Will graduated from Arizona State with an undergrad in watershed management with an emphasis in plant ecology and habitat restoration. He has spent much of his professional career out west studying invasive plants and how they impact watersheds and their ecosystems. His passion for conservation, stream stabilization, and how native plant reintroduction assist in the ecological restoration of a watershed has brought him from Inventory and Monitoring programs in Idaho and Arizona with the National Park Service, conservation efforts in Mexico with the Peace Corps, and now to western North Carolina managing invasive plants with The Pisgah Conservancy. Will is normally out running, biking, and botanizing in the forest and believes this special place is worth protecting for all.
“My love of trail running in and around Pisgah doubles as an efficient way for me to move through the different ecosystems that I love botanizing in. On some six mile runs, I can be along a stream corridor running through a very distinct riparian buffer of plant species, then work my way up to a rocky dry ridge that has some big upland species of trees and pockets of unique understory plants. Whether it’s the form of an Alternate Leaf Dogwood catching my eye or a stand of Showy Orchid seen through the forest floor, running through the forest is a perfect meditation that gets me my botany fix as well.”
