Daniel Atha (born 1962) is a botanist. In his work as a botanist he has collected plants in all 50 states of the United States, as well as several additional countries. Atha's work was focused on three areas: "floristics—what plants grow in a particular region; taxonomy—how to tell one plant from another, what to call it and what it's related to; and applied botany—how plants are used for food, medicine, shelter and other useful purposes." Atha has been known as a prominent regional botanist, and the high-profile botanical projects with which he has been involved (such as the recent Spontaneous Flora of Central Park project) have garnered national and international attention.
Career
New York Botanical Garden
Daniel Atha was the Director of Conservation Outreach at New York Botanical Garden. Atha was involved in work related to invasive plants in the greater-New York City region, including Westchester County. While employed at the NYBG, Atha collected plant material for Merck, Pfizer, The National Cancer Institute, L’Oreal, Cornell Weill Medical Center and many other organizations. Atha was also the Associate Editor for Brittonia. In 2021, Atha left his job after 27 years, after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
In an interview given to the Gothamist in 2021, Atha explained why he left his job, and compared vaccination requirements to the Holocaust:
New York City EcoFlora
This project, in the prototyping phase through 2017, was designed to engage New York city residents in protecting and preserving New York City's native plant species. The project aimed to use citizen scientists to gather and organize data related to plants, animals, fungi, and habitats in the region. This data will then be synthesized with existing historic natural history collections and scientific publications. "The New York City EcoFlora will be a real-time, online, ongoing checklist of plants—the first ever to connect plants in the web of life in New York City—that will result in a dynamic resource for conservation planning as well as in New Yorkers that are better informed about the importance of urban ecologies and who can contribute to protecting them."
Flora of Central Park
One of Atha's research projects involved documenting and collecting every naturally occurring plant in Central Park. This project represents a collaboration between The New York Botanical Garden, the Central Park Conservancy and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The aims of this project are to document the wild flora of Central Park, and to provide an up-to-date botanical inventory "to aid on-going restoration, conservation, education and recreation programs and to document the flora for scientific, ecological and conservation studies."
The quote below comes from an interview Atha gave to The New York Times in 2015
Emerging Invasive: Corydalis incisa
Atha and others at the New York Botanical Garden and Lower Hudson PRISM (one of eight Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management in New York State) coordinated a team of citizen scientists to document and remove Corydalis incisa, an emerging invasive species found along the Bronx River in Westchester County, NY and Bronx County, NY.
Art
Atha's parents were artists, and he has been involved in several community projects related to the intersection of botany and art.