Western Mountains: November Meeting & Program

Mapping Lakota Plants: Spatial Distributions of Culturally Important Plants of the Lakota at Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota 

Speaker:Ellie Green, Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology MS Student, Frostburg State University

The prairie is the pantry and the medicine cabinet of the Lakota. Short-grass prairies of the Midwest are the most endangered ecosystems on the planet. Green will discuss several cultural keystone plants of South Dakota and their traditional uses. She will also discuss the history of Wind Cave, the first National Park designated to protect a cave, and the Lakota origin site. This free program will begin promptly at 7:00 pm; the public is welcome to attend.

Ellie Green is working towards her MS degree in Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology, specializing in ethnobotany and spatial ecology at Frostburg State University. Ellie has a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UMD College Park and is a graduate of Northern High School in Accident, MD. She has worked as a Natural Resource Adviser and Environmental Education Specialist for the Bureau of Land Management in Coos Bay, Oregon and has a research background in neuroscience, agroecology, dendrochronology, and entomology. She hopes to get her PhD in spatial ecology to develop quantitative techniques for land managers to make decisions about sustainable plant harvesting.

Directions: From I-68 take exit 33 (Braddock Rd & Midlothian Rd exit). Follow Braddock Road approximately 1.3 miles to stop sign. Turn left onto Park Avenue. Drive a short distance and turn left, following signs for the Compton Parking Lot.

No registration.