My name is Alissa Healy and I’m a life-long resident of Fairbanks, Alaska. I have family from all over, but mainly Ireland, Alaska, and some of the “Lower 48.” From my paternal side, I’m Upper Tanana Athabascan, from the village of Healy Lake. I’m very proud of my Dené heritage and this is my second year serving on our Council. I’m a very ambitious person, so much of my time is spent teaching elementary-aged students, hiking/exploring the great outdoors with my boyfriend and two dogs, reading a good book with my two cats, creating visual arts, writing, or learning more about plants. I’ve come to have a deep appreciation of local plants, so I’m taking this course for the fun of it and to fulfill an Ethnobotany program requirement.
My current favorite plant is Calypso bulbosa! It’s a rare beauty that I’ve come to seek out every May!
Hello! My name is Anna Ergish and I am originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. I graduated from the University of Alabama in 2018 with a degree in business administration. I fell into a career of banking in Nashville, TN after graduation. After realizing I needed a break from my life in Nashville, I decided to jump into the world of seasonal work. I began my journey of seasonal work in the Flat Top Wilderness of Colorado. I worked as a wrangler giving trail rides to guests on a ranch. I immediately became mesmerized by all the unique wildflowers. I was seriously so obsessed, I would study plant identification books and go out on my free time to find new flowers and learn what they were. I decided to continue on my journey of season work and found a job as a dog sled tour guide in Jackson, Wyoming. After an incredible season, I decided to stay in Wyoming and pursue another wrangling job. I could not wait to see similar or new flowers compared to my summer in Colorado. I purchased maybe 5 plant identification books in preparation for the summer flowering season. On the ranch in Wyoming, I truly became the flower girl and everyone would bring me new flowers to figure out what they were. I must have flipped through every page of every book in my free time just trying to understand the plant world around me.
A photo of me in Wyoming on a pack trip. I usually spent my time on the horse staring at the ground for new flowers!
I felt my flower and plant knowledge was purely from these incredible identification books; so, I decided I wanted to look into an educational program that will allow more of a formal education to better understand the plants. I realized that my business degree is useful; however, this is not the direction I hope my career goes into. I would prefer in the future to find some sort of environmental science career, thus I wanted some sort of official science education on a topic that interested me. This lead me to discovering the Ethnobotany program at UAF.
In September 2024, I moved up to Fairbanks, AK to pursue dog mushing as I found a job as another tour guide with an operation just outside of town. I decided to stay in Alaska for the summer and decided this was a great idea to take some classes and learn more about plants.
My mother was a horticulture major in college and had a passion for plants. So she exposed me to lots of gardening plants when I was a kid, however, I did not appreciate this growing up. In 2020, I moved into a house with a yard big enough to create some garden space. I had so much fun trying to grow tomatoes, mint, sage, squash, and basil. The garden was small and at times very unsuccessful. I really did not know much about what I was doing. When I transitioned into seasonal, I lost the ability to have space to grow anything. Now that it is finally summer in Alaska, my current boss has plants some vegetables and flowers around my cabin. We are growing broccoli, kale, rhubarb, sunflowers, and some other flowers that I forget the name.
My plant and growing knowledge is limited but I love planting and playing in the dirt. I am excited to continue to learn more and get involved with others that can teach me all about gardening, especially in the unique climate zone of the interior of Alaska.
My all-time favorite flower is the beardtongue or penstemons, specifically the (Penstemon strictiformis Rydb.). They just look so unique and I love the vibrant colors they have. I found them in Colorado and Wyoming.
Lately, I have been fascinated by the horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and mares tail (Hippuris vulgaris) grass that is all around me! I had no idea this unique grass ‘flowered’. (In the picture, I believe the horsetail is the larger needled grass but I was really confused the more I tried to decide if these were in fact two different plants). The forest is covered with this grass and it makes the ground look so lush and green! Here are two pictures I took showing what I think is horsetail and mares tail. They surprisingly are two different plants not related although they look so similar.
My favorite family of flowers is the Asteraceae family or the Sunflower/Daisy/Aster family. This plants attract many insects and bugs creating beautiful pollinator gardens to promote environmental biodiversity. This family of plants helps regrow devastated areas. The flowers are known for their composite flower heads or florets. So basically, the flower is actually composed of many small flowers to make the bigger flower. This is a picture of a common coneflower.
Because dogs are a huge part of my life, I have to show the class my two personal pets. Amy is the all white Alaskan husky mix (a retired sled dog) and Lulu is the white and red dog and she is a Brittany spaniel. I currently take care of 40 sled dogs (not included in any pictures but they are also very cute and amazing working dogs!
Hi everyone! My name is Remy, and I currently live in and am from Fairbanks, Alaska. I spent my later teens and 20s in Bellingham, Washington, and I truly fell in love with plants while I lived there. I have a deep love for both my hometowns, the boreal forests surrounding the Golden Heart City and the temperate rainforests of the Salish Sea. I took an introduction to ethnobotany of the Northwest Coast course in 2018 and really became interested in ethnobotany through that, though the time hadn’t felt right to formally pursue further studies in the field until this summer.
Author lounging on a tree throne in a coastal WA forest, circa May 2025.
Aside from spending time with plants, my family, and my three cats, I work and have a wide range of hobbies — my day job is that of a CNA at the local hospital’s long term care facility, and in my time not spent at work or doing school, I like art (drawing, painting, metalsmithing), fiber crafting (currently just knit & crochet, though I’d love to get back into sewing clothes and also pick up embroidery), reading, writing poetry/composing music, learning languages, playing the occasional video game, and all things K-pop. I can also be found backstage during local theatre productions from time to time, usually running/designing sound!
The plants I probably interact with most are in the Lamiaceae family — I love lavender and mint everything, and I have a cup of peppermint tea every morning as soon as I wake up. I recently got a chocolate mint plant from my neighborhood plant nursery and I’m quite excited to try its leaves in tea! As for plants native to my home regions, I really like Labrador Tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum (Oeder) Kron & Judd) and Salal (Gaultheria shallon Pursh).
G. shallon, flowering.R. groenlandicum in its spring growth stage.
I look forward to spending time with you all in this class, and getting to see and learn about plants from where everyone is located! :3
Hello everyone, My names Courtnie and I’m from Yakima, Washington. But I lived in Anchorage Alaska for close to two years and I recently moved to Lebanon, New Hampshire. I’m a huge animal lover and I have four cats. I love plants and I’ve always been obsessed with wildflowers that grow everywhere. I really like finding unique plants out in nature. My favorite plant is Lavender (Lavandula) because it smells amazing and I love using Lavender for calming purposes in tea and in a pillow spray.
Hi everyone! My name is Amelia Knavel, and I’m studying wildlife biology and conservation at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Over the summer, I’ll be living in Albuquerque, New Mexico!
I don’t have a broad background with plants; I enjoy keeping them at home, but I’m not the best at keeping them alive. One of my favorites that can survive with a bit of neglect is the snake plant (Dracaena trifasciata). Below is a picture of one of mine!
Hey eveyone – my name is Andrew and I live in a small apartment in Brooklyn, New York with my 3 dogs! I work in the horticulture industry and take care of/teach/consult on a ton of large indoor and outdoor landscape projects. I have always been interested in our relationships with plants and how beneficial and important they are. I am always amazed by how blind people can be to them especially here in NYC. I really want to learn more so that I can teach and hopefully inspire others to appreciate and cherish the nature around them.
My favorite plant is Chamaecyparis obtusa or Hinoki cypress. The oil and wood smells soooo amazing and there have been a bunch of really interesting studies on its benefits especially within the field of shin rin yoku or forest bathing. Anyway I am really excited to get to know everyone and to learn as much as possible.
Hi everyone! My name is Ryan Stebbins. I have been living in Fairbanks for 2 winters now. Before then I grew up in Colorado. I found my way to living in Alaska after spending my first two summers out of high school commercial fishing up here in the state. That is when I fell in love with Alaska and why I choose to go to school up here in Fairbanks. I am pursuing a degree in wildlife. During the summers I work for fish and game as a tech two in the fisheries department. During the school year I also guide tours to the arctic circle. During my free time I spend much of time hunting and fishing. I have just recently started getting into foraging last summer. While berry picking last summer I picked some red currant berries. These are now my favorite plant.
Hello all, my name is Matt Shavlik I am from Washington state. I am pursuing a degree in Wildlife Biology, which this will be my last course! In my junior and senior year, I studied Plant Biology, Systematic Botany, and worked in the museum with Steffi on a delineation of Vitis project. I enjoy gardening and hunting. This spring I had some extra materials around and built a raised bed with wheels for my back deck and my squash and zucchini are loving it! My favorite plant is the star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), which belongs to the family Apocynaceae. Looking forward to this course and meeting you all!
Hi, I’m Jay Clapeck. Originally from southern Arizona, I’ve have had the chance to live in many places, including Canada. I now call Alaska home, where my wife, our dogs, and I spend as much time as possible exploring its wild places. When I’m not out adventuring, I work at UAF Cooperative Extension as the program coordinator for the NextGen grant. My favorite plant is the prickly pear cactus. I’ve always admired its ability to adapt to the desert while still producing beautiful, bright flowers. It’s also incredibly useful,nearly the entire plant is edible. From Prickly Pear beer to cactus salad, its a very versitle plant. Even though it’s not found in Alaska, its resilience and versatility make it an amazing species.
Hello all! I am Shooka and I am taking this course over the summer to fill in some extra credits necessary for graduation and I have a love for flora and fauna! I am so excited to be taking this course and excited to learn with all of you in regards to Alaska Flora. I have a picture here of some magnifying glasses I bought for a previous BIOL course and I am using my phone as well which has a magnification of up to 30x so I think I will manage to get by with my phone’s great magnification as well as these glasses.
