This program fosters field plant taxonomy skills needed to identify vascular plants (flowering plants, conifers, ferns and fern allies). Through lectures and active-learning group workshops, you will learn about the classification and diversity of plant families with an emphasis on flowering plants native to the Pacific Northwest. Virtual and in-person plant identification labs will serve as a foundation for learning how to work through dichotomous keys to identify an unknown plant and for students to develop fluency in plant identification terminology. Regular quizzes will help you assess your growing knowledge. By the end of the quarter, you will have the skills to identity 15 plant families and 50 species by sight, which will be assessed via a final sight recognition exam. Plant walks are critical to the work of the program which includes several day-long field trips. Through detailed notes and botanical drawings, you will document your observations in your lab/field journal, which will constitute a significant part of your work. Scientific approaches to representing plants will be taught through botanical illustration workshops and illustration assignments. The importance of herbaria as the basis for scientific inquiry will be discussed including how plant specimens that reside in herbaria can serve as resources for examining patterns in species diversity and distribution.
In this program, you will also build a foundational understanding of ecological restoration. Case studies from the Pacific Northwest will comprise a significant portion of the work in the program, including south Puget Sound (Salish Sea) prairie restoration and wetland restoration at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Particularly in the context of these cultural ecosystems, you will learn about traditional Indigenous land management practices used to foster useful plants and animals including through regular burning. You will learn from academics and practitioners including Indigenous scholars and community members. The learning community will ponder a variety of questions including: To design a successful ecological restoration project, what do you need to consider? What kinds of information do you need to gather, whose partnership might you seek out, and what steps will you take? What are feasible restoration targets and why? Is long-term monitoring feasible and why might that be beneficial as well as achieved?
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
6* - Field Plant Taxonomy
5* - Principles of Ecological Restoration
3* - Pacific Northwest Ecological Restoration Case Studies
2 - Botanical Illustration
Registration
Students can meet the prerequisite with Introduction to Botany offered at Evergreen, e.g. in summer or by completing Botany: Plants and People. Alternatively, transfer students and others who have successfully completed a one quarter course in introductory plant biology that had weekly labs are encouraged to apply. A demonstrated ability to render plants accurately is a bonus but not required.
Email faculty the day after Academic Fair to explain how you've met the prerequisite and to share samples of your rendering and writing skills.
Academic Details
conservation, ecological restoration, floristic research methods, forestry, natural resource management, plant ecology, plant taxonomy and vegetation ecology
$50 required lab fee
Upper division science credit of up to 14 credits is possible if earned.