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  • Special Pinelands Plants Course

Special Pinelands Plants Course

Fundamentals of Pinelands Field Botany and Vegetation Communities
This is a joint program of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Pinelands Preservation Alliance.

If you enjoy the wildflowers and other common plants of the Pinelands and want to get a deeper understanding of the flora, this is a perfect course for you. We will examine the various ways to do this. Using both popular field guides and technical manuals, we will focus on how to identify plants in the wild. As always, we will also pay special attention to rarities.

[+ ZOOM] Special Pinelands Plants Course © PPA

We will get familiar with essential botanical concepts and terms and apply that understanding to live and preserved plant specimens. We will pay most attention to the most prominent plant families of the Pinelands region. By the end of the course, you should be able to identify the great majority of the plants you encounter in the Pinelands.

We will also learn to recognize the major vegetation communities of the Pinelands and get acquainted with the methods and classification systems that apply to them.

As always, we will discuss the protection measures that are in effect for the rarities of the region.

James C. Rutherford Jr. Scholarship Information: The James C. Rutherford Jr. Scholarship is available to qualifying registrants. The scholarship was established with contributions made to PPA in memory of Jim Rutherford, a local biologist who was an enthusiastic student of all phases of Pine Barrens ecology, an ardent conservationist, and an attendee of the Special Pinelands Plants Courses of 2005, 2006, and 2007.

[+ ZOOM] Jim Rutherford Jr, left, is shown conducting fieldwork in 2007 during PPA's Pinelands Plants course. A Plants Course scholarship was named in his memory. © Kevin Sparkman

To apply for the scholarship, please send a letter to:

G. Russell Juelg, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, 79 Grassy Lake Road, Shamong, NJ 08088

Include full name, address, phone and other contact information. Please provide a brief paragraph explaining why you wish to apply for the scholarship, and whether you are requesting a full or partial scholarship. Preferential consideration will be to full-time students.

2011 Class Schedule:

June 9 to August 11, ten consecutive Thursday evenings, from 7 pm to 9 pm. These lecture/workshop sessions will be held at the PPA headquarters.

2011 Field Trip schedule:

Sunday, June 12

Saturday, June 18

Sunday, June 26

Saturday, July 2

Sunday, July 10

Saturday, July 16

Sunday, July 24

Saturday, 30

Sunday, August 7

Saturday, 13

Field trips will be at NJCF's Franklin Parker Preserve, unless otherwise indicated.

Registration is available through NJ Conservation Foundation

For more information, call (609) 654-6455.