The Kentucky Native Plant Society was founded in 1986 for everyone interested in the native plants and wildflowers of Kentucky Plants are essential to both the well-being of our Commonwealth’s natural ecosystems and our enjoyment of its unique environment. With members in Kentucky and neighboring states, the Kentucky Native Plant Society is a leader in promoting education about, appreciation for, and conservation of our native flora.
Officers 2020-2022
- President – Tara Littlefield
- Vice-President – Heidi Braunreiter
- Treasurer – Steele McFadden
- Secretary – Kelly Watson
Board Members
- Wes Cunningham
- Jen Koslow
- Jeff Nelson
- Deb White
- David Taylor
Committee Chairs
- Field Trips – Heidi Braunreiter
- Workshops – Tara Littlefield
- Wildflower Weekend – Heidi Braunreiter
- Botanical Symposium – Tara Littlefield
- Grants – David Taylor
- Membership – Jeff Nelson
- KY Plant Conservation Alliance – Tara Littlefield
- Webmaster – Jeff Nelson
- Newsletter – Susan Harkins
- Botany Hall of Fame – Ron Jones
The Lady Slipper
- Managing Editor – Susan Harkins
President
President
Tara Littlefield is the senior botanist and manager of the Plant Conservation Section at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. She grew up on the southern edge of the cedar creek glade complex in Hardin County, Kentucky and has had a fascination with the natural world since a small child. Tara has a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Louisville and a M.S. in Forest/Plant Ecology from the University of Kentucky. Much of her work involves rare species surveys (state/federally listed/globally rare), general floristic inventories (vascular and nonvascular), natural areas inventory, protection of natural areas, rare plant propagation, restoration and recovery, and rare plant/community management. She is particularly interested in plant distributions, endemism, paleoecology/botany, seed collecting, mushrooms, lichens, caterpillars, spiders, exploring natural areas, environmental education for kids, medicinal/edible plants, and the chemistry of plants.
Vice-President
Vice President
Heidi Braunreiter is a botanist for the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. She is originally from Wisconsin and has done botanical surveys across the eastern United States. Heidi received her B.S. in Biological Aspects of Conservation and a certificate in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2011, she met Dr. Ronald Jones on a KNPS Wildflower Weekend hike and decided to pursue a graduate degree at Eastern Kentucky University. She received her M.S. in Biology at EKU and finished her master’s thesis on A Vascular Flora of Boyle County, Kentucky.
Secretary
Secretary
Kelly Watson is an Associate Professor at Eastern Kentucky University specializing in landscape ecology, and the Associate Director of Education and Outreach for EKU’s Division of Natural Areas, which protects and manages three ecological field stations: Lilley Cornett Woods, Maywoods, and Taylor Fork Ecological Area. She received her Ph.D. in Geography from Florida State University and an M.S. in Environmental Science from Lund University in Lund, Sweden. Her research focuses on mapping and monitoring upland embedded wetlands and improving the vegetative index of biotic integrity for Kentucky wetlands.
Treasurer
Treasurer
Steele McFadden is currently a wildlife biologist for the Army Corps of Engineers. He originally hails from Henderson Kentucky, where as a young man he developed a proclivity for the natural world while spending his free time tromping around the Sloughs Wildlife Management Area. In his senior year of high school a former forester turned high school teacher assigned a taxonomy lesson, in which he was guided through the identification of 15 species of trees. It was at this point that Steele realized, although he loved the bottomland forests of Kentucky, he knew little of the plants that made them. With this new found realization that our ecosystems are far more complex than he had ever imagined, he set off to Eastern Kentucky University to earn a B.S. in Wildlife Management. There, while studying botany under Ronald Jones and Brad Ruhfel, his fascination with the plant world grew. He went on to earn a M.S. in biology and complete his master’s thesis on The Vascular Flora of the Red River Gorge in Powell, Menifee, and Wolfe Counties Kentucky. Now, with a somewhat better understanding of the environments he fell in love with as a child, Steele’s new personal mission is to do as much good for Kentucky’s natural resources as possible. Steele’s botanical interests are plant taxonomy, rare plant distributions, updating plant atlases, standardized community classifications, ecosystem restoration methods, and botany in the light of climate change. He is also interested in Kentucky’s farming heritage and preserving and supporting a local farming culture that works to conserve natural resources and small communities.
Board Members
Board
Jeff Nelson has a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Jeff worked as the IT Director of the Paducah Independent School District for 15 years, retiring in 2008. A native of California, Jeff, his wife Liz, and his son Aaron, moved to McCracken Co., Kentucky, in 1987. After building their house on their 10 acres, the family has spent the last 30 years restoring the property from farmland to a native woodland. As a lifelong amateur naturalist, Jeff loves exploring Kentucky and learning about the rich diversity of the Commonwealth’s many ecosystems. He has been a member of the KNPS since the early 1990s and on the Board since 2017.
Board
David Taylor graduated from Berea College with a Biology/Agriculture degree with course work that emphasized plant sciences. He has an MS in Biology from Northeast Louisiana University with a floristic emphasis looking at the vascular flora of Washington and St. Tammany Parishes. He has 60 hours in botany from Miami University. He currently works for the USDA Forest Service with nearly 30 years as Forest Botanist for the Daniel Boone National Forest. He works with rare plant invasive species management, writes and reviews environmental documentation, and assists with various projects on the Forest. He is an advisor to the Kentucky Invasive Pest Council.
The Lady Slipper
Managing Editor – Susan Harkins
Susan Harkins is a technical journalist with 35 years in the IT industry, but her passion is native plants. A long-time member of the Capital Area Extension Master Gardener Association, she enjoys using her publishing skills to share her love of Kentucky’s native flora and fauna.