Conferences in the Cold Months

This year has already been a busy one here at Oak Spring: throughout the month of February, we've been hosting a variety of conferences, students, scientists and scholars. Scroll through the photos below to see what we've been up to. 

One of our first (and largest) events has been to host the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Fungal Conservation Workshop as they worked to update the IUCN Red List. The Red List is one of the foremost authoritative records of the conservation status of species around the world, and the scientists who visited OSGF worked throughout the week to ensure that the the Red List reflected the most recent data on the condition of these many fungal species. This is a long process – many other scientists will be involved before the official database is updated – but the Fungal Conservation Workshop was a major step in protecting fungi around the world.

During and after the stay of the fungal group, we were hosting guests from the Potager du Roi (the King's Kitchen Garden), a part of the gardens at the Palace of Versailles. At the same time we were joined by Patrick Knopf, the head of the Rombergpark Botanic Garden in Germany. This group of guests spent their time working on a variety of landscape-related endeavors at Oak Spring and beyond.

More recently, we've been joined by several groups of students from schools around the country and world. First we were joined by interns from Yale-NUS College in Singapore, who spent their time researching the history of various places at and around Oak Spring. More recently, we have been joined by staff and students from Randolph College and the University of Virginia. These groups are discussing botanical art history and landscape design during their time at Oak Spring.

This has already been a packed year, and we're just getting started. In a few weeks we'll have another round of interns arrive, this time from Sewanee: The University of the South. Then later in the spring we're hosting gatherings on topics ranging from rhododendron conservation to methane emissions to science and nature writing. And that's not to mention summer interns and the many other workshops and conferences being held here. There's much more to look forward to here at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, so stay posted to hear more about what's going to be our busiest year yet.