Judy Hall Jacobson has published a second edition of her book, “Native Plants of Southeast Alaska.”
She self-published the first edition in 1995 under the name Judy Kathryn Hall, following nearly a decade of research. The “totally revamped” second edition has been available since mid-November, Hall Jacobson said.
Hall Jacobson is a naturalist for Alaska Nature Tours in Haines and is a former news director for KHNS. “Native Plants of Southeast Alaska” covers more than 800 species in about 300 pages.
The back cover of the second edition markets the book as a “comprehensive field guide to native ferns, trees, shrubs, grasses, sedges and rushes,” with detailed line drawings, flowering times and plant descriptions.
“The book has both common names and scientific names, but it’s organized by families,” Hall Jacobson said. “I did try, as much as possible, to cover medicinal and food uses.”
The writing was inspired by Hall Jacobson’s time as an environmental conservation major at Cornell University, where she developed an interest in author John Muir.
“If you’ve read any of John Muir’s books, you know he speaks a lot about plants, and he knows his plants all the way from Florida – actually, probably Cuba – to Southeast Alaska,” Hall Jacobson said.
She made her initial visit to Alaska in 1975.
“I was just incredibly impressed and knew this was where I wanted to live,” Hall Jacobson said.
She moved to Juneau in 1986 and later hiked with a few local authors on programs offered through the parks and recreation department.
“We had the birds covered, we had the geology covered and a lot of people knew a bit about plants, but they were all complaining that there’s no book for Southeast,” Hall Jacobson said. “The books available were for interior Alaska.”
She balanced writing the book with raising her son Sean, now 27. After “Native Plants of Southeast Alaska” was finished, Hall Jacobson thought, “I’ll never write another book.”
Hall Jacobson, though, now has plans for a second book, with a working title of “Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Alaska.”
She eventually did see a need for an update to “Native Plants of Southeast Alaska,” and the second edition switched from Adobe PageMaker to InDesign for its layout that was completed over a two-year period.
“It’s just a much more powerful program, and I was able to do a lot more with it,” Hall Jacobson said.
She replaced illustrations and noted some scientific names have been changed, as well.
Hall Jacobson said the book has been more well-known in Juneau than in Haines. She recently attended a book-signing event in Juneau.
A taxonomy class at the University of Alaska-Southeast also studied the book and provided editing suggestions.
“Native Plants of Southeast Alaska” features photography from Hall Jacobson and Ron Horn on its cover and is sold at the Babbling Book, American Bald Eagle Foundation and Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center.