I am an undergrad student majoring in Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife with a specialization in Forestry and Wildlife…quite a mouthful! I love camping, hiking, backpacking, snowboarding, etc. Currently trying my hand at climbing (looking for a belay partner!)

In the future I hope to have a career where I can use my passion for the outdoors for the benefit of both the environment and for sustainable human endeavours. Ideally, I would like to gain extensive field experience in forest management and habitat restoration before perhaps getting a higher degree and going into research which I can use to advocate for protecting mother nature and education on how cool and beautiful it is, as long as we care for it.

My coat of arms includes a rough illustration of the image in the header, the location of where I worked last summer with Southwest Conservation Corps on the Calico National Recreation Trail. We built “turnpikes” which are raised parts of trail to help mitigate destruction and erosion of particularly muddy areas. Next to that is my motto I often turn to: “Fear is the mind-killer” which is from my favorite book, Dune. Below that is my major and next to that is my hometown, Grove City, which is located about 20 minutes southwest of Ohio State.

My interests in botany and plants come from my love of gardening and exploring the natural world. While I was in Boy Scouts I loved foraging and trying to identify trees that we would find on our adventures, especially the sassafras tree because of their cool 3 different leaves that you can make tea from and tasty roots that taste like root beer! (disclaimer: don’t eat too much it is considered a carcinogen!) We loved finding sourgrass (woodsorrel) which has a sour green apple taste, broadleaf plaintain to soothe mosquito bites, and jewelweed, which shimmers when put in water, the seed pods explode when touched, and it can be used to help prevent poison ivy rashes.

Furthermore, over the past summer while I was out west, I discovered many beautiful wildflowers such as fireweed, lupines, wild roses, columbines (pictured below), scarlet gilias (pictured below), and giant red paintbrush (pictured below) which only further got me excited to learn more about native plants and their beauty.

 

My favorite plants are the sassafras tree and the ponderosa pine (the bark smells like vanilla and brown sugar!!)