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Category: Introductions

  • Introduction: Aimee Young

    Hi everyone! My name is Aimee Young and I work for UAF at the Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center in Palmer as the Senior Admin. I’m excited to be taking this class (in tandem with Intro to Ethnobotany), and will likely be pursuing the OEC in Ethnobotany over the next year or two. I moved to Alaska from the New Hampshire/Maine area this past January.

    Back in New England, I enjoyed foraging for mushrooms and ramps in the woods around my house and learning more about the plants native to my neighborhood. I’m really eager to do the same in my new State. I had several flower gardens in the past, and am definitely missing them this spring. I’m currently living vicariously through the amazing work my co-workers at the Experiment Farm are doing in their research and in the Community Gardens. (Next year, if I’m still apartment-living, I’ll definitely be renting a plot there too.)

    My favorite plant in Alaska is the chocolate lily and from my former home in New Hampshire, the lady slipper orchid. I can’t wait to learn more about the flowers Alaska has to offer and come up with some new favorites.

    Finally, for a camera set-up, I have been pursuing photography as a hobby for a few months, and have a basic model Canon (Rebel T7). I’ll be using a Macro lens for my dissection/close-up photography (it’s a 100mm F/2.8L – I am still trying to fully learn what that means…). It’s been fun for flower and sea anemone photography so far!

  • Introduction Kasey Petrochko

    My name is Kasey Petrochko and I am a pharmacy technician at Costco here in Fairbanks! I was born and raised in Georgia, then I moved and lived in Utah for 9 years then after meeting my husband, I moved to Alaska where I have been for 2 years now. I am a chemistry major but currently I am taking this class as a prerequisite for my Associates of Science. I will graduate in December with my very first ever college degree! My favorite plant is the hydrangea flower which unfortunately is not native to Alaska. I do not really have a botanical journey due to the fact I only look at plants but do not buy nor grow my own. I also come from the desert of Utah where very little plant life grew besides Joshua trees and cacti. I am looking forward to learning more about plants in this class. I will be honest, I do not know much about plants beyond that they are pretty to look at.

    This is a picture of my favorite flower which is the hydrangea.

  • Introduction: Bridgett

    Hi, my name is Bridgett. I have been faking my way through botany for far too long. I’m a wildlife biologist, currently on maternity leave, and decided now was a good time to learn proper botany techniques and identification. I’ve had various wildlife jobs and research project that have had a botany component, that I’ve managed to complete by just learning what I needed to know on the fly (ex. moose forage surveys, rare plant surveys, wetland delineation, vegetation transects). I came up to Alaska a few years ago for my PhD project on moose and quickly learned what I could forage for as a snack while doing field work, and always have a garden at home. Paintbrush (Castilleja spp.) is one of my go-to favorites that I remember first seeing hiking in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

    I have a hand lens and iphone for on the go, and a dissecting scope for more thorough viewing.

  • Introduction: Sable Scotton

    Hello! My name is Sable Scotton, and I am a Wildlife Biology student at UAF. I grew up in Alaska and have a great love for the outdoors and the plants/animals that support our survival as Alaskans. I am mainly an animal person, as you can see from my degree, but I am excited to learn more about the plants that I grew up around. I have some background in plant morphology from a previous class, but I don’t have any specific knowledge about Alaskan flora, and I am very excited to learn more. This summer is, ironically, my first summer out of Alaska. I have been studying in Bergen, Norway, since January and will be traveling in Europe this summer until school starts again in August. My favorite Alaskan plants are blueberries (Vaccinium alaskaense) and Labrador tea or Ayuu (Rhododendron groenlandicum).

  • Eldred John Paradeza Introduction

    Greetings everyone,

    Greetings everyone, My name is Eldred John Paradeza. You guys can call me Eldred. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, but raised most of my life in the Aleutian Chain on an island called Unalaska, Alaska. Since graduating high school in Unalaska, I now live in Anchorage where I am attending UAA, studying to get my Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. I would describe myself as a creative and curious person, when it comes to culture and nature. I’ve always been fascinated by the local plants in Unalaska. A big part of that was after learning from Unangax̂ elders about their traditional medicinal and practical uses back in grade school. I also love the visual beauty of plants and often took photos of flowers growing wild around the island. I’d say my y botanical journey has been pretty casual. I’ve always had an interest, but I haven’t done anything too extensive yet. However, I do forage for berries when they’re in season. My favorite plant is the lupine, and I love how its colors range from deep purple to soft pink and bright white. Below, I’ve attached my favorite photo that I’ve taken of lupine.


  • Introduction: Lisa Wedin

    Hello, my name is Lisa, and I have always had an interest in plants and their properties. My bachelor’s degree is in biology, and I took some botany courses but never took a systematic botany course. I focused more on non-vascular plants and invertebrates. My first job out of college was doing Land Trend Analysis on Fort Richardson, now part of JBER. One of the things we did was identify plants along a transect. I wished at that time that I has a better understanding of the terms used to describe and identify plants. The terrain on Fort Richarson was varied included mountain tundra, forest, field and bog. I learned a lot about identifying Southcentral plants. I don’t remember them all now. I worked for the UAF Cooperative Extension in Anchorage for 10 years, mostly on water issues. Recently I have been working on social media posts about traditional plants in the Bering Straits region for Bring Straits Native Corporation. 

  • Introduction

    Hello, my name is Shailyn (pronounced Shay-lin) and I live in Fairbanks, AK but am originally from West Hills, CA. I am pretty excited to take this class as I want to build my skills and confidence in identifying flora in the place I now call home. My favorite plant is Salvia leucophylla, otherwise commonly known as purple sage. It grows native in Southern California and always reminds me of hikes and beach days back home. I enjoy hiking, kayaking, and pretty much any type of outdoor adventure with my cat, Bristol, who is a trooper and my best friend. I am a proud cat mom through and through. I am majoring in Wildlife Biology here at UAF and even though this class is a requirement for my degree, I am genuinely excited to get more familiarized with Alaska flora.

  • Introduction: Lowrie Ward

    Hello, my name is Lowrie Ward and I’m excited to be starting this class! I am getting an Occupational Endorsement Certificate in Ethnobotany, and this course is part of that program. I have lived in Anchorage Alaska, an ancestral and modern home of Dene people, for almost 5 years now and love it so much. One of my favorite things about Alaska is the flora of this amazing space. While we have less biodiversity than some places, it’s remarkable how much we do have considering our extreme environment!

    For my microscope, I went ahead and ordered this one. There was a cheaper version which didn’t have a screen, but having to hold it w/ one hand and my phone to view with the other seems cumbersome ha. I also have some glass and a flower press setup that I will use as a stand like Dr Ickert-Bond shows in the video. I always take what I consider subpar plant images, so I’m excited to use this class to up my game.

    Screenshot from amazon of the microscope I ordered. I think it's for kids :) but it will work I reckon.

    Before living in Anchorage, I lived in DC, and before that Florida, where I grew up. I’m originally from the Northeast of England, so my mother’s garden has a lot of traditional influence. She loved discovering new and native Floridian plants throughout my childhood, however, so I’ve always been interested in the mix and balance of native and cultivated plants. I love gardening, foraging, exploring, and learning about plants. Outside of that, my favorite activities are reading, hiking, and spending time with my husband and pets. My educational background includes biology and public health, and I currently work in Tribal health full time.

    I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite plant – they’re just all so amazing. This month I am foraging spruce tips and harvesting some baby nettle. The garlic in my garden is growing nicely, but my beans and some of my flowers are struggling because of the late start to summer.

  • Introduction

    Hi, my name is Michael and I am a junior majoring in Wildlife Biology here at UAF. Some of my hobbies include hiking, skiing, snowmobiling, and generally being outdoors. My botanical journey has mostly just been the nature that I stumble across while doing those activities, I’ve never gone far out of my way to learn much about plants. I have taken a plant bio class prior however. I’ve never thought about what my favorite plant is but one of the first ones that come to mind is the ferns and mosses from Michigan where I’m from. I never took many up close but you can get an idea for the environment.

  • Introduction

    Hi! I’m Lissa Kramer. I’m a continuing education student in the Ethnobotany (EBOT) Occupational Endorsement Certificate program, so taking this as a core class.

    I’ve always had an intimate relationship with plants. I grew up gardening, hunting, and foraging in rural Minnesota. Some of my favorite memories are gathering wild asparagus and helping my family make maple syrup. Early in my working life, I taught plant identification and uses as a guide in Southeast Alaska. In grad school, I was fortunate to get to work on a project entering plants into what was a new database at the time, the Consortium of Pacific Herbaria. Later, as a national park curator in Skagway, Alaska, I took care of a small herbarium of previously catalogued plants. I’m now working at a national park in Seattle that unfortunately has no natural resource specimens in its museum collections, so I find other ways to stay engaged with plants in my personal life. I share a community garden plot, forage for wild edibles and medicinals near our cabin in the North Cascades, and volunteer as a rare plant monitor. I think this class can help me better converse with the other rare plant people, many of whom are retired botanists and other types of scientists. I’m increasingly interested in ecology, looking at the intersection of plants, subsistence, and sustainability.

    I’m including a picture of my new camera lens and my rare plant assignment from this last weekend’s backcountry exploits in the Okanagan.

    Sisyrinchium septentrionale E.P. Bicknell