Loretta Pedersen

Loretta Pedersen is an ecologist, writer, and editor in Washington State. Her love of plants took root when she was a child hiking around the mountains of Colorado with her father, whose hobby was studying wild plants. Pedersen’s first plant-related job was at a retail nursery when she was in junior high. Pedersen received her master’s degree from the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, where she studied the chemical ecology of Puget Sound prairie plants. She sometimes teaches courses in native plant identification, plant taxonomy, and sustainable horticulture and has also worked with arboretum living collections curation and herbarium specimen management.