I went back school in my 30's for an M.S. in wildlife biology, evaluating wetland restoration effects on reptiles and amphibians in the adjacent uplands. I then worked as project manager of a landscape-scale longleaf pine understory restoration project, and have focused my work on botany and plant ecology ever since. I've done vegetation surveys in the sandhills of South Carolina (6 seasons), the mountains of Virginia (2 seasons), the coastal plain of North Carolina (one spring), and now across Arkansas.