Love Takes Root in Seaweed Valentine Cards

COA Holds Event in Celebration of the Memory of Scott Swann

BAR HARBOR — Create and decorate Valentine’s Day cards with real seaweed at College of the Atlantic Dorr Museum of Natural History on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. Registration is required at coa.edu/seaweedvalentine. $10 suggested donation.

Ecologist and seaweed expert Jordan Chalfant ’12 of the Maine Natural History Observatory leads this fun family event. Participants will practice the techniques of pressing and have opportunities to learn more about seaweed. Each will receive materials to create one 4x6” and two 5x7” cards.

All ages are welcome, but children must be accompanied by an adult. Participants must be able to return to the museum the first week of February to retrieve their finished cards after they have dried in a plant press.

The event is held in celebration of the memory of Scott Swann ’85 MPhil ’94, who started this beloved tradition decades ago.

Jordan Chalfant focused on botany and ornithology at COA. Since then, she has collaborated with the Maine Natural History Observatory on projects including the Maine Seabird Breeding Atlas, The Plants of Baxter State Park, rare plant surveys, and multiple seaweed publications. Chalfant’s other occupations have included working as a contract field biologist for Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, tour guiding in Acadia National Park, managing The Naturalist’s Notebook — a nature and science bookstore in Seal Harbor, and estate gardening on Mount Desert Island.