My Favorite Natives
Vicki Tucker
Vicki Tucker is department chair of Environmental Horticulture at Albany Technical Institute. With degrees from the University of Georgia and Georgia Southwestern University, she has received numerous honors and awards including Teacher of the Year (1991 and 2000) and the Award of Excellence (1993).
In addition to speaking to Garden Clubs around the area, Ms. Tucker is a certified plant professional for the Georgia Green Industry Association and has served on the State Standards Committee for Environmental Horticulture.

Wildflowers of Georgia
Hugh & Carol Nourse
Hugh and Carol Nourse are freelance photographers and writers on botanical and horticultural subjects. One book is published, "Wildflowers in Georgia" (Athens: UGA Press, 2000); another is in process, "The State Botanical Garden of Georgia" (Athens: UGA Press, forthcoming late 2001). Photos and articles with photos have appeared in the American Gardener, Backpacker, Nature Photographer, Tipularia, and Wildflower magazines.
The Nourses have been volunteer photographers for the State Botanical Garden of Georgia since 1996. Their extraordinary photos have been used by the Garden in posters, brochures, newsletters, advertising and annual reports. They do not consider themselves to be professional botanists. Hugh has a Ph.D. in economics and is a professor emeritus, The Terry College, University of Georgia.

The Art and Science of Restoring Biodiversity in Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass Ecosystems
Dr. Kay Kirkman
Dr. Kay Kirkman is an Associate Scientist at the J.W. Jones Ecological Research Center in Newton, Georgia. Dr. Kirkman is a co-author of "Trees of Georgia" published by Timber Press. Her research interests include restoration of longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystems and associated wetlands, rare plant biology and conservation, and vegetation responses to disturbances.

Janisse Ray
Writer and environmental activist Janisse Ray lives on a family farm in the coastal plains of southern Georgia. Her nonfiction book about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast - "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood" - was published by Milkweed Editions in October 1999 and has won numerous awards. Besides being a plea to protect and restore the glorious forests of the South, the book deals with such topics as mental illness, poverty, and fundamentalist religion,
As an environmental activist, Janisse is working to slow the rate of logging of Southern forests. She helped form the Georgia Nature-Based Tourism Assocation and worked to save the 34,000 acres Moody Swamp in her home county of Appling. For the past two years, she has organized a gathering of Southern nature writers on Ossabaw Island.

Native Azaleas
Dr. John Ruter
Dr. John Ruter is an Associate Professor with The University of Georgia. He has been with the Department of Horticulture at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton since 1990.
His research focuses on nursery crop production in the state of Georgia and he has published over 200 scientific and popular articles. Dr. Ruter oversees development of the Coastal Plain Research Arboretum in Tifton, Georgia and is currently supervising the installation and maintenance of the native plant community-based landscape at the National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory. In 2000, he received the prestigious D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Research.