Instructor: Alex Klein

Spring is a special time to get to know your local trees, when you can see the remarkable ways in which each different species comes back to life. On this walk, you will take a close look at trees' emerging buds, leaves and flowers, as well as the succession of awakening that happens from one species to another. You will also discover year-round characteristics like bark, silhouette and branching patterns, and habitat. Along the way, Alex will be sure to include plenty of tidbits on natural history of the Eastern Massachusetts forest and local people's relationships to trees, from Native Massachusetts nations and European settlers, to modern industrialists, herbalists and foragers.

Alex Klein describes himself as an intermediary between people and plants. After beginning his work as a landscaper in Boston and New York, his desire to connect to nature more meaningfully changed his perspective on plants from something mostly aesthetic to something directly useful to him and the people around him. Alex has since botanized and wildcrafted up and down the East Coast, getting to know well the flora of the region, as well as the historical and modern uses of hundreds of food and medicine plants. Along the way, he trained as a clinical herbalist at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine and the Ithaca Free Clinic. His passion for herbal medicine led him to doing herbal First Aid, volunteering his time at Asheville Street Feet, a free Foot Clinic for those in need, and at various wilderness gatherings. Alex currently practice as an herbalist in Boston, striving to use only plants he has gathered himself or grown in his garden. For his day job, Alex is an Arborist at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown.