Dakota Parish, Grassland Monitoring Technician

Dakota is a Grassland Monitorign Technician for SGI. Growing up in Magee, Mississippi within the understudied Southern Hilly Gulf Coastal Plain ecoregion, he developed a passion for the natural world at a young age and began documenting species on his family’s property through iNaturalist. This interest led him to pursue a degree in Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University, where he recently graduated. During his undergraduate research, he conducted a floristic survey on a property in central Mississippi and documented more than 500 species of vascular plants across 120 families. Through his research and future work, he hopes to promote awareness and conservation of understudied ecosystems and species throughout the southeastern United States.