Members of the Keweenaw Wild Ones Board of Directors are elected to staggered three-year terms, which begin at our annual meeting, in September. Officers serve one-year terms and are elected by the board. The board meets at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month.
The board drives the chapter forward by providing advice and direction to the officers, especially the president, who serves as the chapter’s chief executive officer. Directors often take the lead in chapter projects and are among WOK’s most active volunteers.
Karen Cayce
- Vice President
- Joined Wild Ones in 2021
- Favorite plants: columbine, hairy beardtongue, butterfly weed, New England aster, prairie dropseed
- Contact Karen
We moved to the UP in December 2020. I knew I needed to meet like minded souls. I have always loved to garden. In AZ and TX I turned to natives “naturally,” without any concept of Wild Ones. Joined Wild Ones here, and also the Hancock Beautification Group. The rest is history! I have a husband who is very engaged and involved in our home and yard. On a huge learning curve, which we both love.
Karen lives in Hancock, with her yard boy, Walter, and Boe Cat, who basically rules the roost. Many members will know her grandchildren who are with them every summer. Karen is pictured second from right.
Marcia Goodrich
- President
- Joined Wild Ones in 2018
- Founding member of the Keweenaw Chapter
- Favorite plants: So hard to choose…showy goldenrod, Jack in the pulpit, large-flowered trillium
- Contact Marcia
Marcia has been president of Keweenaw Wild Ones since the chapter formed in 2018.
She’s been a native plant fanatic since visiting Prairie Nursery in the early 2000s. After retiring from her job as a writer and editor at Michigan Tech, she decided to take up her heart’s work and spread the native plant gospel. While she loves to see others embrace native gardening, perhaps an even greater thrill has been getting to know all the wonderful folks who are just as crazy about native plants as she is.
Marcia lives in Houghton with her husband, Bill; two cats, Sam and Della; and Sophie, an English pointer.
Sheri Hagwood
- Secretary
- Joined Wild Ones in 2024
- Favorite plants: lilies
- Contact Sheri
I worked as a botanist for 35 years, primarily on the West Coast. Not only are native plants beautiful, but they are an amazing and integral part of our ecosystem. Planting natives is something that everyone can do to to help!
Polly Havins
- Membership Chair
- Joined Wild Ones in 2020
- Favorite plants: wild geranium, wild senna, figworts
- Contact Polly
I’ve been a passionate supporter of sustainability since learning about ecology in high school. As an organic vegetable gardener, I’ve spent a lot of time in the past researching and trying out companion planting. Native plants are my new passion since joining Wild Ones in 2020. I’m an MSU Extension Advanced Master Gardener after completing certification in 2023. I’m currently working on converting my one-acre meadow filled with invasives, exotics, pasture grasses and monocultures to a wide variety of native plants.
I’m pictured here in my latest Yooper gardening outfit to avoid black flies, ticks, bad air quality, and too much sun.
Roz Heidtke
- Director
- Joined Wild Ones in 2025
- Favorite plants: potato bean, potato bean, and potato bean
- Contact Roz
I’ve been gardening for many years but only recently discovered the joy of native plants. I’m a wildlife enthusiast, so I’m very excited to help create habitat for our local wildlife, especially the bugs. When I’m not out identifying and growing native plants, I enjoy raising caterpillars, playing piano, and experimenting with hydroponics. I live with my husband, Will; our daughter, Lillian; two dumpster cats; and a Maine Coon kitten (pictured). Currently I am working on building a native garden at the new Hancock Bike Park.
David Hunter
- Director
- Joined Wild Ones in 2023
- Favorite plants: butterfly weed, common milkweed, Culver’s root, and harebell
- Elementary teacher, owner of Kismet Gardens, and freelance grant writer
- Contact David
David is happiest with his hands in the dirt or sipping a cup of coffee in his greenhouse. He has helped establish gardens at each of the schools where he has worked and now promotes native plants in his classroom. Once he joined Wild Ones, he created Kismet Gardens: Nurturing Nature with Natives, which is a greenhouse specializing in native plants.
David lives between Baraga and Chassell with his dog, Bianca; and his cat, Tuxedo.
Susan Miko
- Hospitality Chair
- Director
- Joined Wild Ones in 2019
- Founding member of the Keweenaw Chapter
- Favorite plants: big bluestem, showy goldenrod, Helen’s flower (My granddaughter’s name is “Helen.” Had to go with that one as a favorite!)
- Contact Susan
Although originally from the Detroit area, in 1985 the city of Bowling Green, Ohio, became our home for 30+ years during our careers in education. I was also an avid vegetable gardener and took perennial flower gardening – as well as window box flower design using annuals – very seriously. (To say it was my passion would be accurate.) We also followed the lead of most residents in that area of Ohio by taking great “care” to use insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizer programs to keep a lovely lawn for our 2.5-acre fully grassed lot.
However, when we moved to the Upper Peninsula in 2016, I began to understand the very negative impact of using chemicals to achieve “perfection,” as well as the impact of non-natives in plant selection. For me, that change began by reading notable authors who provide ongoing best practices to protect our fragile environment and also attending local programs geared toward area gardeners. In 2018, the Wild Ones Keweenaw Chapter was established by a very small group of us and has now grown to over 80 members. And although the ever-growing knowledge base we now collectively share is wonderful, it’s the AWESOME members of our Wild Ones Keweenaw group that build and support ongoing friendships which nurture our lives in the common cause of supporting our collective vision.
Susan and her husband, Chris, live on Portage Lake, along with their dog Brie – a “mostly” poodle who truly runs the household. (And is also great at outsmarting them.)
Cassandra
Reed-VanDam
- Farmers’ Market Chair
- Director
- Joined Wild Ones in 2024
- Favorite plants: manoomin (wild rice, Zizania palustris) fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) and beebalm (Monarda fistulosa)
- Contact Cassandra
Cassandra has had a love a plants since childhood, growing up in her family’s vegetable garden in Houghton. She worked as a garden educator for six years in the Detroit area, teaching K-12 youth about growing fruits and vegetables, the benefits of native plants, and how to create a rain garden. She returned to the Keweenaw in 2022 to pursue a master’s degree in Applied Ecology from Michigan Tech, where she worked with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community on their wild rice restoration initiative. She now works for Michigan Tech, connecting faculty and community partners for undergraduate courses.
Lynne Robertson
- Director
- Joined Wild Ones in 2018
- Founding member of the Keweenaw Chapter
- Favorite plants: vervain, lupine, asters (really anything purple)
- Contact Lynne
My husband and I retired to this area after a lifetime of visits and one stint of working here. Born without a green thumb, I joined WOK to learn about natives. Membership has also helped me add varied natives to our untamed landscape. As bonuses, I enjoy working with and getting to know other inspiring native gardeners, along with helping with our many public projects. Favorite public garden: the heirloom one at Central Mine ‘ghost town,’ which is adding natives to the max. Ongoing challenge: hungry local critters.