Plant Communities of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

FIELD BOTANY CLASSES
Instructor: Michael Wangler
Saturday, March 7, 2009
9 am to 4 pm
Meeting Locations TBA (depending on weather and bloom conditions)
Fee: Member $35 per session, $90 full series; Non-member $45 per session, $120 series

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is well-known for its distinctive plant communities and spectacular springtime blooms. This series of classes will focus on field techniques for recognizing and identifying the plants of ABDSP, their flowers, and the communities in which they live. Individual classes will stress the recognition of the most common families and field identification of both common and rare individuals. With enough rain the spring bloom can be incredible, so bring your camera and be prepared to delight in nature's artistic palette.

"Plant Communities" is Part One of the 3-part series of Field Botany classes. Each trip will involve several short, moderately easy walks. Bring water, lunch, light jacket, daypack, hand lens, pencil and notebook for each trip. Academic credit available.
All vehicles OK.

PLANT COMMUNITIES: This program will provide an overview of the major plant communities found in ABDSP. We will discuss how climate, geology, and topography have helped to shape the plant communities we see today, and we will learn about the necessary environmental conditions for a spectacular springtime bloom. We will visit a number of the more common and easily recognizable plant communities, beginning in the low desert in the morning and working our way up to the high desert by the afternoon.

Michael Wangler holds a MS degree in Geography from the University of California, Riverside, and presently serves as the coordinator of the Earth Sciences Program at Cuyamaca College. He's been studying, writing and teaching about the diverse and beautiful landscapes of the arid southwest for over 15 years, and has been teaching field courses for ABFI since 2005.