Webinars: Botanical Tales of the Pacific Crest Trail

Five Tuesdays 7-8 pm | February 16th – March 16th, 2021
all sessions will be recorded

After two 2,650 mile thru-hikes botanizing the Pacific Crest Trail, Matt Berger shares both the extraordinary and everyday plants along each region of the trail in this 5-part webinar. This series of presentations will take us on an armchair journey from south to north and highlight the rich biodiversity of plants along the way while weaving in stories from the trail — hitchhiking adventures, animal encounters, epic trail magic, and more.

The series consists of 5 one-hour webinars celebrating each major section of the trail. Matt will share many of the plants found along the way, featuring both common and rare plants. The trail passes through a remarkable assemblage of landscapes including subalpine sky islands above the southern California deserts, the famed Sierra Nevada, and the volcanic Cascades in northern California, Oregon, and Washington.

The five presentations take place Tuesday nights from 7-8 p.m. Pacific Time

1. Southern California Mountains and Desert (February 16) hosted by Backcountry Press.
2. The Sierra Nevada of central California (February 23) with an introduction from Carol Ralph of the California Native Plant Society.
3. The Cascades and Klamath Mountains of northern California (March 2) with an introduction from Michael Kauffmann of the Bigfoot Trail Alliance.
4. Oregon’s Cascades (March 9) with an introduction from Ian Nelson from the Pacific Crest Trail Association.
5. Washington’s Cascades (March 16) hosted by Backcountry Press.

In addition to hiking about 30 miles a day, Matt spent time photographing and documenting the plants he encountered. He uploaded these observations to Calflora and iNaturalist for scientists to be able to use the data in studies and range maps. He will share how this process works so others can contribute to this data set. At the end of each presentation, Matt will take time to answer questions, talk with folks, or just geek out some more about plants!

Register now on Backcountry Press’ website.