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Mary Merriman Obituary

Mary Helen Merriman passed away on April 11, 2024 at 1:20 pm at the age of 72 after a 3 1/2 year long battle with lung cancer.

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Mary was born on September 24, 1951 to Margaret Scanlan and Richard Dougherty in

Burbank, CA. She earned her B.S. in Nursing at Seattle University in 1974. She had many

careers in nursing and worked mostly in the ER. She graduated with a Nurse Practitioner

Certificate from UC Davis in 1989 and continued her work in the ER and later she went into Family Practice. She helped her son Erik and her sister Irene as a loving caretaker.

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She had numerous hobbies and a job in her beloved mountains. These included California

Native Plant Society, Audubon Society, Tulare Country Flora Group and National Park Service.  She served as a Board member of Alta Peak California Native Plant Society for 10 years and also served as Rare Plant Coordinator.

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She identified over 800 plant species in Tulare County and submitted to Calflora online. She participated or organized four rare plant hunts locally. She coordinated at the state level of the California Native Plant Society and sent records to the California Natural Diversity Database.  She worked on a few rare plant projects including Greenhorn Mountain Fritillary and Shirley Meadows Star Tulip. She collected seed to put it in a seed bank in case they go extinct in the wild. She documented rare plants (and animals) which are very important to conserving biodiversity for legal reasons. She attended Jepson Herbarium workshops including Introduction to California Plant Families, Identification of Grasses, Asteraceae, Vernal Pool Ecology, Late-Season Compositae, Flora of Rock Creek, Monkeyflowers, Polemoniaceae, Rare Flora of Kings Canyon National Park, Exploring Tejon Native Landscapes, Botany of Borrego Springs, Flora of Rock Creek, and California Botanical Garden: Specimen Collection.

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Mary started the Tulare County Flora Group. She was instrumental in creating the first ever “Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Tulare County.” Mary’s part included the Asteraceae (one fifth of the plants in Tulare County) and other plant families. With the help of Bill Thiessen, she monitored rare plants. Her work has helped the Tulare County Flora Group find a few rare plants. She also solo hiked into the wilderness to look for rare plants. Mary’s dedication to conservation was infectious!

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She joined Audubon Society in the early 80’s and later served as Membership Chair, Secretary, Programs Chair, Vice President, and President. She often lead field trips. Mary was able to identify birds both by sight and sound.  She spoke out in favor of bird conservation to the manager of the Ton Tache Wetlands to get open water and shorebird habitat. She assisted with preserving the Hogwallows preserve along with an extremely generous contribution from former mayor Greg Collins.

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She worked for the National Park Service as a volunteer in the horticulture division where she propagated and planted California natives for restoring damaged land. She was a meadow monitor in the Lower Rock Creek where she identified meadow species in the high country. During the summer of 2023, Mary worked for the National Park Service as a botanist responsible for identifying rare plants so that brush piles (later to be burned) would not be placed on rare plants and kill them.

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She is survived by her son, Erik Merriman, and her siblings Ken Dougherty, Cathy Iseman,

Peggy Ryan and Irene Kowal. A Celebration of Life Service will be held May 11, 2024 at 11AM at the River Ridge Ranch & Institute located at 37675 Balch Park Rd in Springville, CA 93265, followed by a light lunch. All who knew her and want to celebrate her are welcome. Please donate to Tulare County Audubon, PO Box 4402, Visalia, CA 93278 as an alternative to flowers.

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