Hello all!
I am so very excited to be a part of this course with you. Though my formal training with biology and ecology are minimal, my greatest passion in life is connecting people to place, particularly in natural landscapes, in pursuit of conservation. While working as a park ranger in HI, a large part of the role was centered around the preservation of local endemic flora and bringing others to a sense of awe over the wonders of our local landscape. I’ve called Alaska home for some time now, and currently live on Esther Island in Prince William Sound and work as a fish culturist. The surrounding ecosystem is primarily bog/muskeg, with an incredible array of flora and fauna that all call this landscape home. The flora of Prince William Sound, due to its broad nature, is not well documented. A USDA Forest Service journal article studying the plant diversity of Alaskan muskegs written in 1985 and an oil spill response publication documenting the local flora and fauna species impacted by the Exxon-Valdez oil spill are the two primary modes of identification I’ve used thus far, in addition to Seek, an app created by iNaturalist. Though my current position does not involve close work with plants, my time away from site is always spent with my magnifying glass to the peat. I look forward to better understanding the remarkable array of plant life that call Alaskas varied lands and waters home through all of your explorations.
Attached, please find a few favorites from recent observations: Sundew; spruce tips with developing pollen; and star-tipped reindeer lichen.
Kind regards,
McKenzie Morey
WOW! Awesome plant pictures. So cool to hear about the work that youʼve done. It is so different from what I have done it sounds incredibly refreshing to work so closely with the land.
Welcome McKenzie,
these are great images. Thanks for sharing. I was not aware that iNaturalist developed another app for the casual user called Seek, it was interesting to me to see what the differences are. I still prefer iNaturalist over Seek, but that is my preference. Looking forward to your observation from Prince William Sound. I have heard it is an amazingly diverse flora, that I have not visited yet. We have a total of 5 specimens from Esther Island. One of them attached below.