Education Program
CNPS Workshop Instructors
| CNPS Plant Science Training Program |
| Michelle Balk has over seven years of experience as a biological consultant in San Diego County, much of her work involving rare plants. She earned a B.S. in Zoology from Iowa State University and a M.S. in Biology (emphasis in ecology and evolution) from The University of Akron (Ohio). Her thesis work involved life history research on lizards, but upon moving to Southern California, she rapidly converted to botany and has never looked back. In addition to her consulting duties, Michelle has taught several botany classes on the Southern California flora through Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. |
Dr. Michael G. Barbour is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis. He received a PhD in Botany/Plant Ecology from Duke University in 1967 and has been a faculty member at UC Davis since then, except for periods as an invited visiting professor. During his 40 yr career he taught plant biology, forest ecology, plant communities of California, fire ecology, and plant community ecology. In 1988, the campus recognized his abilities as an instructor by awarding him a Citation for Distinguished Teaching. His research focus has been on vegetation dynamics in many California ecosystems (salt marsh, coastal dunes, vernal pools, montane conifer forests, warm desert scrub), but he has also been a co-author or co-editor of several botany and ecology textbooks. He has held elective office in two international ecology associations and been on the editorial boards of half-a-dozen journals. |
| Jacob Barney Received his PhD in weed ecology from Cornell University in 2006. Has published >10 peer-reviewed manuscripts, presented at >20 conferences in the US and Japan, and has been involved in teaching and extension activities on the subjects of weed biology, ecology, and management. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis where he leads a project on the invasive potential of biofuel crops. |
| Jennifer Buck is a vegetation ecologist and a botanist with the CNPS Vegetation Program. She brings to CNPS extensive work experience with different plant communities across the western United States, ranging from grasslands to forests, alpine peaks to saline marshes. Prior to joining CNPS, Jennifer worked as an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy at the Cosumnes River Preserve. She has both a B.S. and a M.S. degree in Plant Biology from the University of California, Davis. |
| Rachelle Boul has worked as a field ecologist for the last four years, throughout northern California. During the last year she has worked for the Department of Fish and Game with the Vegetation, Classification, and Mapping program (VegCamp) where she has used the rapid assessment protocol during multiple projects. Within this time she has also worked closely with CNPS and has assisted with previous Rapid Assessment workshops. Rachelle has a BS in Biology with an emphasis in botany from CSU, Chico. |
| Josie Crawford is the Training Coordinator for the Plant Science Training Program of CNPS. She has been working for CNPS since early 2005. She holds a BA and MA in Biology from Humboldt State University. Josie has worked as a botanic and environmental educator in various forms since 1992. In previous lives she made neon signs and refinished boats, furniture, and houses, and baited trawl-lines for cod-fishermen, etc. |
| Virginia Dains has worked as an independent plant ecologist for 20 years
mapping vegetation, rare plants, and wetlands. She has also been an active
volunteer in natural history docent training, lay-person and school field trips, and
has led or participated in technical training in wetland plant identification, and
wetland delineation classes for US FWS and the Army Corps of Engineers. She
has written and illustrated taxonomic keys and reference guides for the nonbotanists.
For Virginia, every plant has a story along with a name, some of which
are actually true, but none of which are forgettable.
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| Ellen Dean is Curator of the herbarium at the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity. Since obtaining her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1995, she has collected plant specimens throughout California, including vernal pool habitats. She has over 20 years experience identifying California plants and 17 years experience teaching people of all ages how to identify plants. |
| Joe DiTomaso Received his PhD at UC Davis in 1986 in Botany/Weed Science and was on the faculty at Cornell University from 1987 to 1994. Currently a Cooperative Extension non-crop weed ecologist at UC Davis. His research and education programs focus on understanding various biological and ecological aspects of invasive plants, where he uses this information to develop effective management strategies. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers, and three weed identification books, and has presented over 600 talks on various aspects of weed science. He is also the first editor of the new journal entitled Invasive Plant Science and Management. |
| John Dittes is a consulting biologist with a specialty in botany, vegetation and wetland ecology. He received a B.A. in Biology from CSU, Northridge in 1989, and has since lived in northern California. John has worked with CSU Chico, the United States Forest Service, and Jones & Stokes. For the last seven years he has co-operated Dittes & Guardino Consulting with his wife Josephine. For the last 11 years John has independently presented a series of plant identification workshops for the CSU, Chico Biological Sciences Herbarium. John is an active member of the Mt. Lassen Chapter of CNPS and for more than 5 years has lead field-trips, given presentations and has served as co-chair for rare plants and programs. |
| Julie M. Evens is the Lead Vegetation Ecologist with the California Native Plant Society, where she has directed CNPS vegetation projects and analyzed vegetation data for the past 6 years. Previously, she worked as a crew leader for major vegetation projects in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and the central Mojave Desert. She currently manages CNPS sampling protocols and databases, coordinates vegetation sampling and training sessions, and writes reports on vegetation classification across California. Julie received her BA degrees from UC Santa Cruz and MA degree in Biology from Humboldt State University. |
| Jeffrey A. Hart, Ph.D. (Captain Tule) is owner and president of Hart Restoration
and Hartland Nursery, located in Walnut Grove, California. Jeff holds bachelor
and master degrees in botany from the University of Montana, and a Ph.D. in
biology from Harvard University. Hart Restoration is a design/build restoration
company that specializes in riparian and wetland habitats, erosion control
projects, and includes a native plant nursery. Other enterprises include Delta
Ecotours and organic vegetables. |
| Kerry Heise began his study of botany while growing up in the Truckee/Lake Tahoe area in the 1970's. After receiving a B.S. in botany from the University of Nevada Reno, he spent many field seasons with the National Park Service in the Sierra Nevada and throughout Alaska. He returned to Reno and earned a M.S. in natural resource management while working as a botanist for the Toiyabe National Forest in the ranges of Central Nevada and along the eastern Sierra. Following that, he spent 10 years with the University of California Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program and is currently a botanical consultant based out of Ukiah, California. Kerry has taught plant identification workshops for several years. |
| Diana Hickson, Senior Botanist and Biogeographer, has worked in the Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program of the Department of Fish and Game for over five years. She has collected vegetation data using the Rapid Assessment methodology all over the state, and has taught numerous other people how do so. She received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and graduate degree from UC Santa Barbara. |
| Dr Bob Holland has studied California plant life since arriving at UC Davis for
graduate school in 1972. Early work in vernal pools expanded into the broader
realm of vegetation, culminating in his 1986 “Preliminary descriptions of
California natural communities”, the first bibliographically driven classification of
California vegetation types. He has studied sensitive plants in every California
county (except Del Norte) and has mapped more than 30,000,000 acres of
vegetation. An outside-the-box thinker, he enjoys integrating seemingly
disparate disciplines ranging from population genetics to plate tectonics in
interpreting California plant life. |
| Geri Hulse-Stephens is a botanical consultant in Northern California. Among her projects is a fourteen-year study of rare wetland species in the Little Lake Valley in Mendocino County. She is the rare plant coordinator for the Sanhedrin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. She wrote and illustrated an article for Fremontia describing the flora of Mount Sanhedrin and statewide high-elevation plant distribution. In addition, she has contributed writings, illustrations and field information to several other botanical publications. She sits on the boards of the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District and the U.S. Forest Service Resource Advisory Committee. She is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara. |
| Dr. Todd Keeler-Wolf is an ecologist who has worked in California for over 30 years studying the vegetation and flora of virtually every terrestrial ecosystem in the state. Currently he is the Senior Vegetation Ecologist at the California Department of Fish and Game and leads their Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program. He is also program director of the California Native Plant Society’s Vegetation Program. He is co-author with John Sawyer and Julie Evens of the upcoming Second Edition of The Manual of California Vegetation and several other books and publications, including the revised UC Press California Plant Life Natural History guide, and the third edition of the Terrestrial Vegetation of California, which he co-edited with Michael Barbour and Allan Schoenherr. Todd received his undergraduate and graduate degrees at UC Santa Cruz. |
| Anne Klein is a vegetation ecologist with CDFG’s Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program. Until recently, she worked for CNPS as a vegetation ecologist, working primarily on a classification project for the Northern Sierra Nevada Foothills and a classification and mapping project for Western Riverside County. Anne has a B.S. from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an M.A in Biology from Humboldt State University. |
| Guy Kyser has worked in Weed Science for 20 years. During this time he earned a masters degree in plant ecology at UC Davis. In many years of research with Joe DiTomaso, Guy has acquired extensive experience in rangeland and non-crop herbicide applications, techniques, and calibration. He has given numerous talks on these topics in workshops with Cooperative Extension and Cal-IPC. |
| Rob Preston received his BA in Biological Sciences and MA in Botany from CSU Chico and his PhD in Botany at UC Davis. He is currently Senior Botanist with Jones & Stokes, and over the last 17 years has traveled throughout the state to survey threatened and endangered species, delineate wetlands, and sample and map vegetation. During his 25 years studying the California Flora, he has written hundreds of technical reports, published over a dozen taxonomic and floristic papers, and is the lead author for 16 families and 50 genera in the Jepson Manual Second Edition. Rob has a particular fondness for vernal pools and has spent many Spring days studying the vernal pool flora and fauna and leading tours for friends and colleagues. |
| Dr. Stephen P. Rae has had a 30-yr career in natural resources planning and conservation with Napa County agencies and the California Department of Fish and Game. He received his PhD in Botany from the University of California, Davis. He is now managing partner of the consulting group MUSCI Natural Resource Assessment and President of the consulting group Institute for Environmental and Ecological Research (IEER). His teaching experiences have been numerous and mainly delivered through University of California Extension, Napa Valley Adult School, Napa Valley College, and CDFG. Topics included: Plant Ecology, Flora of Bodega Head, Mosses of California, CEQA Compliance, Sensitive Native Plant Surveys, Programming in BASIC, Wildflower Identification, Wildlife Biology, Environmental Studies, among many others. |
| Fred Roberts is a botanical consultant with 25 years of field experience surveying rare plants in southern California. A graduate of U.C. Santa Barbara, Fred was the assistant curator of the Museum of Systematic Biology, managing the herbarium during the 1980’s and worked as a botanist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during the 1990’s. He is an author of several botanical books and is the Rare Plant Chair or co-chair for the Orange, San Bernardino/Riverside, and San Diego Chapters of CNPS, in addition to regularly participating in the decision process regarding additions and subtractions from the CNPS Rare Plant Inventory. Fred has taught botanical classes for the San Diego Natural History Museum and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. |
| Donna Shorrock is a vegetation ecologist with the CNPS Vegetation Program. She is currently assisting with documentation of rare plant communities in California. She is researching historical background on identification, ranking, and mapping of rare plant communities and she will identify, analyze, and integrate existing data of rare vegetation into documents such as in A Manual of California Vegetation. Prior to coming to CNPS, Donna was working for the National Park Service as a regional Wetlands Biologist. She earned her MS in Plant Biology from Arizona State University. |
| Dr. (and DSc) Aizik I. Solomesheh has been a Project Scientist at the University of California Davis, since 2001. Previously he was Director of the Geobotanical Laboratory in the Institute of Biology, a research unit within the Russian Academy of Sciences, and he was also an associate faculty member at Bashkir State University. His expertise is in vegetation ecology, in particular the description and classification of wildland vegetation types. For the past seven years he has been a member of a vernal pool research team that surveyed vernal pool vegetation throughout California and developed a classification of community types. He is a co-author of several peer-reviewed publications and of a textbook on vegetation science, lead author of a comprehensive red book summary of rare and threatened plant communities throughout Russia, and the sole author of a chapter summarizing the immense West Siberian peatlands and their contribution to the global carbon balance (2005, Cambridge University Press). |
| Peter Warner stumbled upon the fascinating world of botany in 1982, enthralled with a magnificent stand of Pedicularis densiflora in Sonoma County. He now works as an environmental scientist for California State Parks in Mendocino County, and enjoys passing his time studying plants and sharing his discoveries with others through teaching and volunteering. Experienced in a diversity of botanical and ecological pursuits, he’s a former CNPS chapter president and past California Invasive Plant Council board member. Quick to stoop to pull a weed or drop to the ground in reverence of elephant heads (the plant!), Peter has worked as a vegetation specialist, botanist, habitat restorationist, educator, consultant, landscaper, bureaucrat, professional musician, and cab driver. He’s got a couple of parchment documents from Sonoma State University, He’s previously taught workshops on identification of the flowering plants, the Poaceae, and the Asteraceae. |
Dave Weixelman is a botanist with the U.S. Forest Service on the Tahoe National Forest, California. His interest in botany began while hiking the Colorado Rockies. Dave received his undergraduate degree in botany and his graduate degree in wildlife management from the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks. He has worked on the Chugach National Forest in Alaska where he studied the browsing habits of moose and plant succession following fire. Dave was the Forest Botanist on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest where he helped develop a classification of riparian plant community types. Dave has helped teach a number of courses on sedges and riparian plants over the
years. His current work includes monitoring plant composition and the health of meadows on National Forest lands in California.
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| Carol Witham has been studying vernal pool ecosystems for 20 years. She is a recognized expert in the rare plants and animals of vernal pools, and recently served as lead taxonomist in a state-wide research project intended to classify vernal pool vegetation. She regularly presents lectures about vernal pool ecology in college and university courses and at the Continuing Legal Education, Int. biennial conference on wetlands. As a volunteer with CNPS, Carol leads the organization’s campaign to preserve vernal pools and their associated grasslands. Carol was the editor of Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Vernal Pool Ecosystems, 1998 and author of A Field Guide to Vernal Pools, Sacramento County, 2006. She also owns and maintains the website www.vernalpools.org. |
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Dedicated to the Preservation of California Native Flora