Polly Alexander

Melanie Choukas-Bradley has enjoyed a thirty-year collaboration with artist and botanist Polly Alexander of Burlington, Vermont. The two University of Vermont graduates collaborated on the first editions of City of Trees during the  late 1970s and 1980s and they created a third fully revised and updated edition published in 2008 (University of Virginia Press).

Melanie and Tina

Melanie has collaborated with artist and naturalist Tina Thieme Brown of Barnesville, Maryland since the mid-1990s, when they began work on two books about Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland: Sugarloaf: The Mountain’s History, Geology, and Natural Lore (2003, 2004) and An Illustrated Guide to Eastern Woodland Wildflowers and Trees: 350 Plants Observed at Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland (2004, 2008). Both titles are published by the University of Virginia Press. They continue to lead field trips together for the Audubon Naturalist Society and other organizations and to write and illustrate the “Wildflower in Focus” column featured on the Maryland Native Plant Society website.

Melanie is currently collaborating with photographer Susan A. Roth to create a book about the Boundary Bridge area of Rock Creek Park. “A Creek Runs Through It,” a story and photo essay about Rock Creek, was featured in the September/October 2008 issue of Bethesda Magazine (text by Melanie and photos by Susan). Susan also contributed photos to the 2008 edition of City of Trees as did collaborating photographers Lorne Peterson and Ryan Daniels. Ryan also served as photo editor for the latest edition of the book.

Nature photographs by Melanie Choukas-Bradley and Polly Alexander.