Rick Reavis has been exploring and identifying plants since he read a book by Euell Gibbons at the age of fifteen. He has been exploring the many plant species found in the Rocky Mountains since the mid-1980s. He was founder and owner of a twenty-seven year award-winning landscape development company. As an Associate Professor at Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City, he spent several years teaching classes in Plant Identification, Landscape Maintenance and General Horticulture. He is a former president of the board of directors of the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. Rick has been an Interpretive Guide at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab field station in Gothic, Colorado and a Wildflower Guide for the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. In the winter, he has been found teaching folks how to ski with better efficiency around the mountain in Crested Butte, Colorado as a Ski Instructor.