Episode XXIV: Ground Up Science for Greener Cities with Dr. Alessandro Ossola

Spring 2023

Read the companion Article here.

Alessandro Ossola is a scientist who gets very excited about the challenge of climate change allowing for an opportunity, and he describes it as an historic opportunity for all of us, scientists, gardeners and all types of decision-makers, to really challenge the status-quo and come up with innovative solutions.

“Where we can change the narrative though, is we’ve always seen cities, this is true globally, as the foci of extinctions. Both for animals and plants. I really want to change that narrative. I see the city itself as an opportunity to help horticulture, but also biological conservation.”

-Alessandro Ossola, PhD, University of California, Davis, CA

Alessandro Ossola, PhD is current chair of the Saratoga Horticultural Research Endowment, now accepting research proposals.

GARDEN FUTURIST 

A show about innovative thinkers contributing to a climate resilient future through the power of gardens.

Produced and hosted by Sarah Beck, Adriana Lopez, and Adrienne St Claire 

Edited and directed by Kelsey Skonberg 

Sarah Beck is the executive director of Pacific Horticulture.

Adriana López-Villalobos currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia where she works as Curatorial Coordinator for the UBC Botanical Garden. She is originally from Mexico, where she completed her BSC and MSc, studying plant ecology and mating systems evolution, before migrating to Canada to pursue a PhD focusing on the genetics of species across their geographic ranges.

Adrienne St. Clair is a botanist working with Metro, a regional government in Portland, Oregon where her work spans conservation to restoration. Adrienne managed a native plant nursery for almost a decade before pursuing a graduate degree. She received her Master’s in Plant Biology and Conservation from Northwestern University and Chicago Botanic Garden where she studied the effect of horticulture techniques on native-plant genetics.

Kelsey Skonberg is a Community-Centered Video and Podcast Editor and Science Journalist in Everett, WA.