{"id":10190,"date":"2018-08-14T15:40:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T19:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=10190"},"modified":"2024-08-15T14:24:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T18:24:11","slug":"qa-with-paul-e-hosier-from-the-adirondacks-to-the-carolinas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/qa-with-paul-e-hosier-from-the-adirondacks-to-the-carolinas\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Paul E. Hosier: From the Adirondacks to the Carolinas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
C<\/span><\/em>oastal plant ecologist Paul E. Hosier is the author of <\/i>Seacoast Plants of the Carolinas: A New Guide for Plant Identification and Use in the Coastal Landscape<\/span><\/a>. This new edition of a classic resource is published by the University of North Carolina Press, in partnership with North Carolina Sea Grant.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosier writes about diverse coastal plant communities, explaining the ecology of these unique environments and sharing the benefits of native plants. The book showcases more than 200 plants in detail. Hosier took most of the 700+ beautiful photographs in the book. (For an excerpt and sample plant profile, click here<\/a>.)<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n A professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Hosier also served as provost there. He belongs to the state\u2019s southeast coastal section of the Native Plant Society, as well as to the Friends of Plant Conservation, serving as a member of its board and as a board officer for several years.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPaul\u2019s background in applied research and his years of coastal field work made him the obvious choice to update Karl Graetz\u2019 <\/i>Seacoast Plants<\/span>, a daunting challenge for what had become known as the bible for coastal plants in the Carolinas,\u201d says Spencer Rogers, coastal construction and erosion specialist with Sea Grant. \u201cI think Karl would be quite pleased with Paul\u2019s update.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n Katie Mosher, Sea Grant communications director, is working with Hosier in the new Coastal Landscapes Initiative led by Sea Grant. \u201cWe are thankful for the variety of colleagues who join us in the mission of the book and related topics,\u201d Mosher says. <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n Why did you decide to write this book?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n The impetus came from leading field trips for university students and the public. I would rattle off the plant names, and the trip participants would be totally lost about which species I was talking about. To address the problem, I started to provide handouts with scientific names and common names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They frequently asked, \u201cDo you have a book or something I could use to find these plants later when I want to look them up?\u201d But there was not a recent book specific enough to address just the coastal area, including the dunes, forests and marshes. Now, with this book, you can learn to identify most of the coastal plants once you see them in the field \u2014 and compare them with the photos and descriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, for people interested in adding native coastal plants to their property, the book provides a starting point for what to plant where. There\u2019s nothing worse than spending time and energy setting out a plant and it\u2019s dead after the first season because it\u2019s in the wrong place: the salt aerosol is too intense, soil too wet or too dry, or location too windy.<\/p>\n\n\n