Robert L. “Bob” “Bug Bob” Allen is an entomologist, botanist, instructor and photographer. Raised in San Juan Capistrano, he studied insects from a very early age. He and Fred Roberts attended Marco Forster Junior High School in San Juan Capistrano but never met until they entered Dana Hills High School where borth learned native plants in natural history class. He attended Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, then California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In 1982, Cal Poly awarded him a bachelor of Science degree in Environmental and Systematic Biology. In 2006, he received his Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies from California State University, Fullerton. At CSUF, he taught entomology and biological illustration. He teaches nature photography, entomology, botany and pollination classes in classroom and in the field. Bob is a Research Associate at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and a Research Associate in Entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He is now working on a book about California’s pollinating insects.

Laguna Wilderness Press is saddened to share that we have lost one of our founders, Jerry Burchfield. He passed away on September 11th, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. He was 62.

Jerry Burchfield was an artist, curator, author and educator living in Southern California. From 1973 to 1987, Burchfield was the co-owner with Mark Chamberlain of BC Space Gallery, a pioneering alternative gallery space dedicated to showing non-conformist contemporary photography. From 1987 until recently, he was a Professor of Photography and Photography Gallery Director at Cypress College, Cypress, California.

Known as an environmentally conscious artist-activist, Burchfield’s work has received numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

Jerry was a great man, a fantastic photographer, and a brilliant artist. He will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Mark Chamberlain was a photographic artist, gallery operator, and curator. He co-founded BC Space Gallery and Photographic Art Services, Laguna Beach, California, in 1973 with partner, Jerry Burchfield, and operated the space solely from 1987 until his passing in 2018. In 1980, he co-founded the “Laguna Canyon Project: The Continuous Document,” and in 2002, the “Legacy Project,” which documented the transition of the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro into the Orange County Great Park. In 2014 , he received a Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award as “Artistic Visionary” from Arts Orange County.

Mark was a great man, a fantastic photographer, brilliant artist, and committed activist. He will be missed dearly by his family, friends, and the Laguna Beach community. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Ron Chilcote is a landscape and nature photographer whose interests emanate from a family tradition in photography, and who has devoted most of his career to teaching and research on the third world. He resides in Laguna Beach, California, and spends his summers in Wyoming, and has published two books on photography, Nature’s Laguna Wilderness (2003) and Wind River Wilderness (2006). He is a founder and director of Laguna Wilderness Press, a non-profit whose mission is to depict beautiful photography of pristine wilderness areas and to raise public awareness of the need to conserve them.

Gayle and Tom Joliet

Longtime Laguna Beach residents, Gayle and Tom Joliet, build upon their years of experience as public school teachers and practicing artists to create this informative, entertaining tale for children. It is their way of expressing appreciation for the Laguna Beach Villagers whose tireless grassroots efforts lead to the creation of both the “Greenbelt” and “Bluebelt”.

Gayle and Tom have traveled extensively, leading to their deep reverence for the land, the sea and all its inhabitants. As environmental advocates, the Joliet’s give back to their community by volunteering at the South Laguna Garden Park, Laguna Beach Public Radio, and the Susi Q Community Center.

The goal of this children’s book is to inspire  today’s youth to conserve and restore native  habitats, preserving the diversity of  life for future generations.

Susan Marsh is an award-winning writer living in Jackson, Wyoming. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service for over thirty years. Her work has appeared in Orion, North American Review, and Fourth Genre, among others, and numerous anthologies. Her most recent books include War Creek and A Hunger for High Country. She is currently working on Too Special to Drill, the story of a group of citizens  in Wyoming’s Hoback Basin and their successful effort to prevent a gas field development in the backcountry near their homes.

Erik Molvar is the Director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign initiated by WildEarth Guardians, a non-profit organization. He received a M. Sc. in Wildlife Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he authored a number of scientific studies on the evolutionary biology, population dynamics, and ecology of Alaskan moose. He went on to become a professional writer and photographer, authoring 16 guidebooks to national parks and wilderness areas across the West. Molvar spent 13 years as a Wildlife Biologist and later Executive Director for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Wyoming, where he specialized in sage grouse conservation and oil and gas issues. He served four years on the Laramie City Council, where he initiated a curbside recycling program, established a historic district protection area, and moved a national resolution on hydraulic fracking through the National League of Cities. Erik lives in Laramie, Wyoming with his three children. He is an avid fan of the outdoors, and enjoys hiking, flyfishing, skiing, and renovating historic homes.

Ann Chambers Noble and her husband, Carroll David Noble, raised their four daughters on the Noble homestead in Cora.  Daughter Laura, representing the fifth generation on the Noble Ranch, is now assisting with the ranch management.  Ann received a B.A. in history from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and an M.A. in history from the University of Utah.  She is the author of numerous books and articles related to Wyoming history.  She serves Wyoming on the State Review Board of the National Register of Historic Places, the McCracken Library Board with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, and the University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center.

Jonita Sommers is a fourth-generation cattle rancher on her family homestead on the Green River.  She has researched and written extensively about the history of ranching, particularly in the Upper Green River Valley.  She received a B.A. from the University of Wyoming and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.  She has encouraged numerous students to pursue history during her twenty-five years of teaching with Wyoming History Day.  She has given a lifetime of service to history-related groups including the Green River Valley Museum, the Sublette County Artists’ Guild, the Sublette County Historic Preservation Board, and the Wyoming State Historical Society.  She and her brother Albert Sommers have placed a conservation easement with the Wyoming Stock Growers Agriculture Land Trust on their historic ranch.  They have also donated the family’s original homestead buildings to the Sublette County Historical Society and helped establish the Sommers Homestead Living History Museum.

Paul Paiement was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1966.

After high school, he attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with an emphasis on Drawing and Painting in 1992. He then moved to the Los Angeles area to attend graduate school.

In California, he attended graduate school at the University of Southern California. He received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from USC in 1995.

He is currently a full-time tenured professor in the Art Department at Cypress College, in Orange County, California. He lives in Long Beach with his two children Shoshana and Irit.

Noppadol Paothong is a nature/conservation photographer and has been focusing on documenting rare and endangered species. For over a decade, he has worked primarily on grassland grouse and their fragile habitat. He is a staff wildlife photographer with the Missouri Department of Conservation and contributes his images and stories to its high quality publication, Missouri Conservationist, Xplor, and many others.

Jason Russell Poole’s photographs explore a metaphysical landscape. The harsh visage of a policeman and dark plumes from a power plant give way to a Native American powwow. There is stillness in a river’s rapid; rocks become abstractions and clouds take on forms like architecture. Poole explores the precarious condition of America, hoping to reexamine our relationship with nature at a time of crisis for the Earth’s stability. Most of all, he seeks “to allow a wildness within to expand” as he explores the American West.

Benjie Howard a Northwestern poet, musician, and river guide. I learned on the river that Poole was asking some of the same questions about the intensity of human interactions with the natural world. The book at hand is the result of years of collaboration in which Poole’s photography and my poetry have become completely intertwined.

Fred M. Roberts, Jr. is a consulting botanist, artist, and author. He grew up in Dana Point, where thousands of acres of underdeveloped grasslands and hiking opportunities contributed to a strong interest in natural history. While attending Dana Hills High School he became interested in reptiles, amphibians, birds, and plants. At Saddleback College, botany became his primary interest and he put together his first checklist of Orange County plants, which he later published and is now in its third edition. In 1982, he received his Bachelor of Science in Geography with an emphasis on Botany from the University of California, San Barbara. From 1982 to 1991 he worked as an assistant curator in the Museum of Systematic Biology, University of California, Irvine. From 1991 to 1999 he worked as a botanist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before starting his own botanical consulting business. Fred is a Research Associate at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. He is currently working on several projects includingA Flora of Orange County, California.

Dr. Schoenherr is an emeritus Professor of Ecology at Fullerton College in southern California.  He also has taught a variety of ecology classes at the University of California, Irvine, and California State University at Fullerton.  He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Southern California, and his Ph.D. from Arizona State University. His academic interests are in ecology, biogeography, and endangered species.  Among his scientific writings are articles on the ecology of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, the Colorado Desert, Desert Conifers, and the California Islands.  He also has written articles on amphibians, reptiles, and freshwater fishes.  He is an authority on the desert pupfish.  A recognized authority on California, he is the author of two major books on the state.  A Natural History of California (University of California Press, 1992) is a 772-page compendium on the plants, animals, and geology of California. He is also the author of Natural History of the Islands of California (University of California Press, 1999), is a 491 page discussion of all the islands of California including those in San Francisco Bay.  An accomplished nature photographer, he has provided the photographs to illustrate his books and he has received two awards for his images of California Gray Whales.