Part-timer Ruth Kirkpatrick spent a lot of time during the 1997-98 school year devising a new course, then taught it for the first time during the '98 summer session. Labeled Natural Resources 100, Field Ecology, the course focused on collecting and identifying plant species in the Hensley Creek watershed, on various parcels of land adjacent to the Ukiah campus.
Kirkpatrick and her students found and pressed representatives of dozens of plant families-the total number of species is still being tallied-and are creating an herbarium and detailed scientific description that will serve as baseline data and reference source for future studies and projects. A botanist who recently moved from Lake County to Willits, Kirkpatrick has taught a variety of classes in the biological sciences and this year will also serve as an assistant director of the MESA program. She is very pleased with the success of the innovative course and looking forward to further academic activity and field work on the watershed lands.
Copyright MPFA 1998
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited
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