Andrea Pipp serves as the Program Botanist for the MTNHP. She earned a BA in Zoology (1989) and a MS in Wildlife Biology (1998) from the University of Montana. Every Wildlife job required studying habitat and Andrea became more and more interested in vascular plants, then intrigued by mosses and dabbled with fungi, and really took a liken to the lichen communities. Her master’s study evaluated if canopy lichen biomass, species diversity, and community composition is more influenced by forest age or structure. She has been certified as a Lichenologist for Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest since 2001.

Andrea has 40 years of botany and wildlife experience working in 12 states for the federal, state, and private sectors. Her past project work focused on issues related to forestry, stream and wetland restoration, transportation, residential development, and oil/gas development. Her specialties are in vascular plant (native/exotic), lichen, and bryophyte identification, surveying, and monitoring, wetland delineation, resource impact assessment, and technical writing. She is member of the Montana Native Plant Society, Friends of the UM herbarium, Northwest Lichenologists, and America Bryological/ Lichenological Society.