After a year of waiting, the Garden Club of Wiscasset was happy to again welcome Don Hudson, President of the Chewonki Foundation, as its speaker at its February 1 monthly meeting.

A year ago, as Don was arriving to speak to the club, he slipped on the ice in front of the First Congregational Church of Wiscasset, where the monthly meetings are held, and instead of speaking, he went to the hospital with a broken ankle.

Now healthy and healed, his topic, was Arctic and alpine plant communities. These plant communities, he said, are found in New England above 4,000 feet, but "as you move further north... at lower and lower levels." For example, 1/4-inch high dwarf willow trees found at the top of Mount Katahdin, grow close to sea level in the Arctic.

Hudson, clearly thrilled by the plant life he described, is a Dartmouth college graduate, with a master's degree from the University of Vermont, where he studied the reproductive biology of a rare Arctic plant. He holds a doctorate degree from Indiana University.

He presented a PowerPoint presentation of the alpine and Arctic plants found on his summer trips, from his days as a camper at Chewonki to his current job as President of the Chewonki Foundation.

Titled "Katahdin to Kimmirut," the presentation covered hikes to the top of Mount Katahdin and in Labrador, and one trip leading "alpha male executives" to the town of Kimmirut on Canada's Baffin Island, in the far northern Arctic - a barren area, and "a spectacular landscape," Hudson said.

It is reached only by small plane, by canoe and on foot, where trails are "made by the pounding hoofs of thousands of caribou over hundreds of years." The island is Canada's largest, and encompasses an area larger than New England.

"It's in the far north we are seeing the most dramatic and immediate reaction to climate change," Hudson said. He said he hopes that "what we do now and in the next few decades will help slow this down and stop change at a threshold that will leave some of the diversity."

Prior to his talk, Doris Nuesse, a club member, spoke briefly about the importance of conserving energy, and urged the use of fluorescent bulbs as a way to do this. "It's music to my ears," Hudson said, to hear discussion of conservation measures.

Before the lecture, club members shared luncheon and admired the flower arrangements that some members had made at a class earlier that morning.

Persons interested in joining the club should contact Jackie Weare at 207-882-4892. The club's goals include community involvement, education, and promoting an appreciation for and conservation of the natural world. The next meeting is March 1. The topic is healthy soil.