Need your recommendations for an expert

Our current experts notwithstanding, who would be your top pick for a natives/wild flowers expert to join our forums? Or, who would you most like to be able to ask your toughest native plant questions?

The criteria is:

1) Please nominate just one name, along with any contact info you can locate;
2) It should be someone who is not currently a member here;
3) This person should be a familiar name in native/wildflower circles (hybridizer, grower, or collector, writer, etc.)
4) Since this person would be a regular participant in our forums, their availability/willingness to participate and their personality (no overblown egos, please!) should also be taken into consideration.

I suggest someone from the USDA, Natural Resource Conservation Service if they would be willing. They are the keeper of the National Plants Database and have done extensive work on native plants (what is & what isn't) and noxious weeds (what is and what isn't). Perhaps they could recomend a retired employee who is also a gardener. I strongly recomend making the effort.

John

I guess I wasn't clear - I need(ed) the actual name of a person. It's not that we're not willing to make the effort (in fact, I rounded up names, addresses, and emails for dozens of potential candidates), but we were looking for personal recommendations from members.

I retired (disability) from that agency many years ago and have not maintained my contacts. If a representative from DG were to make a personal effort to get a recomendation from them it might happen. The keepers of that expertise use to be at the NRCS regional office in Fort Worth, TX. They will only respond if requested. Please consider making the request. They won't bite, honest. It is their job to provide technical assistance and, they are NOT a regulatory agency. Ask specifically for someone who is a gardener, too.

John

Terry, Mark Baldwin at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute would be someone I'd like to see here. He lead the Spring Wildflower survey course that I took last spring. I think he'd add a great deal if he has the time!

If you like I could contact him, but here is his email: mbaldwin@rtpi.org.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll add Mr. Peterson to my perpetual list. At this point, I think Dave has sent out the formal invitations to the "finalists" on our list for this year ;o)

John Laskowski at Moraine Hills State Park, in Illinois. (815) 385-1624.

Despite this being an old thread (and I really should scout around to see what the outcome was) I'd put in a vote for John Randall of the The Nature Conservancy. He is based in Davis, CA. I don't know whether he'd have time or interest in participating; if not, I bet he could recommend someone who could. I could provide contact info if it is useful.

He is a very personable, dynamic, and driven individual dedicated to reducing/eliminating invasive exotics. He was one of the organizers of the Invasive Plants Workshop held at the Missouri Botanical Garden in December 2001 (I was a participant as well) from which emerged the St. Louis Declaration (a series of voluntary codes of conduct).