Wild Heart of Los Angeles: The Santa Monica Mountains

Rating:
Summary: Is it a story book, a picture book, or a serious study?
Review: Even if it's difficult to catergorize, at a steep enough discount, this book can be nice addition to a wide range of libraries. While likable, this book is also somewhat disappointing. The author's talents as a local naturalist make Wild Heart of Los Angeles a good primer on the Santa Monica Mountains, and it's written with plenty of genuine enthusiasm, but the subject matter comes off as too large a scope for less than 200 pages. Perhaps a more professional overall approach to references and citations would have been helpful to readers. Overall, the author's goal to "encourage people to love the Santa Monica Mountains" seems to have been attained.

Rating:
Summary: Is it a story book, a picture book, or a serious study?
Review: Even if it's difficult to catergorize, at a steep enough discount, this book can be nice addition to a wide range of libraries. While likable, this book is also somewhat disappointing. The author's talents as a local naturalist make Wild Heart of Los Angeles a good primer on the Santa Monica Mountains, and it's written with plenty of genuine enthusiasm, but the subject matter comes off as too large a scope for less than 200 pages. Perhaps a more professional overall approach to references and citations would have been helpful to readers. Overall, the author's goal to "encourage people to love the Santa Monica Mountains" seems to have been attained.

Rating:
Summary: Sierra Club Award
Review: The Angeles Chapter Executive Committee has voted to honor you with the highest award for nature interpretation the Angeles Chapter can give, the ELNA BAKKER NATURE INTERPRETATION AWARD. You are honored for your book WILD HEART OF LOS ANGELES - THE SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS published in 1998 by Roberts Rinehart Publishers.
This delightful book is written as a first-person narrative of a naturalist's view of the wilderness - from spring wildloowers to rampant wildfires - at the back door of America's largest metropolitan area. You have devoted thirty years to studying and photographing the Santa Monica Mountains. You inspire the need for preservation of the Santa Monicas in this lavishly illustrated book with color and black-and-white photographs (most by the author), maps, and drawings. You show how the plants and animals, climate, geography, and humans interact in this unusual ecosystem with the hope that this remarkable natural habitat can survive further human encroachment.
Also, you are an active member of the California Native Plant Society, the National Audubon Society and the current chair of the LA Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association. You are a member of the Chapter's Natural Science Section.