Biography

When I moved from the Mendocino coast to inland Mendocino County in 2001, I fell passionately in love with an ecosystem. Surrounded by acorn woodpeckers, northern flickers, and dusky-footed woodrats, I began wondering what they needed from their environment to survive––what food and nest materials, as well as which plants for hiding, nesting, and sleeping. My curiosity led me on a winding path into the lives of other oak woodland species, and soon I was telling my friends astonishing stories they had never heard––about lizards with third eyes, plants that are pollinated in middle C, coyotes that hunt with badgers, and quail whose embryos talk to each other through egg shells. Wanting to share these stories widely, I approached Heyday with a book idea and began five years of arduous research and writing that evolved into Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals among California’s Oaks (Heyday, 2014).

I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley in 1976 with a degree in comparative literature. During and after college I was a downwardly mobile grassroots activist, working on issues such as the Vietnam War, women’s health, worker empowerment, feminism, and the environment. When I moved to Mendocino County in 1980, I supported myself as a carpenter, massage therapist, artist, and, for 25 years, the owner of a seaweed business (Rising Tide Sea Vegetables). After moving to my current oak woodland sanctuary, I worked as an events publicist for Peregrine Audubon Society, Grace Hudson Museum, and other local nonprofits while trying to recover from chronic Lyme disease. Luckily I recovered enough to write Secrets of the Oak Woodlands, though I am still vulnerable to relapses.

Since 2001, I have lived in a 25-foot diameter wooden yurt with no indoor plumbing except a sink and a 2-gallon hot water heater. I currently lead walks, give talk, teach classes, and speak up at county supervisors’ hearings in defense of oak woodlands and wildlife, and in support of climate change activism. I am hoping my forest defender friends and I will soon bring a strong oak woodland protection ordinance into being. In my spare time I watch nature, swim, sing, and participate in the events of my beloved small town.