Sienna Wessel is the first-ever second botanist at the Washington Natural Heritage Program (WNHP), bringing with her experience working for multiple land management agencies across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Hailing from the Midwest, Sienna’s botanical journey began in the tallgrass prairie, where she developed a deep desire to protect plant biodiversity within the tiny remaining refugia of this once vast ecosystem. With a background rooted in restoration ecology, she started her career working on habitat projects and long-term monitoring for adaptive management, where she also honed her skills in floristics and plant identification. Sienna earned her M.S. in Botany from the University of Wyoming, studying sagebrush steppe community dynamics to enhance restoration and monitoring practices at Grand Teton National Park. Her career has been marked by a commitment to link observational data with strategic management actions and to integrate habitat-focused and species-focused conservation goals.

At the Washington Natural Heritage Program, Sienna is eager to concentrate on species-level conservation to ensure no plant is left behind. Over the last year, she has worked on rare plant projects for various federal land management partners ranging from models of potential habitat and species management plans to climate change vulnerability assessments. Her work also involves establishing and maintaining long-term monitoring programs and contributing to species management across the state, including serving on technical teams for several federally listed species and updating Washington’s rare plant list alongside lead botanist Jesse Miller. She enjoys the “treasure hunting” aspect of rare plant work and aims to conduct re-visits to as many historical plant occurrences as possible each summer.

Sienna’s current interests include assessing conservation gaps for state endemic plants, championing the role of rare plants in seed conservation and restoration, and mining data from herbaria and iNaturalist. She is particularly excited about collaborating with Rare Care and looks forward to leveraging the extensive botanical community in Washington to drive impactful conservation.