Mary Caroline Foster DeDecker (3 October 1909 – 5 September 2000) was an American botanist, conservationist, environmentalist and founder of the Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.
She studied at Van Nuys High School in the San Fernando Valley and after that completed one year at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
[5] In the 1930s and 1940s she started becoming familiar with the natural history of the Eastern Sierra, during numerous extended camping trips with her family.
He advised him to send unknown specimens to Dr. Philip Munz at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont and John Thomas Howell at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
She was hired or given contracts for many consulting jobs, largely to fulfill the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.
piscinensis,[7] Astragalus ravenii Barneby,[8] Dedeckera eurekensis Reveal & Howell,[2] Lomatium inyoense Math.
[4] In 1989 DeDecker, as a botanist who spent many years getting acquainted with the California desert, made a statement at the Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs House of Representatives on California Desert Protection Act of 1989.
[3] DeDecker was a community activist in relation to the Owens Valley Committee and Inyo County water issues.
[12] She was also active in the Eastern California Museum, mostly a disillusioning experience, and in the Concerned Citizens, an activist organization to fight for the rights of Owens Valley in the water issues.