Sometimes your professional career takes you in a straight line, other times it involves a few twists and turns. For Jesse Miller, it involves looping back around a couple times, at least geographically. His new position as the Botanist for the Washington Natural Heritage Program (WNHP) is the second time he has landed in Olympia – the first was as an undergraduate at Evergreen State College.

It is while a student at Evergreen that he discovered his interest in botany. The extensive forested campus was one of the first landscapes to spark this interest, and perhaps that sowed a seed that would lead him to a deep appreciation of some unique taxa found in mature and old growth forests.

Jesse spent several seasons conducting rare plant surveys in southern Oregon and northern California where he became intrigued by two ginsengs of western North America, devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus) and California spikenard (Aralia californica). “I find these species intriguing because of their striking appearances, interesting histories of cultural use, and their affinities for beautiful old forests,” Jesse notes. Middle Fork of the Willamette provided the perfect location to ponder their ecological niches, growing within 500 feet of each other but never occupying the same site – devil’s club was always at slightly higher elevations. It is also in the Middle Fork where he found a new population of cryptic paw lichen (Nephroma occultum), a very rare old-growth obligate and member of one of his favorite groups of taxa, the Lobariaceae.

With several seasons of botanical fieldwork under his belt, Jesse returned to his roots in the Midwest where he completed a PhD at University of Wisconsin. He grew up on the Great Plains in Kansas but it was not until he returned to the region that he became familiar with the flora of tallgrass prairies. This ecosystem provided fertile ground to study the effects of fire history, habitat connectivity, and soil resource availability on plant communities that led to a post-doctorate in California studying wildfire effects on plant and lichen diversity in the Sierra Nevada.

Jesse’s interest in lichens started in the Pacific Northwest, and with his return to the region, he is excited to apply his knowledge in his new position at WNHP. “Washington has a number of very rare lichen taxa that have received little attention from biologists. I look forward to gathering more information about our rare lichen taxa, monitoring them in the field, and updating our state rare lichen list.” He notes the work of the Northwest Lichenologists group has been invaluable in gathering data to assess the rarity of lichens, some of which he suspects may be rarer than historically due to climate change and severe wildfires.

One of the appealing aspects of working as the state rare plant botanist is the opportunity to focus on applied research and collaborate with researchers and managers to make tangible contributions to plant conservation. Jesse sees his role as a steward of the cumulative botanical knowledge in the state. “I am hearing many stories about the plants, the people who work with them, and the conservation history of each species….to some extent, my role is to be the keeper of these stories, and to use that information to further rare plant conservation.”

With his extensive knowledge and experience in botanical research and inventory, it is not surprising to discover that you can often find him outdoors, hiking, camping and taking long-distance bike tours. Gardening is also a hobby, and he appreciates having a little more space to grow a vegetable garden in Olympia.

Fortunately, for all of us here at Rare Care and the entire Washington botanical community, Jesse loves sharing his knowledge of plants and lichens and is excited that his new position provides opportunities to engage with the public. Rare Care looks forward to working with Jesse to conserve Washington’s rare plants.