Jimmy Lange
Field Biologist
jlange@regionalconservation.org

Though cultivated in Michigan, Jimmy has been naturalized here in Florida for over 20 years and is considered “Florida friendly”.  Graduating with honors from the University of Florida with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science, Jimmy began his research career studying under the guidance of graduate mentor Jenny Schafer in the Mack Ecosystem Ecology Lab.  He went on to join the Plant Ecology Lab at Archbold Biological Station where he assisted on a number of research projects including demography of several rare plant populations, effects of fire frequency on scrub habitat, experimental restoration of scrub habitat on reclaimed pasture, and plant community structure and composition of differing scrub management regimes.  He then began work at the Michigan Tech Research Institute.  Here he conducted ground-truthing surveys of Great Lakes wetland plant communities and worked to generate a map of both the current and possible future extent under modeled hydrologic scenarios of the invasive Phragmites australis­. 

Jimmy is currently completing a master’s degree at Florida Atlantic University where he has been studying combined legacy impacts of invasive species Melaleuca quinquenervia and management practices on plant communities in the northern Everglades under Dr. Brian Benscoter.  Jimmy joined IRC in January 2014.  He is a dedicated south Florida naturalist with years of experience and a passion for botany who has worked in a number of ecosystems and will, if pressed, also throw down on a piano.