Lorick, Charlotte (Active)
Oak Spring Garden Foundation
Plant Ecology/Conservation
Charlotte was born and raised in the Hudson Valley in New York State, where land and wildlife conservation were major priorities in her childhood community. She earned her undergraduate degree at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York with a focus on political economics and sustainable agriculture. She has since worked for over a decade in biodiversity conservation, helping to develop research and education programs that promote resilient ecosystems and wildlife conservation on agricultural, public, and private landscapes. She specializes in plant identification,conservation land stewardship, ecological restoration and plant community ecology. Her most recent obsession is wild native plant conservation in Northern Virginia, Carex identification and wetland and swamp vegetation community ecology.
Her interests in botany, conservation, agriculture, and relationship-building led her to move to Virginia in 2014 to study regenerative grazing practices and the impact on soil and plant health on a local sheep farm and work at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, VA to focus on wildlife conservation and ecology.
At SCBI she worked with a team of scientists, students, volunteers, and partnering organizations to conduct rigorous scientific research on native biodiversity – from plants to birds to pollinators, and then connect the community to research that informs management decisions and inspiresconservation action. She managed a variety of programs and monitoring across a 16-county region, led vegetation surveys (for various research projects including grassland biodiversity studies and orchid surveys in forest ecosystems), and trained community scientists and staff on plant identification.
Currently, she is the Head of Biodiversity Conservation programs at Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) in Upperville, VA. In her current role she has built the conservation programming from the ground up. She leads the biodiversity team to develop land management strategies that promote native biodiversity, monitor and document the flora and fauna at OSGF and the surrounding region, and connect with the community through landscape walks and workshops. Her work ranges from developing a wild plant conservation program, establishing a herbarium, building a native seed collection and propagation program, developing conservation land management strategies for the700-acre OSGF landscape, monitoring plant communities, designing and implementing native meadow installation and ecological restoration projects, designing, installing and maintaining thenative plant Rokeby Wildlife Garden, researching and writing content for Fantastic Flora, andconnecting the public to local wildlife. She also enjoys teaching and training and has taught workshops on grass identification for volunteers at SCBI, on establishing and designing native plant gardens, on conservation land stewardship practices and more. In 2022 she delivered at Ted talk that focused on the challenge of plant blindness and the importance of noticing plants in our everyday lives. https://www.ted.com/talks/charlotte_lorick_a_wilder_way_how_plants_can_guide_our_future?subtitle=en
Her most recent focus is on Carex and her plant monitoring, both at work, as a volunteer on other preserves, and as a consultant to private landowners has led her to the discovery and submission to VA DCR of 30+ new county records in Fauquier, Loudoun, and Rappahannock Counties –including an S1 globally rare cypress knee sedge (Carex decomposita) community, S2 purple fringeless orchid (Platanthera peramoena), and two new records of S1S2 false hop sedge (Carex lupuliformis) in Fauquier and Loudoun. She is currently a member of the Restorative Landscape Coalition which is working with the Northeast Native Seed Network to establish a native seed collection and propagation network across the Eastern US. She has also served on the boards of local chapters for the Virginia Master Naturalists and the Virginia Native Plant Society.
In her free time, she spends as much time with plants as she does at work. Her favorite things are exploring the forests in early spring looking for wildflowers, searching for rare plants, photographing plants and insects, gardening, growing native and medicinal plants and crafting herbal teas, studying and practicing herbalism, knitting, weaving, bowhunting, foraging, and just generally connecting people with the wild landscapes around us. She especially loves exploring the banks of the Potomac River searching for new and rare plants as it reminds her of her childhood spent along the banks of the Hudson River.
Her interests in botany, conservation, agriculture, and relationship-building led her to move to Virginia in 2014 to study regenerative grazing practices and the impact on soil and plant health on a local sheep farm and work at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, VA to focus on wildlife conservation and ecology.
At SCBI she worked with a team of scientists, students, volunteers, and partnering organizations to conduct rigorous scientific research on native biodiversity – from plants to birds to pollinators, and then connect the community to research that informs management decisions and inspiresconservation action. She managed a variety of programs and monitoring across a 16-county region, led vegetation surveys (for various research projects including grassland biodiversity studies and orchid surveys in forest ecosystems), and trained community scientists and staff on plant identification.
Currently, she is the Head of Biodiversity Conservation programs at Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) in Upperville, VA. In her current role she has built the conservation programming from the ground up. She leads the biodiversity team to develop land management strategies that promote native biodiversity, monitor and document the flora and fauna at OSGF and the surrounding region, and connect with the community through landscape walks and workshops. Her work ranges from developing a wild plant conservation program, establishing a herbarium, building a native seed collection and propagation program, developing conservation land management strategies for the700-acre OSGF landscape, monitoring plant communities, designing and implementing native meadow installation and ecological restoration projects, designing, installing and maintaining thenative plant Rokeby Wildlife Garden, researching and writing content for Fantastic Flora, andconnecting the public to local wildlife. She also enjoys teaching and training and has taught workshops on grass identification for volunteers at SCBI, on establishing and designing native plant gardens, on conservation land stewardship practices and more. In 2022 she delivered at Ted talk that focused on the challenge of plant blindness and the importance of noticing plants in our everyday lives. https://www.ted.com/talks/charlotte_lorick_a_wilder_way_how_plants_can_guide_our_future?subtitle=en
Her most recent focus is on Carex and her plant monitoring, both at work, as a volunteer on other preserves, and as a consultant to private landowners has led her to the discovery and submission to VA DCR of 30+ new county records in Fauquier, Loudoun, and Rappahannock Counties –including an S1 globally rare cypress knee sedge (Carex decomposita) community, S2 purple fringeless orchid (Platanthera peramoena), and two new records of S1S2 false hop sedge (Carex lupuliformis) in Fauquier and Loudoun. She is currently a member of the Restorative Landscape Coalition which is working with the Northeast Native Seed Network to establish a native seed collection and propagation network across the Eastern US. She has also served on the boards of local chapters for the Virginia Master Naturalists and the Virginia Native Plant Society.
In her free time, she spends as much time with plants as she does at work. Her favorite things are exploring the forests in early spring looking for wildflowers, searching for rare plants, photographing plants and insects, gardening, growing native and medicinal plants and crafting herbal teas, studying and practicing herbalism, knitting, weaving, bowhunting, foraging, and just generally connecting people with the wild landscapes around us. She especially loves exploring the banks of the Potomac River searching for new and rare plants as it reminds her of her childhood spent along the banks of the Hudson River.