Flora Portfolio, Oregon Native Plants
This is an ongoing photographic series intended to celebrate the beauty of native plant species and to encourage conservation of these species and their natural habitats. | ||
| Flowers, bugs, and critters all fascinate me, especially when they aren’t strangers. I like to make their acquaintance, to know a little about their family and where they came from. I like to be able to investigate their interactions with each other and with their environment. I like to see both their ugly parts and their beautiful parts. Native plants are my favorites. They often hide the most gorgeous little flowers you’ve ever seen in an otherwise unimposing plant. I’m passionate about conservation of native species and native habitats. In vast areas of the United States, we don’t even know what the vegetation was like before our ancestors moved in—the native plants have been long gone in most of our populated areas. Humans bring along their favorite plants and animals wherever they go, for food and for enjoyment as well; weeds and pest animals frequently manage to tag along uninvited, and both the intentional and | unintentional transplants have often competed fiercely with the native species for space and resources. This competition is made more critical by the rate at which natural habitat is being lost worldwide to human development. One response to these problems is to celebrate the beauty and diversity still to be found in native species of plants. Others are to learn to use some native plants in your garden and encourage the planting of native species on public lands, and to support conservation groups, be they local, national, or international. I work locally with the Friends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah, but also support the Native Plant Society of Oregon, the McKenzie River Trust, the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council, The Center for Biological Diversity, The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, California Native Plant Society, The Wilderness Society, and Conservation International. | |
| Images are divided by the geographic region of Oregon: the Willamette Valley, the Cascade Range, the Coast and Coastal Range, the Siskiyous and Eastern Oregon. |
 Willamette Valley Natives |  Cascade Range Natives |  Siskiyou Natives |
 Eastern Oregon Natives |  Coastal Oregon Natives |
The Flora and Fauna Portfolios:
California Natives / Oregon Natives / Other Western Natives / Distant Natives / Tree Portraits / Cultivated / Fauna