RAINSHADOW WORLD - A Naturalist's Year in the San Juan Islands
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Vernon has lived in the San Juan Islands over thirty years. She was
executive director of The Whale Museum in Friday Harbor and co-founder of the
San Juan Nature Institute. She has conducted wildlife surveys and consulted with the National Park Service, the Washington Department of Wildlife, Washington Department of Natural Resources, and the San Juan Preservation Trust. She is an award-winning interpretive specialist, has published hundreds of articles, checklists and guides to the wildlife of the San Juan Islands, and for many years wrote the San Juan Nature Notebook newspaper column. Susan continues her field studies in the archipelago. She is known for her groundbreaking research on the endangered island marble butterfly. She was the first person to successfully captive rear this butterfly and release its offspring back into the wild significantly increasing its odds for survival during a critical decline in its population.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
The illustrations for Rainshadow World come from Nancy McDonnell Spaulding’s 30-year archive of field drawings that are impressions of plants, animals, and landscapes in and around the San Juan Islands. Some of these drawings were inspired by the explorations Nancy and Susan enjoyed together. Nancy and Lewis Spaulding, well-known Northwest artists, own Spaulding Studios on San Juan Island.