User:LarryMorseDCOhio

Substantial or significant Wikipedia contributions
While my professional interests center on botany, ecology, biogeography, and native plant conservation, I also have substantial background and experience in railroad and other transportation history, the chemical elements, philately (stamp collecting), and the physical geography and natural history of North America north of Mexico, particularly Ohio, Michigan, southern Ontario, New England, the central Appalachians, and the Mid-Atlantic Region, especially the Washington, D.C., area.

Over the years, I've gained substantial experience in English-language technical writing and editing, and while reading Wikipedia articles of interest frequently find that I am making minor stylistic, syntactical, or punctuation edits, and occasional minor rephrasings, within diverse Wikipedia articles on unfamiliar subjects; such incidental contributions are not noted here.

The following Wikipedia articles are among the many to which I have made substantial or significant additions, revisions, reorganizations, or other contributions:


 * North American plant species, (native, escaped, or cultivated), especially trees, shrubs, and other woody plants, with emphasis on classification, geographical distribution, habitats, and conservation (or invasiveness ):


 * Amelanchier (the serviceberry, shadbush, or juneberry genus)
 * Asimina triloba (the American pawpaw tree), and Asimina (its genus)
 * Carica papaya (the tropical papaya or papaw tree)
 * Cornus (the dogwood genus)
 * Liquidambar styraciflua (the American sweetgum tree), and Liquidambar (its genus)
 * Magnolia (the magnolia genus)
 * Nyssa sylvatica (the black gum or tupelo tree), and Nyssa (its genus)
 * Pistacia (the pistachio genus)
 * Rubus (the large genus including raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, and cloudberries)
 * Rubus (raspberry subgenus) (the various species of raspberry)
 * Rubus occidentalis (the Eastern North American black raspberry)
 * Rubus strigosus (the North American red raspberry plant)
 * Salix babylonica (the classic weeping willow)
 *  Salix matsudana (the Chinese willow, including the corkscrew willow)


 * North American geography and general natural history:


 * Atchafalaya Basin (Louisiana)
 * Capital Beltway (I-495 and I-95 [in part], the circumferential highway around Washington, D.C.)
 * Chrysaora quinquecirrha (the sea nettle, a jellyfish, not a plant!)
 * Falco peregrinus (the peregrine falcon)
 * Haliaeetus leucocephalus (the bald eagle)
 * Mississippi River
 * Mississippi River floods of 2011
 * Morganza Spillway (on the Mississippi River in Louisiana)
 * New Madrid earthquakes (Missouri, 1811-1812)
 * Theodore Roosevelt Island (in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.)
 * 2011 Virginia Earthquake (which I experienced!)
 * Washington, D.C.


 * The chemical elements:


 * Chemical element
 * Decay chain (radioactive decay series)
 * Periodic table
 * Numerous significant revisions within articles for various individual chemical elements, including:
 * Americium, Boron, Magnesium, Neon, Neptunium, and Rhenium


 * Miscellaneous other subjects:


 * Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia (from the Ellicott and Banneker survey in 1791 & 1792)
 * Filé powder (a herb produced from Sassafras leaves)
 * Great Oxygenation Event (Increase in atmospheric oxygen in Precambrian geologic time)
 * Incandescent light bulb
 * Incense
 * "Inside the Beltway" (phrase referring to Washington, D.C., especially the U.S. federal government)
 * National Limited (the former B&O Railroad passenger train)
 * NatureServe conservation status ranks (imperilment-ranking system for plants, animals, fungi, and natural ecological communities)
 * Paul Revere (Massachusetts patriot)
 * Potentiometer (an electrical device)
 * Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (Strasburg, Pennsylvania)
 * Ring roads (circumferential highways)
 * Robert Peary (Arctic explorer)
 * Sarah Palin (American politician)
 * Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.)
 * WikNics (annual mid-summer Wikipedia-related picnic events in the USA)



D.C. Meetups attended
D.C. Meetups master page

DC-area Meetup, Saturday, June 25, 2011
 D.C. Great American Wiknic!


 * Who and what: Join us on a relaxing Saturday afternoon for a picnic lunch at the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima) park in Arlington, overlooking the monuments and skyline of Washington, D.C.!
 * When: Saturday, June 25, 12 noon and on
 * Where: U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima) park, Arlington, probably over by the Netherlands Carillon.
 * Announcement & list: Meetup/DC 19  WikNiks overview article:  Wiknic
 * Island invitation: Currently planning to attend, weather permitting.  If any others interested, could take a group to Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River afterwards (by the foot trail from Rosslyn), and do the loop trail with emphasis on riparian ecology (especially flood effects), geology, trees & shrubs, and invasive plants.  At one point opposite Georgetown, we can see the Atlantic Seaboard "Fall Line" as a natural phenomenon, the boundary between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain physiographic provinces.  Freshwater estuarine intertidal habitats are well represented along the island's shores.  Surrounding scenery includes the Potomac Gorge and Key Bridge, Georgetown, Rosslyn, and the Kennedy Center.  About two miles of walking on good trails, and two hours at a lazy pace; wear comfortable, mud-tolerant shoes. --- User:LarryMorseDCOhio (talk) (23 June 2011)


 * Washington Post article: On the morning of the event (Saturday, June 25, 2011), The Washington Post published an article on the Washington, D.C. Wiknic, entitled "A Wiki-Picnic for online encyclopedia editors".

DC-area Meetup, Saturday, August 6, 2011

 * Announcement & list: Meetup/DC 20