, faculty at Bennington College, Plant Love Stories co-founder, she/her
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cmacmtns.bsky.social
HOLD THE PHONE —

The lover that Elizabeth Bishop lost in 'One Art' CAME BACK TO HER after the poem was published.

I always assumed that the 'you' in the last stanza died, but she was just going to marry a man. WOW.

www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
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.
July 26, 2025 at 11:48 AM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
My students' take on the xkcd 'types of scientific papers'. A very cool, interesting moment of reflection on the semester together.

This exercise was inspired by Cindy Kohtala's blog about the meme www.cindykohtala.fi/2021/10/14/f...
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 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: "I think I’m obsessed with FIA data"; "I’ve been writing for the last ten years and I refuse to part with a single letter I wrote"; "I just found out about species interactions. Did you know about them?" The titles of the middle row of papers are: "Crap, we’re screwed."; "I've only talked with academics the last 10 years What do you mean you don't know ___"; "I’ve been studying acid rain for a whole lifetime and the government still won’t listen to me" The titles of the bottom row of papers are: "I hate that Canham cited me."; "You need 40 pages of history to begin to understand my brilliance"; "I enjoy making my students read my papers"
May 28, 2025 at 6:41 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
#WithoutNSF my PhD research on the impacts of climate change on plant communities in Acadia National Park would not have been possible. Managers use our work to protect resources. Park educators & interpretive staff use our work to create signage and talk to the public.

We need to fund NPS and NSF.
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.
May 6, 2025 at 6:11 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
Organizing the interactive activity for my talk in the 'Celebrating New England Herbaria: Research, Teaching, Community, and Outreach' session at this weekend's Northeast Natural History Conference.

My kids created the first two specimens, mine is the Polystichum acrostichoides.
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).
April 3, 2025 at 12:15 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
this cohort has made some amazing syrup!
a row of 4 mason jars full of maple syrup — the syrup ranges from a light golden amber to a deep rich coffee brown.
March 28, 2025 at 11:03 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
class project tracking the impacts of invasive vines on campus red pine trees
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!!!”
March 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
i feel like i should be more gleasonian: tell major ecologists their pet theories are imaginary, publish two papers with the exact same title, cite no one, wear this hat:
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.
February 24, 2025 at 8:17 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
Ecology syllabus writing in the time of AI

(inspired by @cjdenial.bsky.social)
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
January 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
finished reading! Such a great adventure, biography, botanizing love-letter, and there’s even a Kate Furbish shoutout!
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.
January 19, 2025 at 9:00 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
syllabus planning… your favorite 19th century white dude conservationist’s favorite conservationist.
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
January 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
treasure map
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”
January 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
extremely tempted to create a macarthur’s warblers niche partitioning situation in the museum gift shop
a museum gift shop display showcases a pop-up paper “winter tree” with colorful paper bird accessories
December 20, 2024 at 1:47 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
I’m still not over this final presentation from last week:

One of my forest ecology students turned her herbarium specimen into a knitting colorwork chart and then SHE KNIT IT & WORE THE SWEATER TO CLASS.
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.
December 16, 2024 at 4:55 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
I asked the class to write a note to future ecology students. I received this masterpiece from the fifth row.
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!
December 13, 2024 at 8:08 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
My Rare and Common students created this chalkboard network analysis of the 12 peer-reviewed papers we read together. What an awesome class.
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
December 6, 2024 at 8:39 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
Just wrapped writing up the #PlantsGiving problem set for Fundamentals of Ecology. Happy to share!
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)
November 24, 2024 at 5:25 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
Pulling together resources for an intro ecology #PlantsGiving assignment. Let me know if this is helpful for your students. (or if I messed up!)
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
November 23, 2024 at 7:07 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
whelp that sucks. EAB detected on campus.
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
November 21, 2024 at 4:26 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
my first core as faculty! This is the red pine outside my greenhouse.
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
November 14, 2024 at 5:46 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
My student made this. I will try to live up to it.
a polished wood sign with a laser cut engraving that says “certified academic weapon” in comic sans font
November 13, 2024 at 5:45 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
Coring trees on campus to test out all the increment borers I inherited in my lab.

This is my undergrad research assistant’s first core! A beaut!
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
November 13, 2024 at 2:44 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
my forest ecology class visited some big old white pines yesterday. obviously we stopped for cider donuts on the way to the field. the pines were so big that our d-tapes were noticeably pristine at this point in the tape versus the well-used smaller units.
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 looking way way up at the canopy of a very tall (over 30m) white pine against a bluebird sky
November 10, 2024 at 1:57 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
2/3rds of the biologists on campus (our third biologist is Buttercup)
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.
October 31, 2024 at 4:33 PM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
if you see this, post a photo taken in the mountains
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)
October 30, 2024 at 11:58 AM
cmacmtns.bsky.social
We did it! We calculated the minimum set of pompom diversity needed to provide 50% EF in our classroom ecosystem.

As we were wrapping up, a student commented, "that was a cool exercise but what are the equivalent real life traits instead of 'big' and 'hairy'?"

oh my friend...
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").
October 23, 2024 at 4:41 PM