The Robert E. Grese Deep Roots Award
The Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area chapter presents an annual award to a chapter member who has furthered the mission of our organization through words, deeds, and leadership. The Robert E. Grese Deep Roots Award is named to honor Bob Grese, the founder of our chapter, then known as Wild Ones Ann Arbor.
Award Recipients
2024 – Sandy Kunkle. Sandy is a volunteer par excellence, stepping into every opportunity that can benefit from her organizational talents and hands-on demonstrations. She was instrumental in organizing information for our collaboration with Seeds to Community, and she is a reliable presence for our programs and projects. Sandy is also a textile artist. Of particular joy to our membership, she teamed up with fellow member, volunteer, and textile artist collaborator Jan Frank to share beautiful examples of their plant-dyed fibers, many with floral themes. Sandy and Jan are ambitious to establish a native plant garden (in addition to their existing native plant landscapes) specifically to produce dyes for their artwork, while maintaining active engagement as volunteers in our chapter. This work reminds us all that native plants are not only life-sustaining, but a source of beauty that is limited only by our imaginations.
2023 – Jonathan Parker. Jonathan brought his unique vision of Seeds to Community to a bountiful reality. Rooted in the philosophy that everyone, regardless of their resources, should have access to abundant natural spaces, Seeds to Community began as a small seed-sharing program at the county level. Thanks to its year-round workshops at County Farm Park and Matthaei Botanical Gardens on seed collection, cold, moist stratification, cultivation techniques, and winter sowing, demand for seed education, collection, and sharing grew. Jonathan constructed a beautiful Seeds to Community website, and he provided a hands-on workshop at a Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area chapter member meeting—a perfect combination of fun and learning. Subsequently, our chapter helped to add structure and financial rigor to the program, and we facilitated its re-homing within the Huron Arbor Cluster of The Stewardship Network.
2022 – Bob Hauser. Bob was instrumental in rejuvenating our chapter membership. He identified a basic need to provide more access to our programming for members, greater latitude for member and public participation, and better engagement with chapter members. He organized member-to-member garden visits that remain very popular, and he conscientiously communicated with membership. Bob also worked with members in Wayne County, eager to participate in the Wild Ones enterprise but not convenient to Ann Arbor, and became a founding member of the Wild Ones Wayne County chapter, giving rise to a partnership among Wayne County, North Oakland County, and the Ann Arbor Area Wild Ones chapters that is productive and joyful. Bob has continued to serve generously as a member of the Board of Directors in subsequent years. His focus on membership service has contributed to an all-time high in chapter membership.
2019 – 2021 – No Deep Roots award was given during these years.
2018 – Dana Wright. Dana inspired many through her work at the Legacy Land Conservancy, particularly in key efforts to control stiltgrass on preserves and other nearby lands.
2017 – Andrea Matthies. Andrea provided much needed leadership from 2017 to 2021. She was an energetic advocate for identification and control of invasive plants and animals, and for a commitment to sustain healthy ecosystems. She courageously mounted an education and advocacy campaign for deer herd management in Ann Arbor, and she worked with the Michigan Invasive Species Program and the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network (MISIN) to educate the public about the threat from invasive plants, and the need for systematic support of efforts to understand, identify, and control them.
2016 – Toni Spears. A tireless volunteer on many fronts, including with Wild Ones and the Huron Valley Chapter of the Michigan Botanical Society, Toni has been a tireless and effective advocate, often working quietly behind the scenes for a variety of vital conservation efforts.
2015 – Drew Lathin. A tireless advocate for native gardens, Drew worked to get some large Michigan nurseries to grow native plants, and when the response to his efforts was disappointing, he created his own business, Creating Sustainable Landscapes (CSL). Designing, installing, and caring for native gardens, CSL was a model of native plant design-and-build in Michigan landscapes. A great communicator, Drew inspired many through his presentations. Now that Drew has moved to North Carolina, he has become a strong native plant advocate there.
2014 – Susan Bryan. Susan is a landscape architect and after earning her degree from the University of Michigan, she started and ran her own native plant landscaping company, until she was inspired to focus on rain gardens throughout our area. She orchestrated rain garden programs first with the City of Ann Arbor and then with Washtenaw County. The County’s Rain Garden program has notably become a model for engaging so many in the community and demonstrating to newcomers to the native plant world the mighty power of these plants to restore clean water back into the watershed, benefiting the environment and providing beauty and ensuring water-free basements for homeowners.
2013 – Mark Charles. Early on, Mark was an important liaison for our chapter with Wild Ones National and was a particular advocate for the “Seeds for Education” grants program. Mark has also been a leader in volunteering with lots of local stewardship efforts, and he is a frequent contributor of valuable information to folks. Mark gave a Kentucky Coffee Tree sapling to the Buhr Park Pocket Forest Project, where it stands uniquely alone between the small forest and an adjoining old apple grove, as if holding court over all the other species to the north and south of it.
2012 – Rick Meader. Rick was a vital and dedicated member of the Wild Ones Ann Arbor board for many years. He volunteered at native garden and stewardship efforts across the area, and he still does when his day job permits. He gives talks promoting native gardens and does consulting for native gardeners in addition to his professional work. In 2023, Rick donated a native garden consultation as our chapter’s silent auction gift to the Leslie Science Center and Hands On Museum fundraiser gala.
2011 – Laura Liebler. Laura was recognized as a very dedicated member of the Wild Ones Ann Arbor chapter board of directors for many years, and she helped the chapter develop a website long before the national organization provided a website platform. Laura’s fern nursery was very helpful, providing sought-after plants and a lot of knowledge during its years of operation.
2010 – Sally Rutzky. Sally inspired us all through her volunteering with the state parks, caring for important natural areas in the Pinckney State Recreation Area. In addition, her own property in the western part of Washtenaw County has long inspired many of us. Sally shared pictures and information through Facebook and other media. She has also served faithfully on a number of local boards, including Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.
2009 – Jason Frenzel-Wright. Jason has played a long-time role at the Huron River Watershed Council, coordinating volunteers and providing public education. In the early days of The Stewardship Network, he shared lead of the Huron Arbor Cluster, engaging people in various volunteer activities in natural area stewardship.
2008 – Faye Stoner. Faye has a long history in the community as a naturalist for Huron-Clinton Metro Parks and Washtenaw County Parks. She inspired thousands of adults and children in the community in her special programs at the parks.
2007 – Matt Heumann. As naturalist for Washtenaw County Parks, Matt played a key role in protecting unique habitats throughout Washtenaw County before the county had a natural areas program. In addition, he guided walks and talks that inspired many in learning about native plants and their ecology. Today, he volunteers at Wildtype Nursery in Mason, Michigan, and shares information with Bill Schneider’s customers about the plants they are considering. His stewardship work on his property in western Washtenaw County is a wonderful example of caring for nature.
2006 – Dave Borneman. With a burning (literally) ambition to restore areas to the condition they had been in when early European settlers first came on the scene, Dave created the Natural Areas Program (NAP) for the City of Ann Arbor, and he made it a model for many other places. NAP relies on prescribed burns to clear land of invasive plants and to allow fire-adapt recovery. Dave’s engaging and humble personality make others want to join him in those efforts. He served as vice president of our chapter in our early years and went on to work with Lisa Brush in the development of The Stewardship Network.
2005 – Aunita Erksine and Mary Huggins, co-recipients. Aunita and Mary were among the earliest members of our chapter. Aunita was a tireless volunteer in many stewardship efforts around the community, particularly the Dow Prairie at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. The Dow Prairie is an historic remnant prairie—a field with fewer than five trees per acre—dating back hundreds of years. Aunita gave talks about prairies and their care to groups all around Ann Arbor. Mary routinely invited members for activities and tours of her property southeast of Ann Arbor. She remained a very dedicated member of the chapter in its early years.
2004 – Jeanine Palms. Jeannine, also an early member of our chapter, has a passion for introducing children to nature. Jeannine educated her neighbors about native plants and introduced the children at her “Blossom” preschool to the outdoors—a hands-on learning laboratory. With her youthful charges, she created the Buhr Park Children’s Wet Meadow Project, which installed a series of wet meadow environments in Ann Arbor’s 39-acre Buhr Park. Jeannine continues to organize a volunteer army that does vital maintenance in the park, and she and her troops have been central to our chapter’s Buhr Park Pocket Forest project.
2003 – Trish Beckjord. Trish served as an early president of the Wild Ones Ann Arbor chapter. She was a landscape architect at Smithgroup/JJR, later at Conservation Design Forum in Chicago, and then at The Natural Garden in St. Charles, Illinois, and the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont regions of Virginia. Before going through the Landscape Architecture program at University of Michigan, she had worked in the medical field and continued to work part-time and to volunteer with local blood banks. She and Bob Grese worked together to lead successful stewardship efforts at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, then in Ann Arbor. Trish passed away in 2023. Known for her infectious and joyful love for the natural world, her friends at The Natural Garden published a number of her essays in what has become a very in-demand book, Seasons: Reflections of a Native Plant Enthusiast.
2002 – Bob Grese. In its first year, the award was conferred on Bob Grese himself, in recognition of his organizational skills, advocacy for native plants and gardens, and many contributions to sustainable, thriving, and beautiful landscapes.