I'm a Marketing and Business Professor with very little formal education in nature topics but I have enjoyed the outdoors since I was a newborn my dad took with him when he fished, which was nearly every day. I enjoy hiking, observing nature and introducing others to outdoor activities. I'm currently a volunteer with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, Orange County Zoo and have been a member of many organizations related to nature, including lifetime membership in Sierra Club, original member of Greenpeace and many other environmental or nature related organizations. Although I've enjoyed nature my entire life, I never focused on identification until fairly recently so I'm an 'advanced beginner' on local native plants and tracking but my poor old brain hasn't retained as much about any other topics so it's just a jumble of random facts, in spite of taking birding and natural history classes. My goal is just to enjoy being outside communing with nature, looking and listening to whatever is there, and it's more experiential than intellectual for me. In fact, I have often said that nature is very multi-faceted for me - spiritual, emotional, physical, sometimes social - and it is my 'renewal' activity whether I know what I'm seeing or hearing or not. I just started using iNaturalist in April 2019 so have a lot to learn about that as well. Thanks to the community for helping me learn more about nature!