Course Registration

ADV - Summer Prairie Plant ID Class

710 Three Oaks Drive
Northfield, MN 55057

Are you bewildered at the variety of native plants in Minnesota? Are you envious of a naturalist’s knowledge about plants and their casual use of the scientific names of plants? Are you simply curious about the plant life around us and want to know more, or improve your contributions to citizen science projects?

If so, this class can help you learn the tools and techniques to identify native plants and trees in the Big Woods/Big Rivers and Prairies and Potholes biomes.

This three evening class will cover: - using Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide (and dichotomous keys in general) to identify native flowering plants and shrubs, - how to identify native trees commonly found in the forest and prairie biomes, and - how to use iNaturalist, Seek, EDDMaps to document uncommon species that are a mystery to you or report invasive species.

The class will be held Thursday evenings, July 11th, 18th and 25th, between 6:00 and 8:30 pm at Carleton College’s Cowling Arboretum in Northfield, Minnesota.

Cowling Arboretum is an 800 acre preserve adjacent to the campus of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Established nearly 100 years ago to showcase contemporary techniques of ecological restoration, “the Arb” continues to be a site of ecological research and conservation.

Due to the one-on-one nature of the instruction, course enrollment is limited to 12 participants.

The course fee of $50 covers the cost of a copy of Newcomb’s guide and related course materials. Students will need either a cellular phone with the iNaturalist application installed, or an iNaturalist account and a camera capable of taking close-up photos of plant parts (flowers, stems, leaves, etc.). Installing the Seek plant ID and EDDMaps invasive species phone apps is recommended, but not required.

The course will be led by Nancy Braker, Director of the Carleton College Cowling Arboretum and Jim Platt, retired Senior GIS Manager for The Nature Conservancy’s North America Region Program.

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The course cost is $50 and includes course manuals and supplies.

Course Dates:

Meeting from 6:00 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. on:

Thursday, July 11, 2024
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Thursday, July 25, 2024

Instructor Information

Jim Platt

Jim has been a Master Naturalist since 2018, an instructor since 2019, and has been a member of the instructor team for all three biome courses. He spent his career as a Geographic Information Systems Manager, working primarily on large-scale landscape conservation projects, most recently for The Nature Conservancy. An avid student of nature, Jim can usually be recognized as the guy looking up at the weather (and for birds he can hear but not quite see), or down at plants, bugs, ponds, streams and really cool rocks.

Nancy Braker

Nancy Braker (BA Carleton College; MS University of Minnesota - Entomology) is a conservation biologist. As the Director of the Carleton College Cowling Arboretum she oversees all aspects of management of the 800 acre site, and works with faculty, students and outside users on educational and recreational use of the property. Nancy has 20 years of experience working for The Nature Conservancy in land management, conservation planning, and monitoring of rare species populations, specializing in management of fire adapted natural communities.

Sponsor Information

Carleton College Cowling Arboretum

Informing management of invasive honeysuckle and spotted-wing drosophila

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