This field workshop sounds wonderful for those that have the time, interest and $$$: ISLE ROYALE BOTANY WORKSHOP THIS COMING JUNE 15-20!! Experience four days in Lake Superior's Isle Royale National Park and learn to identify the diverse plants that live on this incredible island! BOTANY WORKSHOP INFORMATION This special botany workshop, sponsored by the Isle Royale and Keweenaw Parks Association (IRKPA), and taught by botanist Janet Marr, is open to anyone with beginning/intermediate knowledge of plant identification and who is interested in learning to identify the early summer native flora of this species-rich Lake Superior island. Workshop participants will spend four days on Isle Royale learning native plant species, using such tools as a dichotomous key and hand lens to identify plants. Other topics will include discussion of island plant communities, rare species, ecology, and invasive species. Workshop activities will take place mostly outdoors. Optional evening sessions will also be offered to review plants learned earlier. Field trips will include Tobin Harbor, Scoville Point, and Raspberry Island, places that are all located in the vicinity of Rock Harbor. Workshop attendees will meet in Houghton, Michigan, on Monday (15 June) afternoon and travel from Houghton to Rock Harbor (on Isle Royale) on the Ranger III boat on Tuesday (16 June). Participants will return to Houghton on the Ranger III on Saturday (20 June). REQUIREMENTS Workshop participants should be able to hike up to 7 miles in one day with a daypack on rocky, sometimes steep, trails and bedrock, sometimes slippery, shoreline. INSTRUCTOR Botanist Janet Marr, the workshop instructor, has had many years of experience studying plants across Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale. Janet taught the 2007 and 2008 Isle Royale botany workshops as well as many botany and aquatic plants workshops in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. She is co-author of the Isle Royale Natural History Association's Island Life, an Isle Royale Nature Guide. ENROLLMENT IS LIMITED TO 12 PARTICIPANTS. Last year's botany workshop filled up very quickly so sign up soon! Contact Jill Burkland at 906-482-7860 or [log in to unmask] for more information or to register for the workshop. PARTICIPANTS NEED TO PRE-REGISTER AND SEND A $100 DEPOSIT TO BE RECEIVED BY 1 MAY 2009 to Isle Royale and Keweenaw Parks Association, Attn: Jill Burkland, 800 East Lakeshore Drive, Houghton, MI 49931 in order to attend this workshop. PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP A four-day long photography workshop taught by professional photographer and IRKPA Board President Bob Guiliani immediately follows the botany workshop. Contact Jill Burkland at 906-482-7860 or [log in to unmask] for information on the photography workshop. Costs for the workshops are below. Consider taking both the botany and photography workshops! FEES Botany workshop: $600 ($575 for IRKPA members; see http://irnha.org/ for information on becoming a IRKPA member) Photography workshop: $600 ($575 for IRKPA members; see http://irnha.org/ for information on becoming a IRKPA member) Both workshops: $1100 (for everyone) The fee for the botany workshop covers instruction, camping, meals on the island, hand lens, notebook, Slavick/Janke's Flora of Isle Royale, and transportation to and from the island on the Ranger III. Participants may travel from Grand Portage, Minnesota, on the Voyager at their own expense. See http://www.isleroyaleboats.com/ for Voyager info. LODGING/CAMPING Participants may camp for free at a Rock Harbor group site for the four nights on the island. You may also stay in the Rock Harbor Lodge or Housekeeping units at your own expense (consider sharing a room with another participant or friend to reduce your lodging cost). For information about lodging (at Rock Harbor Lodge or Housekeeping units), boat rentals, etc., please see: http://www.isleroyaleresort.com/ or call 866-644-2003 (winter season) or 906-337-4993 (summer season). For information about Isle Royale National Park, see their home page at http://www.nps.gov/isro/ or call 906-482-0984. If you know of someone who may be interested in hearing about these Isle Royale workshops, that would be great if you would be able to pass this announcement on to them. A color flier showing a calypso flower photographed by a participant in last year's botany workshop is attached and could be posted. Thank you! If you would prefer not to receive any emails in the future about this workshop, please reply to this email, and we'll remove your name from the mailing list. Janet Marr email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] phone: 906-337-5529 23180 Highway Rd. Calumet, MI 49913