South Georgia Native Plant & Wildflower Symposium 2006 Speakers

2006 Symposium Speakers

Floristic Inventory: A Classical Science with Modern Necessity
Lisa Kruse, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
M.S. Botany 2003, The University of Georgia. Lisa will give a photographic tour of the floristic inventory she completed for her masters research. The inventory was of river corridors in the Upper Etowah Watershed, in the Blue Ridge-Piedmont transition zone of north Georgia. She will discuss the process of conducting a floristic inventory, and why inventory is essential to conservation of native plant diversity.

She specializes in field botany of the Georgia Mountains and Piedmont and in plant conservation ecology. She has also worked in restoration ecology. Since completing her masters degree, Lisa has worked for the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, the UGA Herbarium, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service. Currently she works for the Georgia Natural Heritage Program in Social Circle, GA as a field botanist with a focus on monitoring vegetation response to restoration projects.

Botanical Guardians: Volunteers Protecting our Natural Heritage
Heather Alley is the Lab Coordinator for the Plant Conservation Program at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and Project Coordinator for the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance's Botanical Guardians project. She coordinates volunteer efforts around the state with hands-on conservation work, including safeguarding, monitoring, restoration and invasive species control. Heather received her M.S. degree from the University of Georgia Department of Horticulture in 2002. The USDA Forest Service and Georgia Natural Heritage Program are applying her graduate research to habitat restoration and safeguarding for Georgia Smooth Coneflower populations. Heather's research interests include plant propagation, habitat restoration, endangered species safeguarding and monitoring.

A Secret Forest: Coveting Native Trees
Dr. Kim D. Coder is professor of Community Forestry & Arboriculture at the University of Georgia. His technical specialities include tree health care, tree biomechanics and risk management. He is past president of the International Society of Arboriculture and was granted the “Award for Excellence in Arboricultural Education” by this same organization. Coder is the author of over 400 publications and articles on tree growth and development, tree care, maintenance, and protection; community and urban forestry; and endangered species/environmental issues. He is an international lecturer and consultant, as well as an award-winning website developer.

Becoming a Weed: A Plant's Journey from Ornamental to Invasive
Chris Evans serves as The Bugwood Network’s Invasive Species and Biological Coordinator. Chris has a BS in Wildlife Biology and an MS in Forest Ecology. He recently served as coordinator for the woodland invasive species survey of Iowa, a project which emphasized training private landowners to identify and report woodland invasive plants. His current duties include developing natural resource-related educational material, image classification, and further development of the ecological and biological aspects of the Bugwood Network.

If you would like more information regarding the South Georgia Native Plant & Wildflower Symposium
please phone (229) 386-7274 or email abcarter@uga.edu