Sunday, July 19

Ferning around Turnagain Arm

Cost:  $65.00

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Trip Leader(s):  Mary Stensvold, Rob DeVelice and Jason Grant

Running southeast from Anchorage, the Seward Highway (a National Scenic Byway) offers spectacular views of the Chugach Mountains, the mountains of the Kenai Peninsula, glaciers, vast mudflats of Turnagain Arm and wildlife viewing. The environmental diversity, in combination with a wide range of natural disturbances (e.g., fires, snow avalanches, windthrow, landslides, earthquakes), has resulted in substantial diversity of vegetation communities. In addition to hunting for ferns at sites along the Highway, we will take a short side trip to Girdwood, a longer side trip to Whittier via the Whittier Tunnel (at 2.5 miles long the longest highway tunnel in North America), visit the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center area, and travel up to the summit of Turnagain Pass. Our fern foray will explore an array of habitats; the western part of our route is quite dry, with Anchorage’s annual rainfall being about 17 inches, 30 miles to the southeast Girdwood’s rainfall is about 70 inches, and further east at Whittier rainfall is about 154 inches, resulting in a temperate rainforest habitat. At the summit of Turnagain Pass (elevation, 900 feet) we will explore a mosaic of subalpine meadow habitats.

Ferns and lycophytes we may see include:  Athyrium filix-femina subsp. cyclosorum, Northwestern lady fern; Blechnum spicant, Deer fern; Botrychium lanceolatum subsp. lanceolatum, Triangle moonwort fern; Botrychium lunaria var. lunaria, Common moonwort fern; Botrychium minganense, Mingan moonwort fern; Botrychium multifidum, Leathery grapefern; Botrychium neolunaria, New World moonwort fern; Cryptogramma acrostichoides, American parsley fern; Cryptogramma sitchensis, Alaska Parsley fern; Cystopteris fragilis, Fragile fern; Diphasiastrum complanatum, Northern running-pine; Dryopteris expansa, Northern wood fern; Dryopteris fragrans, Fragrant wood fern; Equisetum arvense, Common horsetail.; Equisetum fluviatile, River horsetail; Equisetum palustre, Marsh horsetail; Equisetum pratense, Meadow horsetail; Equisetum scirpoides, Dwarf scouring rush; Equisetum sylvaticum, Wood horsetail; Equisetum variegatum, Variegated scouring rush; Gymnocarpium, Oak fern; Lycopodium annotinum, Bristly club-moss; Matteuccia struthiopteris, Ostrich fern; Phegopteris connectilis, Northern beech fern; Polypodium glycyrrhiza, Licorice fern; Woodsia ilvensis, Rusty cliff fern; Woodsia scopulina, Mountain cliff fern.  There is a possibility of collecting.

 Includes continental breakfast and box lunch and waterbottle

Maximum Participants: 40

Boreal Forest Bryophyte and Lichen Communities of the Chugach Mountains

Cost:  $100.00

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Trip Leader(s):  James Walton, National Park Service

The Eagle River Nature Center will be the starting point to explore boreal forest bryophyte and lichen communities within the Chugach Mountains of southcentral Alaska. A 30-minute drive from downtown Anchorage and up the beautiful Eagle River valley takes us to the cozy log-cabin style Nature Center, beaver and salmon viewing platforms, and a well-maintained system of trails, some of which are part of the historic Iditarod Trail. A diversity of habitats can be visited, including mixed poplar-spruce forest along the valley’s toe slope and moss- and lichen-carpeted boulder fields along the river’s inactive floodplain. This trip is a great opportunity to explore a wide diversity of nonvascular taxa that occur across southcentral Alaska boreal forests.

Hiking difficulty will be easy to moderate. Sturdy footwear, bug protection, and appropriate clothing for changing weather are recommended.  Collecting may be permitted.

Includes continental breakfast and box lunch and waterbottle

Maximum Participants: 15

Alaska Botanic Garden - Tour

Cost:  $35.00

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Trip Leaders:  Alaska Botanic Garden Staff

 The Alaska Botanical Garden consists of 110 acres of boreal forest with approximately 8 acres of cultivated gardens and interconnecting nature trails. The Garden hosts over 1,100 varieties of annual and perennial plants hardy in Southcentral Alaska. There are about 150 species of Alaska native plants in the Garden. Each of the gardens has a particular emphasis or theme, such as the Herb Garden, Alpine Rock Garden, and Anchorage Heritage Garden. Guided tours are 1 hour in length and are led by one of the Garden’s Docents and or Staff. All tours meet in the retail nursery area near the Gift Shop.  A docent will guide you through the Lower Perennial Garden, Anchorage Heritage Garden, Rock Garden, Herb Garden, Lile’s Garden, Wildflower Trail, Trailside Gardens and Greenhouse. The tour follows the paved ½ mile loop through Boreal Forest.

Includes a waterbottle

Maximum Participants: 45

Ethnobotany at Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

Cost:  $40.00

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Trip Leader(s): Rose Meier and Lisa Strecker, Coordinator/Lecturer, University of Alaska Fairbanks Ethnobotany Program

The Alaska Native Medical Health Center (ANMC) is a primary hospital and health care facility for Native Alaskan’s. We will have a tour of the healing garden which grows native Alaskan plants that are traditionally used for foods and medicine by Native Alaskans. The ANMC Food Services use the garden to prepare a wide variety of traditional foods and plants for their patients. Learn about traditional foods and plants used by Alaskan Natives and taste dishes prepared by the chefs of Food Services. This will be followed by a tour of displayed Native Alaskan artwork using native plants, such as woven baskets of grasses and tree roots of the Unangax̂, Alutiiq, and Yup’ik peoples.

Maximum Participants: 15