Botany From the Beginning
Mon–Fri May 18–22, 2026
Instructor: Jerry Jenkins (and friends)
$1200 (with lodging) / $900 (without lodging)
12 Students | Meals Included
At The Creative Campus at Goddard in Plainfield, VT
A five-day course in plant structure, relationships, geography, and identification, focusing on the woodland plants of Plainfield and the Granite Hills, with emphasis on woody plants, sedges, herbs, and some of the larger and nicer mosses.
The course will be taught as a series of exercises. We will typically start the day by looking at plants in the classroom, then go outside and see them in the field, and then return to study them in the classroom again. There will also be short morning lectures, and, to balance them, afternoon discussions and presentations by students.
Our first goal will be to learn about the common local plants—how they are made, where they live, what they do, whom they are related to, how they are identified—by direct observation. Our second goal will be, by discussions and readings, to get a sense of the plant world as a whole—where it came from, what it does, how it has transformed the planet.
Our method will be to take a few plants at a time and learn as much as we can about them. Our tools will be lenses, microscopes, notebooks, and drawing boards. The exercises will focus on observing, describing, comparing and identifying. The daily problems will start simple, with simple places and easy plants near Goddard, and progress to richer and harder ones in the Granite Hills. There are some lovely places nearby, and we will make sure we visit them. One the last day we will do something fun, perhaps a scavenger hunt or a mini survey, as a graduation exercise.
Offered jointly by the North Branch Nature Center’s Biodiversity University and the Northern Forest Atlas Project.
Course Details
About the Instructor
Jerry Jenkins studied physics and philosophy in the early 1960s and has done botanical survey work since 1968 and taught field botany since 1972. He and Ed McNeil founded the Northern Forest Atlas Project in 2012. He is the author of the Atlas photographic guides to woody plants, sedges, mosses, and grasses, their companion digital atlases, the new Field Guide to the Woody Plants of the Northern Forest, and an extensive collection of digital lessons and articles. He is currently at work on, and may end his writing career with, a Field Guide to the Ecological Patterns of the Northern Forest.
Recommended Reading
- Field Guide to the Woody Plants of the Northern Forest – Jerry Jenkins, 2025.
- Digital resources and Photographic Guides available at Northern Forest Atlas
Meals
Meals are provided by the chef and kitchen at the Creative Campus at Goddard. Meals (including coffee and tea) between lunch on Monday morning and lunch on Friday are included. Dietary restrictions will be accommodated. Bring your own snacks.
Lodging
Newly-renovated, dormitory-style lodging is available from Monday though Thursday nights at The Creative Campus at Goddard. Additional nights can likely be accommodated. Participants will have their own room, with shared bathroom facilities.
Location & Timing
Course begins 8 AM on Monday at the Creative Campus at Goddard in Plainfield, VT (location). Each day’s lessons conclude by 5 pm. Tuesday-Friday mornings will begin at a time of the instructor’s choosing. The course concludes by 5 pm on Friday.
Physical Requirements
Participants must be able to walk about 2 miles over the course of each day, sometimes off trail over uneven and potentially muddy terrain. Participants should be comfortable outside in potentially hot, muggy, wet, and/or buggy conditions for long periods of time. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about mobility and/or other accessibility needs.
Academic Credit & Professional Development
This course may qualify for 3 graduate-level credits for an additional $450 course fee. All BioU courses are accredited by Vermont State University’s Center for Schools. Participants interested in receiving credit must contact us immediately after registration so we have time to arrange course accreditation. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that home institutions will accept the credit. Participants pursuing academic credit will be required to complete an additional assignment above and beyond the course hours, including literature review, reflective writing, or a field-based project.
This course qualifies for 40 hours of professional development hours and continuing education units. Certificates of completion are provided upon request at the conclusion of the course.
Financial Support
We have financial support available for most courses! Please head to our Financial Support page to learn more and request financial support. Support is limited, but we do our best to make sure that participants are not turned away for financial reasons. Since many courses fill quickly, we suggest submitting your financial support request after registering for the course if you are able. Or you may email us after submitting your request to ask us to temporarily hold a space for you.
Cancellation Policy
While we realize that unexpected circumstances arise that are out of our control, North Branch Nature Center cannot guarantee refunds for registrations cancelled within 30 days of the course. If a cancellation occurs within this window, NBNC will attempt to fill the space from our wait list and provide a full refund. If the course needs to be cancelled by NBNC, we will provide a full refund.