Floristics
Curt Gowdy State Park is well liked for its mountain biking trails and beautiful reservoirs but no comprehensive document about its flora is known to exist for park staff or guests despite its diversity of community types ranging from forest understory to dry grassland.
I am currently working on a short flora of Curt Gowdy State Park. Many of the observations are conveniently documented using the iNaturalist app to quickly retain GPS coordinates and photographic supplements for voucher specimens. You can view a few of these observations below or follow my account to see the project progress. Thank you for your patience as I work to resolve IDs and upload the over 700 observations we have already documented.
The goal of my work is to compile a short flora of the park using in-field identification and the collection of voucher specimens. This information will be used to document the presence of species that have never been surveyed on record or are not known to have been surveyed in the park since the 1980’s. This will contribute to the development of a pamphlet for park visitors that overviews common plants that can be seen throughout the seasons, and may assist park staff in mitigating impacts to plant diversity during maintenance/construction.
I am always interested in leading or providing assistance with floristic projects. If you are looking for a botanist to survey your park, public lands, or backyard, please contact me at swessel1@uwyo.edu to discuss collaboration.