SUU Community Education offers “Plants and Public Lands” summer course
By Haven Scott
SUU Community Education is offering a summer course entitled “Plants and Public Lands.” Experience the public lands surrounding Cedar City like never before with Southern Utah University and Dr. Jacqueline Grant. Make your summer meaningful by helping to restore lands damaged in the 2017 Brian Head fire.
Participants will learn all about Utah’s amazing native plants within the scenic landscapes surrounding southern Utah.
“This is an amazing opportunity for our community to help our public lands while learning something new from an experienced professional,” said Suzette Beach, assistant director of SUU Community Education.
The course will be offered in two different sessions, June 7–22 and July 30–Aug. 14, with one in-class presentation and five field trips each session. Course participants will also learn how to keep a field journal, the difference between native and non-native plant species, and plant and flower identification and will contribute to restoration efforts in Dixie National Forest that were heavily damaged in the 2017 Brian Head fire.
Grant, an award-winning experiential educator and biology professor at SUU, will instruct the course as well as lead the field trips, which include several short hikes.
“There is an abundance of magnificent flowering plants that bloom in southern Utah, even though we are immersed in a desert environment,” Grant said. “This applied course will lead you through the identification and biology of common wildflowers, the mechanics of keeping a scientific field journal, an introduction to how seeds are collected for restoration efforts, and an explanation of citizen science and how you can contribute to global databases.”
The course is open for children ages 12 and up. Chance encounters with bees that sleep in globemallows and other pollinators could occur.
For more information on “Plants on Public Lands” or any of the more than 30 courses offered by SUU Community Education this summer visit suu.edu/wise, email bewise@suu.edu, or call (435) 865-8259.
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