2008 Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua Program Leaders and Presenters

Having failed miserably as a realtor, K-Mart security snoop (two-week career), and Nabisco cereal packer, Larry Arbanas did what any other sensible man would do and chose to become a TV and video producer. He began inauspiciously in the real-estate video business in the mid-1980s, but was shaken out of his tree by the Exxon Valdez oil spill tragedy in March 1989. He decided nature and environmentally-connected filmmaking was going to be far more satisfying and challenging than promoting the sales of four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath homes in the Midwest. During the last four years Larry filmed birds for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in California, Arizona, Mexico, Florida, Texas, and Alaska. He is presently working with fellow cameraman Bob Wilcox to produce a “Birds of the Mono Basin” film for the Forest Service Visitor Center’s awesome theater. He also shoots for PBS documentaries and is actively looking for ways to take his love of nature/bird filmmaking to visually tell stories about the beautiful Eastern Sierra.

Nancita and Alkali Aspenknowsa (aka Nancy Hadlock and Richard Potashin) have been committed to the aspen asylum for six years now; the trees even brought them together. Both are National Park Service rangers with 32 years of interpretive experience between them. Recently the couple was married in—where else—an aspen grove! Alkali is a long-time Eastern Sierra resident and past Mono Lake Committee intern and canoe guide who has been discovering and documenting aspen carvings for the past six years. Today Richard works as a National Park Service ranger at Manzanar National Historic Site. Nancy has her BS from the Universtiy of Nevada at Reno (UNR), her MS from California State University, Sacramento and has worked as an Interpretive Ranger since 1982. She has participated in UNR’s Basque Studies Program and has been a passionate student of Basque culture, history and stories for over 20 years.

Don Banta was born in Bishop and has lived continuously in Lee Vining since 1932, when he was four years old. The Banta family owns the Lake View Lodge in Lee Vining. Don’s father was an avid sportsman, teaching Don to hunt and fish in the Mono Basin at a young age. Don’s love for and interest in wildlife is still going strong as evidenced by his involvement with the Lee Vining Canyon herd of Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep and the numerous nest boxes that Don has placed in the Mono Basin. Although Lee Vining doesn’t have an “official” mayor, there is no doubt that most residents would vote for Don!

Ted Beedy has spent most of his life birding in the Sierra, including the Mono Basin. He authored the wildlife chapters of the Water Rights EIR for Mono Lake, and spent three years doing field work in the Mono Basin. He is currently co-authoring “Birds of the Sierra Nevada” with David Lukas, which will include color illustrations of 320 species by Keith Hansen. Ted received his Ph.D. in Zoology from UC Davis in 1982.

Chef Linda Dore began her cooking career at Roget’s Restaurant (now Nevados) in Mammoth, and has worked in several other Mammoth restaurants including Nevados, The Matterhorn, and Anything Goes Café. She delighted Eastern Sierra visitors and locals alike with her talents as chef at The Mono Inn at Mono Lake for four years. She studied for eight years under a graduate of the Culinary Academy in San Francisco. She says, “I like to think that my diploma comes from ‘Catastrophe Cooking 101A—out of the frying pan and into the fire…’ that great school of experience!” Linda has been serving the Chautauqua’s Friday night dinners since they began!

Margaret Eissler grew up spending winters in Santa Barbara and summers in Tuolumne Meadows where her parents were caretakers for the Sierra Club property at Soda Springs. Later she played flute with the Santa Barbara Symphony for eighteen years. The magnetic pull of Tuolumne drew her back in 1985 to work first with the Yosemite Natural History Association and, then, in 1987, the National Park Service as a summer seasonal ranger naturalist. She now interprets year-round in Yosemite National Park. In 1992 she founded the Parsons Memorial Lodge Summer Series, an annual forum for the arts and sciences.

Lisa Fields is the wildlife biologist for the Sierra District of California State Parks; she is in charge of wildlife management in parks extending from Plumas-Eureka State Park in the north to Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve in the south. Her main emphasis is on raptor management, which includes Osprey, Northern Goshawk, Bald Eagle, and California Spotted Owl. At Mono Lake, she has been leading the Osprey nest monitoring program since 2004.

Debbie House is a Watershed Resources Specialist for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power in Bishop. She has a master’s in Biological Sciences from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she conducted research in avian community ecology. She is conducting long-term monitoring studies at Mono Lake, Bridgeport Reservoir, and Crowley Reservoir in order to evaluate the response of waterfowl and shorebird populations to increases in the elevation of Mono Lake.

Tom Hahn is a field biologist with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington. He’s been studying crossbills, White-crowned Sparrows, and other songbirds all over the West since the mid-1980s, and has spent countless hours in the field around Tioga Pass. He enjoys observing animals in their natural habitats, sharing what he knows with fellow naturalists, and learning from his students. Tom is currently on the biology faculty at UC Davis, and lives in Davis with his wife Julie, and his five-year-old son Lyle. You can find out more about his research at: www.npb.ucdavis.edu/npbdirectory/hahn.html.

John Harris began his interest in Mono’s mammals while working as an undergraduate assistant in a study of chipmunks in 1975. He went on to study small mammals on Mono’s dunes as a graduate student and has worked on small mammals in the Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley of California. John is the author of Mammals of the Mono Lake-Tioga Pass Region and is currently teaching at Mills College in Oakland, California.

Justin Hite is a field ornithologist who spent six years studying and living among the California Gulls of Mono Lake’s rocky isles. For the last nine months he has been studying Tachycineta Swallows in South America. He is fond of cutting up “Long Live Mono Lake” bumper stickers to make his own more profound statements, such as “Release Flamingos at Mono Lake.” Justin’s infectious enthusiasm for the birds of the Mono Basin will surely keep you entertained.

Ann Howald was trained as a plant ecologist. She is a consulting botanist who also does volunteer work for the California Native Plant Society. She lives in Sonoma and spends some of each summer studying plants in the Eastern Sierra. Ann is a talented and inspiring teacher. She has been a popular MLC field seminar instructor for over ten years.

Roland Knapp is a research biologist at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, a facility operated by the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since the completion of his Ph.D. in 1992, his research has focused on aquatic ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada, and has included such topics as population regulation in golden trout in their native streams, the effect of nonnative trout introductions in altering lake ecosystems and the ability of these ecosystems to recover following trout removal, and most recently, the effects of an emerging disease causing the decline of the mountain yellow-legged frog. He has lived in Lee Vining for 16 years and when not doing research enjoys wandering around the mountains in search of nothing in particular and everything in general.

Burleigh Lockwood has been a field biologist since the age of four (smashed worms and crumpled caterpillars in inquisitive hands). She pursued biology through high school and into college. While she was finishing her degree in Environmental Biology, she began working for California Fish & Game as a seasonal biologist. It was a career shift to the Forest Service that brought her into contact with owls. As an official “hooter” on Spotted Owl surveys for the Forest Service, she learned the habits and hoots of the owls in the Sierra. She is currently a biologist for the Education Department of the Chafee Zoo in Fresno.

Jeff Maurer is currently a Wildlife Biologist in Yosemite National Park where his projects include raptor monitoring as well as the recovery of the mountain yellow-legged frog. Jeff received a master’s in 2000 in the ecology of the Northern Goshawk in Yosemite from UC Davis, where he also researched lead poisoning in California Condors and the use of nest boxes by American Kestrels, and lectured on the interface between birds and agriculture. He has conducted surveys for Great Gray Owls and Peregrine Falcons in Yosemite, and hawk migration counts with HawkWatch International at various locations in North America. Jeff has also conducted bird surveys for PRBO Conservation Science in the Eastern Sierra and worked for the Inyo National Forest. Jeff has taught with the Sierra Institute and the Yosemite Association, and enjoys watching shorebirds in California’s Central Valley at the magical spring puddles of water known as vernal pools—Mono Lake’s smaller cousins.

Chris McCreedy has worked in the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Antarctic Deserts with PRBO Conservation Science since 1999, and in the Mono Basin since 2001. He enjoys ecology, illustration, writing, and talking to lizards and penguins. He coordinates PRBO’s land bird projects in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, and has been working on the Rush Creek Willow Flycatcher population since he found them nesting there in 2001.

Paul McFarland is the Executive Director for Friends of the Inyo (www.friendsoftheinyo.org), a local non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the Eastern Sierra’s publicly-owned wildlands. He likes to think of birds as little dinosaurs, to eat anything organic, and to shop locally. Paul likes to paraphrase poet Gary Snyder— “Go light, stay long, learn the flowers.”

Peter Metropulos has spent 20 years exploring and birding throughout Mono
County and has an intimate knowledge of Mono Basin birds. He has served as one of the sub-regional editors of North American Birds magazine for over 25 years, and has co-authored several articles and bird-finding guides. Peter is a practicing horticulturist and is therefore able to identify and share with us many of the area’s botanical wonders as well!

John (Jack) Muir Laws is a naturalist, educator and artist who delights in exploring the natural world and sharing his love for it with others. He 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. His most recent book, The Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada, is a field guide to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals and is beautifully illustrated with 2,710 original watercolor paintings. This comprehensive and easy-to-use guide allows botanists to identify the insects that come to their flowers, birders to identify the trees in which the birds perch, or hikers to identify the stars overhead at night. Jack is trained as a wildlife biologist and is an associate of the California Academy of Sciences. In the summer of 2004, Jack published Sierra Birds: a Hiker’s Guide. He is also a regular contributor to Bay Nature magazine with his “Naturalist’s Notebook” column. He is currently coordinating efforts to create a curriculum to tie the field guide to the State of California education standards and secure funding to donate sets of field guides to every elementary and high school in the Sierra Nevada and teaching field sketching and natural history classes throughout the state. Visit www.johnmuirlaws.com for more on Jack’s work.

Lisa Murphy is a seasonal ranger naturalist in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park. Her first foray into star programs was in 1993 assisting with a planetarium and observatory for 6th grade students at The Clemmie Gill School of Science and Conservation in Tulare County. Lisa is enchanted by the night sky, especially as seen from the open spaces in Yosemite’s high country and the Mono Basin.

Kristie Nelson has had a love for birds since some of her earliest memories. After a childhood filled with such activities as bird taxidermy and careful field observations, she obtained a wildlife degree at Humboldt State University. She has conducted ornithological fieldwork throughout much of the state and serves on the California Bird Records Committee. She lives in the Mono Basin and is very familiar with its assemblage of bird life. Her passion for birds is quite contagious!

Melissa Pitkin is PRBO Conservation Science’s Education and Outreach Director, and she recently completed her master’s in Environmental Education from Southern Oregon University. Melissa has worked for PRBO since 1997 as both a field biologist and as the director of PRBO’s Education and Outreach Program. As director, Melissa develops and implements projects that focus on translating the science of bird and ecosystem conservation to a wide variety of audiences including adults and youth, partners, and special interest groups.

Bob Power is the Executive Director for Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. Bob is a  leader for the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory’s HawkWatch program, and has been a field trip leader for Golden Gate Audubon, SFBBO, the Oakland Bird Club, The Wild Bird Center, and trip co-leader for Paradise Birding and Elder Hostel International. Bob has been the instructor for Introduction to Birding at Palo Alto Adult School for the past three years.

Mike Prather is a past president of the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society and current Outreach Coordinator for the Owens Valley Committee. He actively works on Owens Valley and Owens Lake water and wildlife issues and has been a resident of Inyo County (Lone Pine) for over 30 years. He’s a long-time Monophile.

Sarah Rabkin is a writer, editor, and visual artist, and a longtime keeper of illustrated field journals. She has worked as a high-school biology teacher and a science journalist, and has led dozens of field workshops in beautiful settings around the American West, with a special focus on the Sierra Nevada and environs. After 24 years teaching writing, journalism, and environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, she recently retired from academia to focus on other creative pursuits. Sarah has a degree in biology from Harvard University and a graduate certificate in science communication from UC Santa Cruz. She finds inspiration in landscapes, places, and the natural world, and enjoys helping others cultivate the power in their own voices and visions.

Cathy Rose, an experienced botanical guide in the deserts, coasts, and mountains of California, has led plant excursions for the National Park Service in the Tuolumne Meadows-Tioga Pass area for 11 years. A native Californian, Cathy owns a cabin in the Eastern Sierra. She has explored the local area and is eager to share the joy of discovery with participants at all levels of knowledge.

Mickey Shortt, Jr. works for Yosemite National Park as an interpreter/naturalist. He fell in love with birds in Great Smoky Mountains National Park when his supervisor handed him a Golden Guide and a pair of heavy binoculars. He splits his time between the Mono Basin and Tuolumne Meadows, where he leads early morning bird walks.

Dave Shuford is a biologist with PRBO Conservation Science’s Wetlands Ecology Division and has overseen research on California Gulls at Mono Lake since 1983. Dave has conducted breeding bird atlas projects in Marin County and the Glass Mountain region of Mono County. He has spent countless hours exploring the hinterlands of California and has a passion for understanding and adding to knowledge on the status and distribution of California’s diverse avifauna. He regularly teaches classes with the Mono Lake Committee and with San Francisco State’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus at Yuba Pass, and he looks forward to sharing his knowledge with you and learning from you as well.

Rich Stallcup is a wildlife biologist (specializing in birds) who has many years of field experience throughout Western North America including the Mono Basin and Sierra. A good friend of David Gaines and a Mono Lake warrior from the beginning, Rich has also been a senior tour leader and owner of WINGS, a teacher at Point Reyes Field Seminars, and author of several scientific papers and books like Ocean Birds of the Nearshore Pacific. Rich co-founded the Point Reyes Bird Observatory in the late 1960s, and now serves as a naturalist for PRBO Conservation Science.

Greg Stock is the first-ever Yosemite National Park Geologist. He received a degree in Geology from Humboldt State University and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from UC Santa Cruz. A near-lifelong resident of the Sierra Nevada, Greg has studied and mapped the geology of the Sierra Nevada and Mono Basin for over ten years. He resides in Yosemite Valley with his wife Sarah and daughter Autumn.

Sarah Stock is a wildlife biologist at Yosemite National Park where she studies wildlife ranging from mountain yellow-legged frogs to Great Gray Owls. She’s worked with a wide diversity of birds, including endangered species in Hawaii and the Marianas Islands, breeding birds in Alaska, spring migrating birds in Louisiana, and has conducted bird monitoring programs at Idaho Bird Observatory (six seasons) and Ventana Wildlife Society’s Big Sur Ornithology Lab (four years). She earned her master’s degree at the University of Idaho in 2001 where she focused on the migration ecology of Flammulated and Northern Saw-whet Owls. Now living in Yosemite Valley, Sarah’s favorite past-time is building her three-year-old daughter’s life list.

Erik Westerlund has worked as a naturalist in Yosemite since 1992. He received a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a master’s in Natural Resource Management from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He spends most of his free time studying the natural history of Yosemite’s birds, plants, and insects, and is an avid observer of all that is beautiful.

Lief Wiechman is pursuing a master’s in wildlife from the University of Idaho while researching Sage-Grouse in Mono County in partnership with the California Department of Fish & Game. After earning his bachelor’s degree in Minnesota, he became a seasonal biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife assisting in research of Greater Sage-Grouse, and hasn’t stopped since. He has assisted with avian research projects on the Big Island of Hawaii, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.

In the mid-1980s, naturalist and biologist David Wimpfheimer worked for the Mono Lake Committee accomplishing a variety of educational, lobbying, and promotional objectives. On eleven 350-mile fundraising Bike-A-Thons pedaling from Los Angeles to Mono Lake, he was known to peddle off-course to pursue birds. As a professional nature guide, David educates and interprets all aspects of the environment. For over twenty years, David has imparted much knowledge to private clients and for organizations, such as Point Reyes Field Seminars, Mono Lake Committee Field Seminars, SF Bay Whale Watching, Elder Hostel, various Audubon chapters; (visit www.calnaturalist.com). David’s seasoned focus and knowledge make for an enjoyable and educational outing.

David Winkler is a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and faculty curator of birds at Cornell University. A California native, he received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley with the majority of his work centered on breeding California Gulls at Mono Lake. He publishes regularly in journals ranging from Ecology and Evolution to The Auk, The Condor, and Living Bird. His current research focuses on the life histories of Tachycineta swallows from Alaska to Argentina through a research collective he has created called Golondrinas de Las Americas. Dr. Winkler continues to maintain an active role in bird research at Mono Lake, both through student research on the gulls and a Golondrinas site in Lee Vining Canyon.