T. Abe Lloyd, Ethnobotanist, sees food at the nexus point for our relationship with the earth. He will share the work of Salal: The Cascadian Food Institute in applying the lessons of Coast Salish ethnobotany to supply vital nourishment while supporting biodiversity, ecological integrity and soil stability.

Abe has a passion for plants and indigenous foods that traces back deep into his childhood. He completed a Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Resource Management at Northland College. Since then, research projects have taken Abe to many corners of the planet, most notably, to Nepal twice and to NW Yunnan. In 2011, Abe completed a Master’s Degree in Ethnoecology at the University of Victoria under the Northwest Coast ethnobotanist, Dr. Nancy J. Turner. For his thesis research, Abe collaborated with Kwakwaka’wakw elder Kwaxsistalla (Clan Chief Adam Dick) to experimentally restore a traditional estuarine salt marsh root garden near the remote First Nation village of Kingcome Inlet on the Central Coast of British Columbia. Abe now lives in his home town of Bellingham and is an active member of the Washington Native Plant Society, the NW Mushroomers, and the Society of Ethnobiology. He is the director of Salal, the Cascadian Food Institute, an Adjunct Professor at Western Washington University, Whatcom Community College, and Royal Roads University, and actively researches, promotes, and eats the indigenous foods of this bountiful bioregion.

For more information on Salal, The Cascadian Food Institute, see their web page: http://www.cascadianfood.net/
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Doors open at 6:00 PM for the Native Plant Identification Workshop; Program
begins at 7:00 PM.

Refreshments, Public Invited, Admission is free.