Sierra Nevada: the naturalist's companion

Abstract

This is an updated edition of Verna Johnston's guide for a natural history trip into the Sierra, originally published in 1970. A professional biologist, veteran ornithologist and well-known wildlife photographer, Johnston begins in the western foothills and evokes a picture of the varied plant and animal life encountered as the elevation increases. The reader is guided through chaparral and mountain meadows, pine and fir forests, granite expanses and snowy peaks. Johnston writes of the Native Americans' uses and stewardship of the land, the role of fire in forest ecology, the eras of sheep herders and loggers, the work of John Muir and other preservationists and the battles to save Mono Lake and Lake Tahoe. Her lifetime of field experiences and discovery offers intimate observations of rarely recorded events: the courtship of the Sierra Nevada salamander, a wolverine attacking two bears, a fight to the death between a skunk and a scorpion. Many changes have occurred in the Sierra since the first edition of this book was published, including acid snow, tensions involving human and cougar habitats, and an ominous drop in amphibian populations. Johnston documents these events and updates the ecological research.