July, 2026

Presentations

• 'Tis conference season, and what a showing our lab had! So much so that we made a separate section of it.
  • Mikaely Evans, former REU and REEF participant in the Center for Tree Science, presented her work at the North American Forest Genetics Society meeting in Laval, Quebec in late June. Her talk was titled “Is hybridization an important consideration for ex situ conservation.”  Her work, with Emily Schumacher (former RA and Lab Manager), Ash Hamilton (current PhD student), Sean and Murphy Westwood, investigated the degree of hybridization in acorns collected from chinquapin oak trees at The Morton Arboretum. This study was important because botanic gardens regularly exchange seed collected from plants in their collections, and that seed is assumed to be “true” to the parent species. About 8% of the seeds were hybrids, however, from mating with three other oak species (white oak, bur oak, and dwarf chestnut oak). The work is published and free to read here. Mikaely’s work was supported by the US Botanic Garden and an IMLS National Leadership Grant.
    
  • Jesse Parker, incoming PhD student at the University of Chicago (woohoo!), also presented at the North American Forest Genetics Society, on work he did with Sean for his Masters degree. His talk was titled “Introgression and genetic variation at the trailing range margin of Quercus bicolor: evolutionary and conservation implications.” This study found hybrids between swamp white oak and other oak species were much more common at the species’ range edge. Hybrids were also identified in the Tennessee Tree Improvement Program breeding collection. This study allowed the identification of known swamp white oaks, and now the breeding collection has a separate planting of hybrid trees and non-hybrid trees, for use in future evaluation and in reforestation. The two papers can be read here and here.
  • A whole slew of Hoban Lab members presented at the North American Congress for Conservation and Restoration (NACCR) from July 12 – 16 in Milwaukee, which welcomed over 1,000 participants. This flagship conference of the Society for Conservation Biology and Society for Ecological Restoration brought together scientists, species’ recovery experts, policy makers, land managers, nonprofit leaders, and indigenous and community partners. The conference emphasized interdisciplinary and innovative approaches to conservation, investment in professional development, and translating science to action.
    • Ash Hamilton (PhD candidate): Speed talk, “Is clonality complicating conservation efforts in an endangered tree species?” which focused on using genetic data to improve threat assessments for the Baja Sur endemic oak, Quercus brandegeei.
    • Austin Koontz (Research consultant): Speed talk, “How well does ecogeographic variation predict genetic diversity? An exploration of commonly used ex situ conservation metrics” which focused on practical guidance for the “gap analysis” method used by botanic gardens for prioritization of efforts.
    • Catherine Dell’Olio (Rare Plant Research Aide): Presentation, “Associations of land management on the health and regeneration of threatened butternut” which focused on understanding healthy habitat conditions for the butternut tree.
    • Dana Barry (former Rare Plant Research Aide): Poster, “Biases in genetic diversity retention and seedling survival in a community based conservation program of an endangered tree species” which quantified the genetic diversity in nursery seedlings and outplanted trees, being used for reintroduction of this threatened Mexican oak, relative to genetic diversity in wild trees.
    • Emma Leavens (Tree Conservation Biology Program Manager: Presentation, “Restoring the threatened butternut tree (Juglans cinerea): species conservation through diverse partnerships” which focused on the range of partners for butternut recovery, and lessons learned by working with them.  Emma also filled in for Hank Helmers who was unable to be there to give his presentation “Assessing the recruitment and health of butternut, a culturally and ecologically important tree species” which focused on light and other conditions at an important site for butternut recovery in Dupage County.
    • Kylie Roth (Independent contractor): Presentation, “Trait-based identification of J. cinerea x ailantifolia (butternut x Japanese walnut) hybrids in herbarium collections.” which analyzed >500 herbarium vouchers to identify hybrids over the past 150 years across the geographic range of butternut.

Other News

• A collaboration between our team and Adventure Scientists kicked off in June! The project was designed to help conserve the threatened butternut tree, a native tree impacted by a fungal disease for the past 60 years. This partnership is helping recruit volunteers from across multiple states to identify and measure the health of butternut trees, in state and national forests. Several dozen volunteers have already participated, recording the location of trees that could contribute genetic resistance or knowledge of healthy habitat conditions for this tree. You can read more and even participate, see here.
• Ash attended the Emerging Scholars Research Summit at Elmhurst University, and served on a STEM graduate school Q&A panel to an audience of 50+ undergraduate students doing summer research in the Chicagoland area. Additionally, they gave a talk about their PhD research titled “The problem of clonality in plant conservation“ to an audience of 80+ undergraduate student researchers spanning STEM and humanities disciplines.