Michaelanne Makuch

Seed collection days are the best work days

A dog playing on the ground holding a tennis ball in her mouth. She is leashed to a fence. Inside the fence is a tree planting site where a group of interns is removing invasive vines

A morning well spent - pulling invasive vines off of a 3 year old tree planting site with interns and my Bark Ranger 🐕‍🦺

Heard a yellow-billed cuckoo for the first time this morning! Guess I need to be outside in the early morning more often!

A line out at the USA v Fiji women’s rugby game at Audi field

Thanks to the wife for the prime rugby watching seats! #usarugby #usavfiji #everyonewatcheswomenssports

A picture of a trail. There is a dog sitting in the trail the the person taking the picture is holding a long stick in front of them to clear spider webs from the path

The most important tool doing field work is a spider web clearing stick (and a trusty assistant!)

My dog does not trust the blood pressure cuff and was trying to comfort/protect me while I was using it which was adorable. So at least there’s that!

Finally getting my Dr to half assedly treat me for my POTS starting with having me monitor my blood pressure daily. She said “don’t let it get below 110\60”. Took it and it’s 105/54. So we’re doing great so far… no freaking wonder I’m so tired all the time.

Three people at the bottom of a rock scramble

Hiked the Billy Goat Trail today in the rain and only fell on my ass once!

A close up of mile a minute. Two of the leaves have round holes from a biocontrol weevils

You can kind of see the holes here on the leaves

Oh no! 😱

Seriously! A few of our interns and volunteers had to upgrade to sturdier gloves after a few handfuls of pulling! I’ve absentmindedly pulled some barehanded before and instantly regretted it!

This was at Marie Butler Leven Preserve this morning. Big shoutout to our volunteers helping us remove this invasive annual vine and allow our donated trees and shrubs to reach maturity! This one here in its deer cage is an arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum).

A before picture of a forest edge with tree cage covered with invasive mile a minute

And after photo of a forest edge cleared of invasive mile a minute

Before and after removing Mile-a-minute today! This is just one small section we worked on today, freeing up tree cages and native plants to live their best lives!

The scoots!!!

And looking like a real human this time!

My Grandpop died about a month ago and I just saw my grandma and while she is grieving she was also excited to show me something. She now has her own credit card in her name for the first time!

We pulled a lot but there’s even more to go! We’ll be back out there again soon.

I have the best assistant!

A mix of native, dry meadow species including grasses like little bluestem and purple love grass, and forbs like a variety of asters, mints, and goldenrods. We had a great group of staff and volunteers to make it happen!

A recently planted whorled rosin weed

Big day of planting! Got almost 2500 plants into the ground today!

FCPA Ecologist Bryan Coppede planting an oak seedling we grew while explaining something.

Our own Conservation Manager, Michaelanne, smiling with all our oak seedlings.

Shogofa, a Native Plant Conservation intern with us, poses with an oak seedling.

Darko, another FCPA ecologist, and his mom planting trees together!

On Thursday, we planted 92 oaks, primarily Quercus montana, to shore up declining local populations at Mason District Park in Annandale.

This patch is part of an Oak-Heath Forest plant ommunity where chestnut oak is dominant along with white oak.

Thank you to colleagues at FCPA and our volunteers!

Two women at the trans day of visibility rally on the national mall. The capitol building is in the background. They both have buttons that say “f*ck transphobia”. One is wearing a shirt that says “homophobe headrests” with a picture of a guillotine. The other is wearing a shirt that says “I’d rather be fighting the patriarchy”

At the trans day of visibility rally on the national mall today

Fresh new leaf and shoot growth of Symphyotrichum pilosum at our Wild Plant Nursery. These are in black plastic tall quarts with rice hulls as a top dressing.

Fresh new leaf and shoot growth of Symphyotrichum pilosum at our Wild Plant Nursery. These are in black plastic tall quarts with rice hulls as a top dressing.

#NativePlant of the week, from @mikeymmk.bsky.social

Symphyotrichum pilosum (Frost aster) - This species does well in disturbed, weedy sites and it spreads by wind dispersed. It blooms for an extended time in the fall with white flowers and a yellow center. It gets to about 3 feet tall and...

That looks right to me! 😂 both are on my list! Maybe some bread too

A large sycamore along a stream

A mink on a rock across a creek

Love when my “office” looks like this! Scouting for spring ephemerals and saw an American Mink across the water!

An 8 quart blue le creuset oval Dutch oven sitting on a stovetop

Fully squeaked with excitement opening the package. My own MASSIVE 8qt Le Creuset Dutch oven!! What should I make first?!

A purple graphic with white and neon yellow text reading "On this International Women's Day, we demand: equal pay, abortion access, trans rights, paid leave, IVF access, workplace protections, humane immigration processes, decriminalization of sex work, an end to mass incarceration, and so much more." A black photo of a megaphone and a rally sign reading "enough" are also shown.

📣📣📣

A woman standing in a greenhouse. A hanging plant is in front of her that has large purple flowers. She is smiling up at the flowers

Felt like a moth drawn to a pretty flower 🌺

A corpse flower plant in its leaf form

A very tiny orchid

A cluster of 6 small orchids

A large purple orchid view from the top

Went behind the scenes at the US Botanical Gardens Production Facility today and saw some super cool plants! Highlights were the corpse flowers in the leaf form and a bunch of tiiiiiny orchids!

It’s my charm! 😂 thanks! ☺️