Check this page for a quick guide to our latest updates. Substantial changes are listed in reverse chronological order with direct links to the new or modified pages. Fall 2008 Susan Klein is retiring on December 1, 2008. She can be reached at popcorn12@mac.com. Julie Michaelson accepted a position with National Wetlands Inventory at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. She will be starting there in late November. Rob Lipkin retired on October 1. He can still be contacted at his email anrl@uaa.alaska.edu. AKNHP Botany questions can be addressed to Helen Cortes-Burns at- 907-257-2787. Matt can be reached at 541 740-1460. Summer 2008 Matt Carlson is taking a temporary leave of absence from AKNHP and working with the Institute for Applied Ecology in Oregon. AKNHP Botany questions can be addressed to Helen Cortes-Burns at- 907-257-2787. Matt can be reached at 541 740-1460. Winter 2008 Matt Carlson will be a on a panel on Invasive Plants in Alaska at the Alaska Forum on the Environment February 14th in Anchorage at the Egan Convention Center. Jodi McClory moved to Nevada in February 2008. Fall 2007 Rob Lipkin is a co-author on an article about a new to Alaska species of Parrya. James Sowerwine is a new graduate student in the Biology Department who will be working with Matt Carlson on invasive species issues in Alaska. Summer 2007 Tracey Gotthardt, Tammy Fields and Keith Boggs attended the National Gap Analysis Program Conference in Asheville, NC. (September 2007). Tracey presented the paper "Gotthardt, T., T. Fields, and J. McClory. 2007. Overcoming challenges to implementing GAP Analysis in Alaska: modeling avian distribution using and inductive approach." In July, Irina Lapina accepted a position as Vegetation Ecologist at HDR, Inc. She can be reached at Irina.Lapina@hdrinc.com or 907-644-2120. Spring 2007 Tina Boucher, Helen Cortes-Burns and Tracey Gotthardt attended a TNC Alaska-Yukon-BC Conservation Exchange in Haines Junction, YK, Canada (May 2007). Helen presented the following paper at the conference: “Plant conservation biology in Alaska: Approaches to rare and non-native plants” [Co-author with M. L. Carlson, Alaska Natural Heritage Program] Helen Cortes-Burns organized the Alaska Rare Plant Forum that met in Anchorage April 26-27. Matt Carlson, Rob Lipkin, Irina Lapina and Helen Cortes-Burns all gave presentations at the Forum. Rare Plant Forum presentations are now linked from this page. Click on the schedule and within the pdf will be links to a pdf of each presentations. Some presentations are not available at the request of the author. Helen Cortes-Burns gave the following presentations at the Alaska Rare Plant Forum “Modeling the distributions of rare plants in Southwest Alaska for a preliminary conservation assessment”. “Revision of the ecology and distribution of five rare plant taxa from the North Slope: implications for National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska land managers”. [Co-authored with M. L. Carlson and Rob Lipkin, Alaska Natural Heritage Program] Lindsey Flagstad successfully defended her Master's thesis, A comparison of above and belowground community succession along a proglacial chronosequence in Kenai Fjords, Alaska, on May 11th. She can still be reached at aslaq@uaa.alaska.edu. Matt Carlson received his five-year longevity award in April 2007. Michelle Sturdy, AKNHP Research Associate in Ecology, accepted the position of Wetland Scientist with Bristol Environmental & Engineering Services. She can be reached at msturdy@bristol-companies.com. New publications by Heritage staff: Matthew L. Carlson, Steven D. Gisler, and Sylvia Kelso. 2008. The Role of Reproduction Assurance in the Arctic: a Comparative Study of a Homostylus and Distylus Species Pair. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. Vol. 40, no. 1 (February 2008): 39-47. Cortés-Burns, H., I. Lapina, S.C. Klein, and M. Carlson. 2007. BLM-BAER Final Report Invasive Plant Species Monitoring and Control: Areas impacted by 2004 and 2005 Fires in Interior Alaska: A survey of Alaska BLM lands along the Dalton, Steese, and Taylor Highways. Alaska Natural Heritage Program, University of Alaska Anchorage. Report funded by the Bureau of Land Management, Alaska State Office, Anchorage, AK. 91 pp. Lapina, I., S.C. Klein and M L. Carlson. 2007. Non-native Plant Species of the Fairbanks Region: 2005 - 2006 Surveys. Alaska Natural Heritage Program, Anchorage, AK. Report funded and prepared for US Forest Service, State and Private Forestry. 50 p.