Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Nevada botanist: Roaming the desert, in search of rare plants

Janel Johnson

Tiffany Brown Anderson / The New York Times

Janel Johnson at Prison Hill Recreation Area in Carson City, Nev., April 19, 2017. Johnson is part of a group that collects information about rare plants and animals in the Great Basin and Mojave deserts.

Janel Johnson, 39, is a botanist with the Nevada Natural Heritage Program in Carson City.

What is this program, and what is your role there?

We’re part of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. My group collects information about rare plants and animals in the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. I identify potential plant habitats on a map or aerial photograph, and travel to the plants. I’m also the webmaster. I’ve worked here for 13 years.

How is the information you collect used?

Builders use it if they want to build in an area that may have an endangered species. Our findings also serve as a scientific record.

What is your background?

Growing up in Oregon, I loved camping and looking at plants and animals. I attended a small private college in Alaska to study forestry, which I decided was about turning trees into paper and lumber. I got a bachelor’s in botany instead, at Oregon State University, and worked for the forest service and on a rare-plant project in Northern California.

A wise professor suggested I get my master’s in a related field, so I went to Montana State University for rangeland ecology.

Are you involved in other research for the program?

We have annual toad surveys, and at night in the summer we search for rare insects, like sand dune beetles, that are attracted to bright lights. We lay tarps on the ground and place lights atop them. Bugs attracted to the light fall on the tarp, and we collect and study them.

Are you outside all year?

I have the best of both worlds. In the summer, I get to drive around and hike and look for plants, which I love. When we’re working in remote areas, we just camp overnight. In the winter, I get to work with the data inside, where it’s snug and warm.

Do you have a favorite plant?

I like the tiny ones I call belly plants. There are hundreds of these, with names like Phacelia inconspicua and Phacelia minutissima. They stay small to avoid getting dried out by the sun, and you have to lie on your stomach to look at them. My boss and I joke that we should write a book called “The Belly Flowers of Nevada.”

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