Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Ethnobotany - What is that?


Our January 10, 2011, the Historical League will have Ron Dinchak speaking on “Ethno botany- More than just how our indigenous peoples use native plants”. He will bring some demonstration materials for the Arizona Historical League to observe.

Ron Dinchak has been a Life Science professor at Mesa Community College for 38 years. He has done graduate work at many universities as he studies unique ecosystems. He has developed courses in botany, environmental biology and natural history of the Southwest. His concern about science education has led him to teach a cohort class of environmental biology for education majors. He has worked closely with Arizona Game and Fish departments in facilitating Project Wild classes.

Mr. Dinchak has written two well received publications entitled “An Illustrated Guide to the Landscape Trees of Southern Arizona” and “An Illustrated Guide to the Landscape Shrubs of Southern Arizona”. He has written laboratory manuals for botany and environmental biology and co-authored manuscript for natural history of the southwest. Ron is a landscape designer and consultant, as well as educator.

Ron has also been very involved with community education of homeowners in landscaping method that emphasize sustainability in water conservation, wildlife habitat and organic gardening and has written a comprehensive xeriscape manual.