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| Make a vicarious visit to the mountains By Stacy Trevenon--[ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 1:22 PM PST Following a program last week that focused on the beaches of the Coastside, the Half Moon Bay Library presents a program this week that visits the high Sierras. Artist and author John Muir Laws - named after the famous 19th-century conservationist - will visit the library this Friday evening to take listeners "exploring the Sierra Nevada as a naturalist and an artist." Beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1, he will discuss his book "The Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada" (Heyday Books, 2007) and his experiences researching, writing and illustrating it. With more than 25 years' experience working as an environmental educator in California, Wyoming and Alaska, Laws realistically captures in his illustrations the essence of the animals he is depicting. His book is an illustrated field guide to more than 700 species of plants and animals brought alive in 2,710 original watercolor paintings. The book is comprehensive and easy to use, and allows readers from botanists to common nature lovers to identify insects that come to their flowers, birders to identify the birds perching on their trees and the trees as well, and hikers to name the stars over their heads at night. In his lecture, Laws will bring along some original illustrations he painted in the field, and will touch on the history of the Sierra Nevada and the process of creating a field guide. This book is not his first; in 2004 he published "Sierra Books: Hiker's Guide." Laws is also a regular contributor to Bay Nature magazine with his "Naturalist's Notebook" column. Currently he is working on creating a school curriculum to tie his field guide to state education standards, and to secure funding to donate sets of field guides to Sierra Nevada-area elementary and high schools and to teach field sketching and natural history classes throughout the state. He holds degrees in conservation and resource studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and in wildlife biology from the University of Montana, Missoula. He also holds certification in scientific illustration from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is a research associate with the California Academy of Sciences. His appearance Friday at the Half Moon Bay Library is free. The library is located at 620 Correas St. in Half Moon Bay, and can be reached at 726-2316. |