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12th Annual Snow Goose Festival: January 27-30, 2011
"Gathering of Wings" Banquet & Silent Auction

Banquet & Silent Auction

Featured Speaker:
John "Jack" Muir Laws
Naturalist, Author, Illustrator, & Educator
Finding Connection in Nature: The Sierra Nevada Mountains

John Muir said "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe". Join us for an exciting evening of appreciation of some of the most astounding and unappreciated species in the Sierra Nevada. In this illustrated lecture, John (Jack) Muir Laws (no relation to the other John Muir) will help us follow a series of astounding relationships between plants and animals in the Sierra Nevada. You will be delighted and amazed by the subtle and essential threads that connect species. You can find many of these species on a mountain hike with your friends or family and share the stories with them. Jack will also discuss some of the conservation challenges in the Sierra Nevada and what stewards of nature are doing to confront them. Whether you're a botanist, birder or backpacker, don't miss this great opportunity to enrich your next exploration of the Range of Light!

Jack delights in exploring the natural world and sharing this love with others. Laws has worked as an environmental educator for over 25 years in California, Wyoming, and Alaska. He teaches classes on natural history, conservation biology, scientific illustration, and field sketching. He is trained as a wildlife biologist and is an associate of the California Academy of Sciences. In 2009, he received the Terwilliger Environmental Award for outstanding service in Environmental Education. He has written and illustrated books about the natural history of California including Sierra Birds: a Hiker's Guide (2004), The Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada (2007), and The Laws Pocket Guide Set to the San Francisco Bay Area (2009). He is a regular contributor to Bay Nature magazine with his "Naturalists Notebook" column. His illustrations are informed by extensive field experience and capture the feeling of the living plant or animal, while also including details critical for identification. Jack is deeply committed to stewardship of nature and collaborates with organizations throughout the state. He initiated Following Muir's Footsteps, an educational program to engender passionate love of nature, personal understanding of natural history and commitment to stewardship. This program gets students out in the field, learning from their own observations and using field guides and nature journals as the basis for discovering nature around them. As a part of this project, he is working secure funding to donate sets of field guides to every middle and and high school in the Sierra Nevada.

Special book signing by John “Jack” Muir Laws from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm prior to the dinner and after keynote address.

A BIG Thank you to Chico Certified Farmers' Market for the booth space!