Southern California Botanists

In anticipation of the upcoming Southern California Botanists Symposium, we will be sharing information about this year’s speakers. To see their talks, follow the link in our bio to register today!

Up next is Ben Nyberg, who will be speaking on “A new-era in botanical exploration of cliff environments”.

Ben Nyberg works for the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) on the island of Kauaʻi. Their work focuses on the conservation of rare and endangered Hawaiian plants. Ben has a background in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and has set up NTBG with a cutting-edge botanical drone program. This interface between technology and conservation is an exciting and ever-changing field that Ben loves to explore.

In anticipation of the upcoming Southern California Botanists Symposium, we will be sharing information about this year’s speakers. To see their talks, follow the link in our bio to register today!

Up next is Drew Kaiser, who will be speaking on “Widespread, abundant, and imperiled: The dilemma of western Joshua tree and the
power of concerted conservation”.

Drew Kaiser is a Senior Environmental Scientist (Specialist) with the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife. He was hired by CDFW in June 2023 to provide
technical support for the planning and implementation of the WJTCA. Prior to his
current position, he spent 12 years working for the National Park Service in Mojave
National Preserve and Death Valley National Park. He has also been on the board of the Southern California Botanists since 2019 and is currently the President. In his free time, he enjoys backpacking, brewing beer, and volunteering with the GLORIA Great Basin Chapter. If all goes to plan you should be able to enjoy some of his tasty beer while rocking out to Sage Against the Machine at the reception. Cheers!