about this website and me...

The mission (if possible):

to photograph as many Pacific Northwest native plants as possible

collect voucher specimens for various regional herbaria for use in determing the range of taxa and for future systematic and floristic studies

Photographs were taken with a Sony Mavica FD-92 Digital camera and newer ones with better resolution were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4300. The photos are freely available for personal, academic, and non-profit use (includes school reports, academic web pages, personal "hobby" pages, and pamphlets, flyers, web pages, and other publications assembled by someone in a non-profit or governmental agency for non-commercial use).Photos used should include a citation that credits the photographer- Thayne Tuason, and possibly the organization- CWNP.org. If the photographs will be publicly displayed or disseminated I would like to be contacted about the use.

Commercial, for-profit use includes web pages for commercial enterprises, paid consulting work on behalf of non-profit or for-profit agencies, textbooks, magazines, newspapers, journals, field guides and any other printed media that is sold for profit. This use must be negotiated with the photographer- Thayne Tuason.

Email me at: flora@cwnp.org

Myself- Thayne Tuason on Lassen Peak in 2000 working on a rare plant survey of Smelowskia ovalis var. congesta, Draba aureola, and Collomia larsenii (Collomia debilis var. larsenii)	This web site began in August of 1999 with 12 photos of native plants that I had taken with a digital camera. Since that time the collection of photographs has grown, along with my knowledge of native plants. Admittedly I don't know everything about native plants, but I try my best to be as accurate as possible and I keep learning as time goes along. One of botany's greatest assets is that the more you see, the more there is to see. Although I have lived in Central Washington for most of my life (and now SW Idaho for 3 years), there are always new plants to see and places to visit. One of my desires is to share some of the beauty and wonder that I see with others, and the internet has allowed me to do so. Central Washington isn't too populated (yet); it is one of those places that a person might drive through, on thier way to Seattle, and remember nothing of it but wheat fields and orchards. One might also think that it was just a desert, with little more than sagebrush and coyotes. Part of my purpose in creating a web site was to educate people about this area's natural diversity and what makes it so special. Central Washington has many rare and endemic species that owe their existence here to the many and diverse habitats of the area, and to the fact that portions of Central Washington remained ice-free during the last ice age, and provided a sort of refuge for species.
A place called Devils Kitchen in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Reasonably named.	In the summer of 2000 I volunteered with the Student Conservation Association as a Conservation Intern. My job was at Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California as biological technician for plants. Mt. Lassen last erupted in 1919, the evidence of which can still be seen in the park today. It is a very interesting place because of its geological features which include Devil's Kitchen as seen in the photograph to the left- including steam vents spraying superheated gas and water, and bubbling mud pots- burping in harmony as a choir of the earth. Through volunteering I gained valuable experience, as well as getting to see some of the most beautiful country in America. It was really interesting for me going there as a botanist to discover many of the plants and plant families that were familiar to me in Washington also occured there, as well as getting to see some plants that I haven't seen since. To find out more about volunteering through the Student Conservation Association visit thier website at: www.sca-inc.org
Paradise Meadows at Lassen. This meadow is typical of many of the meadows at Lassen- spring and snowfed a winding stream flows through a trough in the sedges and plants, filled with small trout who are always fighting the current. At the edges of the meadow are a few dead and dying small conifers, who chose to germinate in too wet of a place and have never had an easy life. And the meadow itself- deep with plants and wet earth, characterized by sedges and Juncus, with smatterings of color- a Sysyrinchium here and there, a group of Lupines growing purple from the green, and the white fluffy heads of Sphenosciadium leaning out over the stream. Where the earth gives up water to the land are the many meadows of Lassen, each a paradise within its own.
My job during the summer of 2001 was with the USFS on a botany crew in Leavenworth. For part of the summer we did botany, then for part we were on a fire crew. My major task while doing botany work was to look for specific rare plants- in a typical day we would hike 5 to 12 miles and cover more than 3,000 vertical feet.
Thayne Tuason in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness completing restoration work after the Icicle Complex Fires, 2001.
Although I didn't see many fires on the fire crew- we did odd jobs that needed to be done, hiked PT, and kept entertained by playing alot of hackysack. The highlight of the summer was getting a helicopter ride out the Icicle to do restoration work and look for hotspots on one of the ridges. Another highlight was pulling knapweed with the entire crew on Icicle Road. We pulled enough knapweed to fill several dumpsters, and the Icicle is looking much better for it.	Severity Fire Crew on a typical PT (Personal training) hike above Lake Wenatchee, Dirtyface Trail, 2001.
Monitoring transect on Mt. Hull, Tonasket Ranger District, 2002	In 2002 I worked for Tonasket Ranger District (Washington) mainly doing vegetation surveys for range condition and trend transects (C & T transects). Mostly I was in the Tonasket R.D. but I also travelled to Republic R.D. and Twisp Ranger District. C & T transects were first implemented by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1950's and 1960's, but since then many of the transects have not seen survey work done on them for 20 to 50 years. The old Parker Loop method was originally used to survey these transects, but I had the opportunity to do three different types of sampling on these transects. Although I may have thought it was overkill on the part of sampling, the raw data that was gathered is surely close to the most accurate for 100 ft. of plants that has ever been gathered for that part of the forest. 1,200 Daubenmeyer microplots and about 700 nested frequency plots later the plants were crisp (forensic botany at its best) and I returned to college. My favorite part of my job at Tonasket was working overtime on Fridays looking for rare plants. My boss, Larry Loftis, was very kind in giving me a personal tour of some of the "hot spots" in the district, and I had the opportunity to wander through Muckamuck Mt., Mt. Tiffany, 30 mile Meadows and other beautiful places.
CWU Undergraduate Research Symposium 2002 In April 2003 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Botany from Central Washington University, and since then have been working as a botanist. In the summer of 2003 I worked for the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources as a botanist and crew boss. Much of the summer was spent in Eastern Washington in the Wenatchee Mountains, Colville, and Okanogan looking at the effects of forest management activities such as thinning and burning on understory vegetation in Eastern Washington forests. Part of the field season was also spent in the Gifford Pinchot, sampling vegetation in harvested areas with some retention of trees in patches. The goal of this research was to determine the effects on understory vegetation with tree harvesting. Special emphasis was placed on orchids and mycorrhizal plants. The best part of the summer besides working with a great crew (who corrected my calls on plant ID's several times), was working in a old growth Ponderosa pine stand in the Wenatchee Mountains, and camping near an old growth stand in the Gifford Pinchot. It exists!	Sampling vegetation on the Gifford Pinchot near Randall Washington, 2003. Mt. Adams in the background.
The hike into one of the burn units in Republic Washington, August 2003 and very dry.
From 2004 to 2006 I worked in the Four Rivers Field Office, Boise District BLM as a botanist. Luckily I wasn't the district botanist but lower on the ladder- therefore, I was able to be in the field much of the time and not behind a computer. I surveyed on foot more than 15,000 acres = over 23 square miles or over 60 square kilometers- for rare plants and monitored known populations. I even found a Pyrocomma (Haplopappus) species in my surveys that may be new to science.	This is the day my 4 year old Garmont boots bit the dust (literally). At 105 degrees F, black soils and miles of walking the soles of my boots came totally unglued. Snake River Plains, Idaho.
	Today, I am back living in Central Washington, and ever yet pursuing botanizing and contributing to the current knowledge of our native flora. I am particularly looking forward to seeing our Lewisia tweedyi bloom after a few years apart...

Due to popular demand my dog biscuit recipe is now available on-line: Stella's Tasty Trail Treats

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