Sylvan Kaufman earned her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University for her work on Melaleuca (paperbark tree) adaptations in Florida. She did post-doctoral work in ecology at Harvard University, and went on to become Conservation Curator for Adkins Arboretum on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Sylvan currently works as a freelance consultant and writer. She has researched the effects of invasive plants on native plant communities, managed meadow and wetland restoration projects at the Arboretum, monitors plant populations and writes, speaks and advises on native plants for landscaping. Her home base is Denton, Maryland. Her interests and research has taken her to Chile, the Russian Far East, Brazil, Australia, and Central America . She speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Sample publications:

Kaufman, S.R. Alternatives to Invasive Plants. American Nurseryman, February 2009.

Stinson, K., S. Kaufman, L. Durbin, F. Lowenstein. 2007. Responses of a northeastern forest community to full and partial removal of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Northeastern Naturalist.

Snyder, D. and S. Kaufman. 2004. An overview of nonindigenous plant species in New Jersey. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, Office of Natural Lands Management, Natural Heritage Program, Trenton, NJ. 107 pages. Available online

Kaufman, S. R. and P. E. Smouse. 2001. Comparing indigenous and introduced populations of Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) Blake: response of seedlings to water and pH levels. Oecologia 127:487-494.

Wallace Kaufman is a science writer, teacher, and editor with a broad, hands-on background in land management, small business development, mediation of property issues, and transition processes in the former Soviet Bloc. He served as president of three statewide conservation organizations in North Carolina. Among honors and awards he received the New River Award, a Marshall scholarship to Oxford, and a Science Writing Fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. He has worked extensively in Latin America and in Central Asia, Russia and eastern Europe doing economic surveys, training journalists and serving two years in Kazakhstan as resident advisor on housing and land reform. He speaks Spanish and Russian. Wallace Kaufman now lives in and manages a 200 acre forest in Linn County, Oregon.

Books:

The Beaches Are Moving, a social and natural history of US beaches (co-author with Dr. Orrin Pilkey, Doubleday 1979, Duke Univ. Press 1984– present)

Amazon, an illustrated basic introduction to the Amazon Valley. Image Bank, 1979.

No Turning Back, a history and analysis of the environmental movement. Basic Books, 1994.

Coming Out of the Woods, a memoir of lessons from 30 years living in a North Carolina forest. Perseus Books, 2000.

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto.

Me dio dos luceros, que cuando los abro,

Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco,

Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado

~ ~ ~

[Thanks to life, that has given me much

Gave me two eyes that when I open them

I perfectly distinguish the black from the white

And in the high heaven its starry depths]

- Violeta Parra