We will meet one weekend a month from early May to late September at six different field bases, three in Vermont and three in New York. At each field base we will have tent sites, a classroom, a kitchen and bathrooms. We will travel with our own library, microscopes, field kitchen, pizza oven, and living collection of plants to study. 

Six weekend-long meetings (plus dinner on Friday evenings), each at a different field base, within 115 miles of Burlington, Vermont and 125 miles of Lake Placid, NY. Staff will set up and do reconnaissance on Friday. Classes will start with laboratory problems at 8:30 Saturday and Sunday, followed by field work and ecological exercises through the day. There will be ecology discussions after lunches and Saturday dinner.

We will use teaching methods for ID and ecology developed in Atlas courses over the last ten years, and use the Atlas photo guides, a new field guide to woody plants, and draft chapters from a new guide to ecological patterns for texts.

Subjects: Field identification of woody plants, sedges, mosses, grasses, and characteristic herbs. Functional characters of dominant species. Ecological comparisons of soils, diversity, life forms, biostructures, and topographic patterns.

Goals: To teach plant identification and observational ecology; To document what we find out, and incorporate this into a new book on ecological patterns; To bring a batch of smart people together in beautiful places and turn them loose to see what they discover.

Food: We will serve dinner on Friday and Saturday and buffet breakfasts and lunches on Saturday and Sunday.

Expect vegetarian, fresh-made, and local food: grains, eggs, dairy, fresh veggies from Mighty-Foods farm in Shaftsbury, breads from local bakeries, including the famous Sunniness Studios sourdough from White Creek. Soups, salads, pizza, tortillas, chapatis, naan, made on site.

The Course Manager will be the head chef for the weekend, with additional kitchen assistance rotating among the group.

Accommodations & Quarters: We will have indoor lab and and kitchen space for all weekends. Students and staff will camp or commute. We will be at state parks for two weekends, and at North Branch Nature Center, Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center, Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, and Jerry's White Creek Field School for the other four.

We have room for 1o students. The level will be approximately upper undergrad or beginning grad; some experience with plant ID will be a great asset. We will start at the beginning with ID, but won’t stay at the beginning for very long.

We are looking for students who can work as a group and apply what they learn one month to interpreting what they see the next month. We thus will give preference, especially for scholarships, to students who will do all or most of the weekends. If we have openings, we can take some students for single weekends, but would only recommend this if you have a strong botany background. Said another way, we are going to try to create a group who can start together with the spring flowers in May, work as a group and build up a body of knowledge, and stay together to the late sedges and flowers in September.

Cost will be $2,000 for all six weekends, or $350 per weekend. This includes food.

Generous scholarships are available through the Northern Forest Atlas Foundation, especially (but not only) for students who would like to take the entire sequence. Please contact us ([email protected]) to request a scholarship.

If you are interested, we will find a way for you to attend. We aim to reduce financial barriers to participation as much as possible.

Academic Credit: This course qualifies for up to six graduate credits through Vermont State University for an additional $200 per-credit fee. Students must complete daily reflections and a final project.

This course qualifies for 20 hours per weekend of CUAs or professional development hours.

We will be out much of the day, but not going very far, or very steep (except if we do N. Bouquet, and there is a trail there). We will likely use boats at the Ausable delta and maybe also at Paul Smith’s. Figure on walking a mile or two most days, at botanist’s pace, on or off trail.