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Outdoor Library: Inspiration for observing the natural world
By Bob Ehlert - Bee Assistant Features Editor
Last Updated 6:17 am PDT Thursday, August 23, 2007
Story appeared in SCENE section, Page E10
Wouldn't it be nice if Mother Nature had provided an owner's manual to the Sierra to help identify the living things and natural patterns from the Lassen region clear south to Sequoia National Forest?
Well, that never happened, but a close personal friend of Ms. Nature has come to the rescue with "The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada" (Heyday Books, $24.95 in paperback, 366 pages).
This roughly 4-by-8-inch guide is chock-full of information on more than 1,700 species and includes more than 2,800 watercolor illustrations easily found among the color-coordinated index and page tabs.
Produced by John Muir Laws and the California Academy of Sciences, it is a wonderful companion to anyone who communes with nature on hikes, on the water, while bird-watching or even through the windshield for those less able to get out into the hills.
But Muir Laws, who wrote and illustrated all the entries, doesn't want you to rely only on his work. He wants you out there in the natural world, taking notes and making sketches of your own.
"The goal is to record what you see and to help you look more carefully," he wrote in the forward.
From fungi to forest to frogs and fish, the book is a small but powerful treasure of reference to nature.
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