John Brew Curator

Joined: Aug 6, 2012 Last Active: Mar 18, 2024 iNaturalist Monthly Supporter since October 2019

I'm an amateur naturalist, always learning. "Each one of us adds a little to our understanding of Nature, and from all the facts assembled arises a certain grandeur." - Aristotle as quoted by Bradford Washburn.

My main area of exploration is the Pacific Northwest area of North America. I also like exploring the Southwest and have been able to explore a bit of Australia and New Zealand.
Here are a few favorites places of mine:
Mount Rainier National Park
North Cascades National Park
Grace Cole Nature Park

Some reference books I use for Pacific Northwest
Cascade-Olympic Natural History : A Trailside Reference by Daniel Mathews (a favorite)
Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington,Oregon,British Columbia,and Alaska by Pojar and MacKinnon
Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual
by C. Leo Hitchcock, Arthur Cronquist, et al. (2018 revision)
Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest by Mark Turner and Phyllis Gustafson and I find that Mark's website is very useful Pacific Northwest Wildflowers (Mark Turner) to search within a genus.
Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia of Invertebrates, Seaweeds And Selected Fishes by Andy Lamb and Bernard Hanby (My tag in observations = MLOPNW)
Between Pacific Tides 5th Edition by Edward F. Ricketts, Jack Calvin, and Joel W. Hedgpeth (Revised by David W. Phillips) (My tag in observations = BPT)
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest by Steve Trudell and Joe Ammirati
Spiders and their Kin by H. W. Levi et al.

Useful Websites for Pacific Northwest Naturalists
Plants
Burke Museum, University of Washington Herbarium (WTU)
Trees of Washington by Milton Moser and Knut Lunnum of WSU
Calflora
Wildflower Identification Website (by location)
Juniperus of Canada and the United States: Taxonomy, Key and Distribution

Insects
Biota of The Evergreen State College
BugGuide
Butterflies and Moths of North America
Pacific Northwest Moths
Field/Photo ID for Flies
Key to the Genera of Nearctic Syrphidae
Common Syrphini of the Northwestern USA & Western Canada
Northwest Syrphidae - subfamilies and tribes
Field Identification overview of Washington's bumble bees
Key to the Bumblebees of the Methow Watershed & Washington State (pdf file)
Pollinator Associations project - About Section

Marine Life
Pacific Northwest Shells and Marine Life Photos

Lichens
Lichen genera images by Richard Droker

Fungi
Pictorial Key to Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest by Danny Miller

Slime Molds
The Eumycetozoan Project
Discover Life Eumycetozoa Slime Molds

Natural World
The Methow Naturalist
Search for a Park Species List
Year In Review 2021

“I became totally absorbed into this forest existence. It was an unparalleled period when aloneness was a way of life; a perfect opportunity, it might seem, for meditating on the meaning of existence and my role in it all. But I was far too busy learning about the chimpanzees'lives to worry about the meaning of my own. I had gone to Gombe to accomplish a specific goal, not to pursue my early preoccupation with philosophy and religion. Nevertheless, those months at Gombe helped to shape the person I am today-I would have been insensitive indeed if the wonder and the endless fascination of my new world had not had a major impact on my thinking. All the time I was getting closer to animals and nature, and as a result, closer to myself and more and more in tune with the spiritual power that I felt all around. For those who have experienced the joy of being alone with nature there is really little need for me to say much more; for those who have not, no words of mine can even describe the powerful, almost mystical knowledge of beauty and eternity that come, suddenly, and all unexpected. The beauty was always there, but moments of true awareness were rare. They would come, unannounced; perhaps when I was watching the pale flush preceding dawn; or looking up through the rustling leaves of some giant forest tree into the greens and browns and the black shadows and the occasionally ensured bright fleck of blue sky; or when I stood, as darkness fell, with one hand on the still warm trunk of a tree and looked at the sparkling of an early moon on the never still, softly sighing water of Lake Tanganyika.

The longer I spent on my own, the more I became absorbed in the magic forest world that was now my own”
Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey by Jane Goodall, Chapter 5 Solitude

View All