Uncle Joe, my mother’s brother, gave me a wonderful gift. He showed me how to love Nature. Many times he’d come visit us, taking my sister and me out into the woods. He taught us how to identify local plants, animal tracks and scat. Joe Clopton was a biologist who spent a lot of his time in nature. In his spare time, he’d go up to the Mendocino National Forest, to the Yolla Bollys, where he examined his surroundings, counted the population of birds, p...


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