Evan Abramson, MSc
Evan Abramson grew up amongst the museums and parks of New York City, where early exposure to ancient art, cultures, animals and plants left lasting impressions upon his abilities to create and organize images, color, light and form. Drawing on his diverse experience as a regional planner, landscape designer, farmer, community organizer, filmmaker and photojournalist, Evan designs landscapes and corridors that build biodiversity and resilience to a changing climate at the ecosystems level. As Founder and Principal of Landscape Interactions, he works closely with project partners along every step of the process, from conception through design, implementation and maintenance. Under his leadership, Landscape Interactions has been responsible for over 380 acres of habitat installed in the Northeast United States, specifically targeting at-risk bee, butterfly and moth species for each project location.
A former Land Use + Natural Resources Planner at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, Evan designed a climate resiliency plan for the Deerfield River Watershed, the first of its kind in Massachusetts. His environmental documentaries have garnered dozens of festival awards, and influenced policymakers across the globe. His photographs have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and The Atlantic, among other publications. As a community organizer for Food & Water Watch, Evan helped pass a statewide ban on fracking waste in Connecticut, and stopped a gas-fired power plant proposal in less than one month. He milked cows, grew vegetables and raised cattle, pigs and poultry on pasture at the biodynamic Hawthorne Valley Farm. Between 2003 and 2008 he lived and worked among indigenous communities of the Bolivian Andes, and has traveled throughout Latin America extensively. He holds a Master of Science in Ecological Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design, a Bachelor of Arts in English from Vassar College, Certificates in Permaculture Design and Biodynamic Gardening, and is the author of numerous publications, including Pollinate Now, Farming for Biodiversity and Lincoln Pollinator Action Plan.
dr. Robert Gegear, PHD
Robert J. Gegear, Ph.D., is a Scientific Consultant at Landscape Interactions, a Pollination Ecologist and Conservation Biologist, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Founder and Director of the New England Beecology Project. He has studied the ecology, evolution, and conservation of pollination systems native to eastern North America for over 25 years. Dr. Gegear conducts ground-breaking research on the pollen and nectar preferences of native bees, butterflies and moths, by studying their memory and behavior in lab-controlled settings as well as documenting repeated floral visitations through extensive field observations. His studies demonstrate which native plant species particular native pollinator species need pollen from in order to reproduce, and which pollinator species specific native plant species need in order to produce seeds. His research approach spans many boundaries, combining concepts and experimental techniques from behavioral ecology, neurobiology, experimental psychology, molecular biology, population and community ecology, evolutionary biology, and computer science.
Dr. Gegear has organized and presented at scores of workshops and conferences, to educate citizens regarding the crucial role that native pollinators play in our ecosystems, and recruit them to help identify bee-plant interactions by uploading photos and videos through the Beecology app. He and a team of faculty and students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute were the recipients of a 1.2 million dollar National Science Foundation grant, allowing them to work with high school teachers to motivate the integrative teaching of computer science and biology in high school curricula.
Dr. Gegear considers bumblebees the ideal model to address his research questions, because they have evolved the behavioral capacity to flexibly track resources (floral nectar and pollen) in complex and constantly changing multi-sensory environments; are highly amenable to experimental study of behavior under laboratory and field conditions; are the main pollinator of numerous native plant species and therefore play a critical role in maintaining the function and diversity of natural ecosystems; have tremendous social and economic value as crop pollinators; and are easily identified while visiting flowers in the wild, thereby enabling citizen scientists with different academic backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences to actively participate in his field-based research.
Visit Dr. Gegear’s lab website.
Genevieve goldleaf, Msc
Genevieve Goldleaf is a Landscape Designer and Planner at Landscape Interactions. She integrates ecological principles through her work to create functional, climate-resilient landscapes and habitats that invite joyful connections to the land. Her design practice is informed by an interdisciplinary background in environmental science and history, regenerative agriculture, regional food systems planning, public outreach and graphic design. She has a particular interest in coastal resilience and wetland restoration developed while living and working on Cape Cod and in Rhode Island, most recently as a Restoration Landscape Designer at BlueFlax Design.
Genevieve holds a Master of Science in Ecological Design from The Conway School of Landscape Design, a Pollinator Stewardship Certification from UMass Amherst, and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science and Medieval and Renaissance Studies from Wellesley College. Her academic work has focused on historic working landscapes in New England’s changing climate and modeling medieval climate data.
Genevieve brings over a decade of experience in community engagement, project management and development to Landscape Interactions. Prior to design, she spent ten years working to build a more just and resilient food system in New England. At The Carrot Project, she connected beginner farmers to farmland, funding and training. At the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Food Initiatives, she mapped local food systems, drafted urban agriculture legislation and helped to launch Boston’s first municipal composting program. She served as a Community Organizer in Boston with Black and Pink, a national prison abolition organization, and managed a small farm in Wellesley.
Genevieve is a member of the City of Easthampton's Biodiversity Environment & Ecological Sustainability Committee. She loves exploring historic sites, weaving and working in her garden.
Adam Kohl
Adam Kohl is a Field Botanist at Landscape Interactions, a naturalist, conservationist and keen observer of nocturnal lepidoptera. His areas of interest include botany, entomology, native plant propagation, landscape design and the intersection of these disciplines. Adam was educated at the Native Plant Trust (formerly New England Wild Flower Society) where he studied systematics and botany with Arthur Haines; field botany with Ted Elliman and Roland ‘Boot’ Boutwell; ferns with Don Lubin and Ray Abair; lichens with Elizabeth Kneiper; grasses with Dennis Magee; seed biology with Elizabeth Farnsworth; and advanced horticulture with Dan Jaffe. Adam was the Propagation and Nursery Assistant at Nasami Farm for several years, growing over 100 local ecotype native plant species from seed. He reinvented the fern lab at Nasami and wrote a step-by-step protocol for propagating ferns from spore.
Adam travels thoughout the region as an independent seed collector. He leads seed collection walks focusing on the ethics and techniques of collection, storage and propagation. As a volunteer, Adam has contributed several dozen new plant finds for Vascular Flora of Franklin County, Massachusetts including trees, shrubs, forbs, grasses and sedges. Adam was formerly employed by the Towns of Wendell and Leverett as their Conservation Agent. He is also a composer, curator and collagist working in the mediums of sound-art, folk and performance. He has toured the United States several times and released nearly 100 albums on labels both domestic and foreign.