Courtney Millaway

Select Page

Courtney is a graduate of CSB and used to work for Outdoor U has a student naturalist. Courtney now works for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources! Read below to find out more about Courtney’s work for the DNR.

Courtney is an aquatic botanist. This means that she likes to study plants that live and grow in water! Courtney mainly looks for rare aquatic plants that grow in the lakes in Minnesota.

Courtney holding Widgeon Grass.   Courtney doing research in the field in a kayak.

Pictured above is Courtney holding Widgeon Grass and Courtney researching in the field in a kayak.

One really cool plant that Courtney has found is called Widgeon Grass (Ruppia cirrhosa). This plant has evolved and adapted over many years to live in its rough habitat. Courtney is excited because Widgeon Grass is going to be put in the Minnesota Bell’s Herbarium! A Herbarium is a museum for dried plants.

Two species of macroalgae with a penny for scale comparison.   Macroalgae through the lens of a dissecting microscope.
Pictured above are two species of algae in a sink with a penny for size comparison and another algae through the lens of Courtney’s dissecting microscope. 

Other plants that Courtney likes to research and study are macroalgae. Macroalgae are algae plants that are very large. Macroalgae are very important to their ecosystem because they take up a lot of nutrients, stabilize sediments, and provide homes to other organisms that live in water!

Photos provided by Courtney Millaway.