As a retired science teacher and outdoor educator, my time is devoted to hiking, eco-volunteering (trail building, invasive plant removal, and more), and generally poking about outdoors. My college degrees are in biology/botany/geology with a focus on paleobotany. In my undergrad days, I was a fanatic for spring flowers, often spending winter evenings pouring over my Peterson’s guide in anticipation of the coming spring. That has expanded to a love for identifying any life forms and to understanding the ecosystems in which they live.