In this ground breaking and meticulously field-tested guide, the rich variety of Sierra life—trees, wildflowers, ferns, fungi, lichens, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, insects, and other small animals—comes alive.

 

Easy-to-use features include:

• Intuitive organization, color tabs, and simple keys

• Similar-looking species side by side

• Over 2700 full-color illustrations

• Range maps of species that are otherwise difficult to distinguish

• Index of common and scientific names

• Lightweight and compact—ideal for backpacking Impressively detailed and comprehensive, the guide includes:

• Over 1,700 species

• Descriptions of behavior, adaptations, and interactions between species

• Species and topics not found in most guides—aquatic life, spiders and webs, plankton, plant galls, bark beetle galleries, animal tracks and evidence, seasonal star charts, weather patterns, and cloud formations.

About the author:
John Muir Laws is a naturalist, educator, and artist, with degrees in conservation and resource studies from the University of California, Berkeley; in wildlife biology from the University of Montana, Missoula; and certification in scientific illustration from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a research associate with the California Academy of Sciences.