As you know, my first
week I put together a guided trail hike to Tanalian Falls, and talked about the
botany of the region. Well, sometimes
things don’t work out, and the hike was one of those things. Turns out a guided hike isn’t really feasible
in a place where visitation is so variable.
But I was not to be deterred; I used the plants I pointed out on the
trail in my presentation.
I decided to do this presentation because well, it was
something that I’m interested in. The
first thing that I did in Alaska was take a hike through the forest, and learn
all the plants. There’s just so much
here that we don’t have at home, and most have a cultural meaning. Plus, people come into the V.C. asking what
different plants are that they see along the trail, so it was due time for a
little lecture!
Yvette and I knew that for this program it would be a good
idea to have some samples for folks, so she whipped up some Labrador Tea and
low-bush cranberry muffins! A big
hit!
I had 26 people show up, which honestly was surprising
because it’s been monsoon season here!
It rained for days and days with no sign of letting up. The presentation itself was pretty
intimidating at first, but, I found that once I got going, it was easy. Friends, it is so much more relaxing to give
a presentation when you know you’re not going to be graded! It’s actually kind of fun!
So you may be curious, what plants did I include? Well, I included all the main berries;
blueberries, lowbush and highbush cranberries, and salmonberries. I also talked about willow trees, wild
geraniums, fireweed, Labrador tea, horsetail, and sphagnum and reindeer
moss! All my favorite plants out
here. There was much more I could’ve
covered, but let’s be honest, the folks that come to our presentations are
coming right after a huge dinner, and with the lights off…we’re just asking for
people to take a nap, so I kept it short and sweet!
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