Wildflowers inspired me to first pick up the camera. I photograph and cover stories about native plants whenever I get the chance. I group all this work into a project under the title “Saving Beauty” to raise awareness about rare, endangered plants and their unique habitats.

“Plant blindness,” a term coined by two botanists, describes how most Americans relate to plants: the inability to notice the plants in one’s own environment causing the inability to recognize the importance of plants in ecosystems or to human life. Thus, plants are often ignored and overlooked for conservation efforts. Plants do not receive the same protections as animals under the Endangered Species Act and only receive a fraction of federal funding available. New reports show that the number of plants that have disappeared from the wild globally is more than twice the number of extinct birds, mammals and amphibians combined.

Follow me here for my unfolding work to examine the importance of plants in our lives, fascinating natural history stories, their relationship with pollinators, their essential role in ecosystems, the future of our forests after wildfire and climate change, and more.