David H. Wagner

As the son of missionary parents, David Wagner spent his childhood in Landour, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. There David attended Woodstock School, exploring the mountains and collecting specimens of all kinds, including beetles, butterflies, birds, mammals, and snakes. About the age of eleven, he became particularly curious about ferns that, along with bryophytes, became a central theme throughout his life. Mosses appealed to him because they are small, often overlooked, and very much worth studying. After leaving India in 1963, David studied biology, chemistry, and geology at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. He earned his MS and PhD in botany at Washington State University in Pullman; his doctoral dissertation focused on the genus Polystichum (swordferns) of western North America.

In 1976 David moved to Oregon to become curator of the University of Oregon herbarium in Eugene. In 1979 he was promoted to Director, a position he held until 1993, when the herbarium was merged with the herbarium at Oregon State University in Corvallis. As both a member of the university faculty and Director of the herbarium, David engaged with students and the general public, taught systematic botany and bryology, wrote professional publications and mentored graduate students, including NPSO members Linda Vorobik and Jennifer Lippert.

When the herbarium merger left him without employment, he established Northwest Botanical Institute, a consulting and research business with special focus on ferns and bryophytes. He conducted surveys for rare species, developed keys and study guides, and offered workshops for federal employees and contractors. Today he is a recognized expert on the bryophyte flora of our state, identifying and cataloging species from diverse habitats, ranging from Cascade fens and the deep waters of Waldo lake to Coos Bay and the Elkhorn Mountains, and to locations beyond the borders of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. In his hometown of Eugene, he inventoried the bryophytes and lichens of Spencer Butte Park. As an active participant in rare bryophyte conservation, David described new species and created numerous guides and checklists that are used by local, state and federal agencies, NPSO, and the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center (ORBIC) as references in their work to protect and conserve rare Oregon bryophytes and their habitats.

David joined the Native Plant Society of Oregon soon after his move to Eugene (1976), so he has been contributing to the Society for over four decades. Although NPSO was founded in 1961, the process of establishing local chapters throughout the state was still underway at that time. When David helped found the Emerald Chapter it became the sixth chapter. He served as the first Emerald Chapter president (1979-1981), then as State president (1981-1982). David also served twice on annual meeting committees (1982 and 1991), coordinating logistics and soliciting speakers. He has been a frequent speaker over the years at Emerald and other NPSO chapters as well as at the Eugene Natural History Society. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Eugene Natural History Society, he brought excellent speakers to the University of Oregon for public education on topics ranging from bats to volcanoes. David has volunteered at the NPSO-sponsored Mt. Pisgah Arboretum Wildflower Festival since 1980, collecting plants, setting up the show, and staffing the botanist’s table to identify plants. David published two articles in Kalmiopsis: History of the University of Oregon Herbarium in 1994 and Shepherd’s Desert Parsley (Lomatium pastorale) in 2013. He reviewed books for Kalmiopsis on topics ranging from pitcher plants to climate change.

David advocated for conservation of rare native plants and their habitats as an appointee (1978-1985) to the Natural Areas Preserves Advisory Committee (NAPAC). With Jean Siddall from Portland Rare Plant Project and Ken Chambers at OSU, they used NAPAC as a vehicle to publish Rare, Threatened and Endangered Plants of Oregon in 1979. This established the basic groundwork for subsequent rare plant work in Oregon. NAPAC subsequently became the Natural Heritage Advisory Council that continues to protect representative ecosystems for research and education. David has represented NPSO on community committees to advocate for native plant conservation and volunteered for conservation projects such as rare plant surveys. He was a member of the Lane County Rare Plant Committee and Checklist Group (1995, 1998-2002), which became a valuable resource for both the Oregon Flora Project and for the second edition of the Flora of the Pacific Northwest.

David wrote and reviewed treatments and provided species lists for the Oregon Flora Project. He served on the Board of Directors for the Flora of North America (2009-2018) and wrote the treatment for Polystichum (Volume 2) and several genera of liverworts (Volume 29). He is an exceptional artist and has developed techniques for stunning microphotographs of diagnostic features in ferns and bryophytes. David maintains an enlightening website called “fernzenmosses,” which reflects both the spiritual and aesthetic components of his appreciation for these plants and natural history. Each year he creates the Oregon Nature Calendar, which includes information on plants, animals, phases of the moon, photoperiod, soils and various aspects of natural history, illustrated with his original pen and ink drawings.

David has written numerous popular articles about the natural history of the Willamette Valley, particularly on Oregon native plants and habitats, including for the Mount Pisgah Arboretum and Eugene Natural History Society newsletters and a monthly article (It’s About Time) for the Eugene Weekly. For 17 years (1977-1993), he led weekly spring walks in Alton Baker Park in Eugene, recording flowering phenology, which has been added to the database for a future publication on the effects of Pacific decadal oscillations and climate change on plant phenology.

The OSU Herbarium houses thousands of David’s vascular plant collections, and even more nonvascular (bryophyte) collections, the latter not yet cataloged in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria. Through his contributions to botanical knowledge in the Pacific Northwest and his life-time commitment to NPSO, David embodies the society’s mission: dedicated to the enjoyment, conservation, and study of Oregon’s native plants and habitats.

—Gail A. Baker and Jennifer Lippert, Emerald Chapter.