#45 Jacqueline Courteau

Jacqueline Courteau, Ph.D. is an ecologist, consultant and writer. She's also a teacher of university ecology courses in the field, and focused on restoration, sense of place, natural history and environmental writing.

Most recently, Jacqueline has established NatureWrite, LLC to provide ecological assessment and monitoring, and to measure forest regeneration, deer impacts on vegetation, and other interactions between plants and animals. Earlier in her career, she worked as a science and environmental policy analyst in Washington, DC contributing to an early 1990's report to Congress on how federal agencies could plan for an uncertain climate

In this episode, Mary and Jacqueline consider plant ecology, medicinal plants and love - all in exploration of avenues into climate repair.

You can learn more about Jacqueline by checking out her articles in Feb/Mar and Apr/May issues of Rural Heritage magazine where she offers a two-part series on herbal remedies.

Throughout our talk, Jacqueline continued to call our attention back to relationship with nature - no matter the ecosystem and no matter how urban. Her contention is that paying attention in this way helps us rediscover the love we have for the natural world - a world of which we are and have always been a part.

Jacqueline also mentioned these resources including books on observing plant life, and apps for Citizen Science.

BOOKS:

Kimmerer, Robin Wall (2015). Braiding sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions.

David Haskell, David. (2012). The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature. Viking Books.

CITIZEN SCIENCE:

Spring phenology

Budburst: https://budburst.org

Nature’s Notebook: https://www.usanpn.org/nn

Others

Firefly Atlas: https://www.fireflyatlas.org/get-involved/how-to-participate

Species identification

iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org

This is a species ID app, but if you allow your location to be used, every time you look up a species (and the community confirms it), your finding is mapped, so there’s a great collection of what species have been found nearby.

eBird: https://ebird.org/home

For those of you interested in birds.

And a recent compilation from the Smithsonian, which might list a few additional apps:

https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/mobile-apps-citizen-science

Additional Citizen Science Efforts focused on weather:

Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network

cocorahs.org

Skywarn Storm Spotter Program

https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/

MUSIC~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Peaceful Guitar - Music by Tung Lam from Pixabay