Looking to glean all I can from all the botany specialists and novice enthusiasts here in the iNaturalist community!

My focus is plant ecology and ethnobotany, which I have mostly been exploring in the field, not in a classroom. I have a habit of starting many of my own independent, non-funded projects to bring awareness to plant ecology, often thru the lens of cultural landscapes. I love all plants.

For the past 10 years, I have been living a semi nomadic life, mostly following (and being led by) wild food plants of the Great Basin, from Oregon to New Mexico, and getting to know their patterns on the landscape. My fascination is how human tending of these plants has been a part of the mosaic of plant communities, and how they offer that story for us today: one of a past and one of a future.

My background is in environmental science with a botany minor. I'm really into seeds, and have had a life focused on plants and human relationships as a restoration specialist, a small-scale farmer and seed breeder, and as a wild tender and student of culturally important wild food plants. I teach basic plant ID, ecology and propagation to a variety of audiences.

My most recent field project was a First Food Survey of the McDermitt Caldera, at a lithium claim site along the Oregon/Nevada border. This area has not been well documented floristically, and I am hoping to bring awareness to botanists who might like to bring their skills and interest to this area. Spring of 2023 was a very wet, cold and late spring in the Northern high desert, so I am hoping to go back out this year to catch more of the blooms to add to the survey list so far!

The Project Link: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/first-food-surveys-of-mcdermitt-lithium-site