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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula April 28, 2005 Text © 2005 Gratiot Lake Conservancy. Photos © 2004 and courtesy Bonnie Hay, Gratiot Lake Conservancy. Reprinted with permission.

Conservancy to hold second Keweenaw Botany Workshop June 4-5

GRATIOT LAKE -- Gay-wings, pitcher plants, nodding trilliums, Rubus parviflorus, Sanguinaria canadensis, Iris versicolor... These are just a few of the 100+ plants observed by twelve participants in the Gratiot Lake Conservancy's Botany Workshop, taught by botanist Janet Marr last year on a gorgeous late spring Keweenaw weekend.

The Gratiot Lake Conservancy is sponsoring their second Botany Workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 4, and Sunday, June 5, 2005. The workshop is open to anyone interested in learning to identify local native plants. You may already know some of the local flora, but this is an opportunity to learn even more! Botanist Janet Marr will again teach the workshop both inside the classroom (Eagle Harbor Community Center) and outside in a variety of  Keweenaw wetland and upland habitats.

At Eagle Harbor’s Eliza Lake, botanist Janet Marr (right, foreground) points out a patch of fushia gay-wings, or Polygala paucifolia, to participants in the 2004 Botany Workshop, sponsored by the Gratiot Lake Conservancy. (Photo © 2004 and courtesy Bonnie Hay, Gratiot Lake Conservancy)

As a workshop participant, you'll not only learn to recognize many local plants, but will discover what a dichotomous key is and why it's so useful in identifying "unknowns." You'll also use a hand lens and dissecting microscope to see flower and other plant parts that not only are important in plant identification, but look really cool! 

Susan Martin gets a bee’s eye view of a trout lily during the 2004 Botany Workshop. (Photo © 2004 and courtesy Bonnie Hay, Gratiot Lake Conservancy)

Space is limited and advance enrollment is required. The fee for this two-day workshop is $70 ($55 for Gratiot Lake Conservancy members). For further information, please contact the Gratiot Lake Conservancy at belh@bellatlantic.net or PO Box 310, Mohawk, MI 49950 or call 906-337-5529. Registration forms are available on the Gratiot Lake Conservancy's web page at:
http://www.mlswa.org/Gratiot-Lake-1508/ProgramPDFs/2005BotanyEnrollment.pdf.

A color flyer describing the workshop is also available on their web page at:
http://www.mlswa.org/Gratiot-Lake-1508/ProgramPDFs/2005%20Botany%20Flyer.pdf.

View more photos of the 2004 Botany Workshop activities at http://www.mlswa.org/Gratiot-Lake-1508/Botany04.htm.

For information and color newsletters about the Gratiot Lake Conservancy, visit the home page of their recently updated Web site.

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