Blog Contributors

Holly Einess has a Biology degree from St. Olaf College and is a MN Master Naturalist Volunteer. She loves learning about Minnesota’s plants, animals, and ecosystems and sharing that learning with others. She enjoys kayaking Minnehaha Creek, cross-country skiing, hiking with her dog Birkie and husband Brian, and camping in the BWCA. Her dream is for humans to welcome nature into their everyday lives and to live in kinship with their fellow creatures on this planet. 

Sarah Jackson is a PR / Media Specialist for the Arboretum. She’s a longtime gardener and former journalist who worked for many years specifically in garden media. Sarah went through the Master Gardener training program in Seattle in 2008. Today she tends a full-sun, half-acre property in Minnetonka, where she grows ornamentals and veggies for her friends and family, particularly her son, who will eat the veggies … sometimes!

Jean Larson has a Ph.D. in education with an emphasis in therapeutic recreation and a minor in integrative medicine from the University of Minnesota. She is also an assistant professor at the University’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. She is a certified therapeutic recreation specialist, a registered horticultural therapist, and has a certificate in disability services and administration from the Institute of Community Integration. She is a two-time Fulbright scholar.

Larson’s work has taken her to Japan, England, Sweden, Norway, Taiwan and Israel. She is at home on her family farm north of the Twin Cities along with her husband, dogs, cats, goats, chickens and horses.

Nature writing is a passion for Mary Beth Pottratz, and she specialized in just that with her bachelor’s degree in Professional Journalism from the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism. She certified as a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer in 2007, and started blogging for Nature Notes at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in 2011. She loves citizen science volunteer programs, especially Hennepin County’s Wetland Health Evaluation Program, University of Minnesota’s Monarch Larva Monitoring Program, Audubon bird counts, phenology tracking in Nature’s Notebook and iNaturalist, Three Rivers Park District’s dragonfly surveys, and many more.

Zan Tomko is a retired graphic design instructor who is passionate about communicating nature through her work as a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer Instructor. With an undergraduate degree in art education and a graduate degree in photography, Zan uses poetry, art, science and photography to report on the natural world. She previously worked for an Illinois park district in horticulture and conservation and as an editor for Illinois Audubon Magazine. Zan has also worked with the Arboretum designing and presenting weekend programs at the Marion Andrus Education Center. For the past 10 years, she attended Hennepin Technical College in Greenhouse Production as a student. She is a co-founder of the Minnesota Master Naturalist’s Lichen Map Project on iNaturalist.