Nature at Hand - In the Press

  • Sharing the Mountains: The challenge of increasing access to nature while balancing the many uses of the San Gabriel Mountains, by Erika Klein, USC Story Space (May 2018).

    On an August evening nearly 30 years ago, Cliff McLean invited his girlfriend to go on a hike in the San Gabriel Mountains. "She said she was tired, she didn't want to go," he recalls. "I said, 'Let's just go, you'll feel better if you get out.'" ...      (more...)

  • Volunteer Recognition Awards, CNPS Bulletin (January-March 2013).

    CNPS regularly recognizes members for outstanding contributions to the preservation and appreciation of California's native flora through its Volunteer Regcognition Award. CNPS is grateful for all these volunteers have done...      (more...)

  • Of Cameras and Coffeecake: Welcoming More People to Learning about Native Plants, The Paintbrush (Spring 2012).

    With a few simple tools, their cameras, loaves of coffeecake, as well as name tags and the email list, leavened with intense enthusiasm for everything to do with native plants, Gabi and Cliff McLean expanded the memgbership of our chapter and created a culture of welcoming that extended to other parts of the CNPS organization, making it easy for new people...      (more...)

  • There's an App for That - McLean's Plants of the San Gabriel Mountains Now on iPhone, Southern Sierran (June, 2010).

    Now, you can take an interpretive guide to the plants of the San Gabriel Mountains into the field – with loads of pictures and a search capability – and it even fits into your pocket! Gabi and Cliff McLean have just released a version of their acclaimed interactive CD, “Plants of the San Gabriel Mountains: Foothills and Canyons”, for the iPhone and iPod Touch, in partnership with Earthrover Software...      (more...)

  • McLeans Win Angeles Chapter Award, by Ginny Heringer, Naturalist Notes, (Mar-June, 2010).

    At the 2010 Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Banquet, the Elna Bakker Nature Interpretation Award was given to our own Cliff and Gabi McLean. The award, named for the celebrated nature writer and author of the UC Press classic introduction to the ecology of California, An Island Called California, is presented for "unusual creativity" in interpreting the natural world...      (more...)

  • Just what I've always wanted!, by Sketched Out, customer review on the iTunes App Store (April 29, 2010).

    Cliff and Gabi McLean are renowned for their knowledge and expertise as plant experts for the San Gabriel mountain region. I have their CD version of Plants of the San Gabriel Mountains and have wished that I could bring that with me in the field. Now I can with the app! Easy to use and chock full of information and images, the search capabilities make plant identification in the field a snap. No more wondering...      (more...)

  • Perfect guide for a pocket, by Seeker3325, customer review on the iTunes App Store (February 24, 2010).

    This is the second flower guide I have from Earthrover. This one doesn't dissapoint! Like the other, the search choices here are extensive. And unlike books I refer to, I can search leaf structure if the plant isn't in bloom. Easy to just casually search through the photos to find the color and look of a flower seen on the trail, to find its name. Or click on the details tab and find a great deal of information...      (more...)

  • Water District sponsors Fall Home Show, by Lucinda Sue Crosby, Daily Independent (September 5-6, 2009).

    When Cliff and Gabi McLean expound on the native plants of the San Gabriel Mountains, people listen. For years, they have been teaching others about the remarkable indigenous flora through hikes and educational programs in conjunction with organizations like the Los Angeles County Natural Area Parks...      (more...)

  • I wish all my nature field guides were like this!, by solardarkroom, customer review on Amazon.com (July 23, 2009).

    I have been looking at books and websites to help identify plants in the San Gabriel Mountains and elsewhere in California. This interactive CD is absolutely the best resource I have found for my purposes. I'm used to paging through multiple field guides and cross-referencing images but this CD makes it so much easier. It behaves like a database and is extremely fast and intuitive. The pictures are very high quality...      (more...)

  • McLean CD Gives You Flower Power at Your Fingertips, by Michael Gosnell, Southern Sierran (May, 2009).

    As an avid hiker in the San Gabriels, I always had a nagging urge to learn about the plants that I saw and smelled. Finally, a few years back, I decided to learn more about my surroundings in these beloved mountains. Surprisingly, in an area with millions of people, there is no decent handbook of plants for the beginning botanist. Luckily, Gabi and Cliff McLean have filled this gap with an amazing CD...      (more...)

  • Excellent tool for learning So. Calif. plants and plant ecology, by M. Long "nature bibliophile, customer review on Amazon.com (January 11, 2009).

    Some may be reluctant to buy a CD instead of a book to learn the names of plants in the San Gabriel Mountains and Southern California. But there are at least two advantages this CD has over a book. It is the only color photo guide to cover so many plants, 258 species, and it allows a myriad of searching features (unavailable in a book) to pin down an identification and to learn more about a plant. This is a terrific CD full of information...      (more...)

  • Plants of the San Gabriel Mountains: Foothills and Canyons, by Review by Norman Ackerman, The Paintbrush (January-February, 2009).

    Home gardeners as well as landscapers, botanists and other professionals will find this easy-to-use resource to contain a wide variety of information about our native plants. This mini-encyclopedia includes 258 plants, 1600 photos, and much more...      (more...)

  • Nature at Hand press release (October 17, 2008).

    Covina, CA – October 17, 2008 – Nature at Hand, a San Gabriel Valley partnership for nature education, today announced the release of a new interactive plant identification software for the Southern California area, Plants of the San Gabriel Mountains: Foothills and Canyons. The suggested retail price is $18.50...      (more...)

  • Profiles: Nature at Hand, by Drew Ready, Watershed Wise (Summer/Fall 2004).

    Gabi McLean is a nature photographer and docent-naturalist at Eaton Canyon Nature Center, one of the natural area parks of Los Angeles County. She is on the boards of the San Gabriel Mountains Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) and the Natural Science Section of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter...      (more...)

  • Flowers on Your Laptop, by Ginny Heringer, Southern Sierran (June, 2004).

    Until recently, local wildflower enthusiasts have been able to buy plant identification books for the Santa Monica Mountains, the Sierras, and for the deserts, but there has been no guide for the mountains that many of us hike the most often, the San Gabriels. Now there is an option–Common Plants of Eaton Canyon and the San Gabriel Foothills, a field guide on CD by Gabi and Cliff McLean. A CD field guide is a new approach...      (more...)

  • Common Plants of Eaton Canyon and the San Gabriel Foothills, by Bob Cates, Naturalist Notes (May-June 2004).

    Congratulations to our own Gabi and Cliff McLean for producing this wonderful CD field guide to the flora of the foothills. With more than 700 images of 124 plants, in many instances covereing their appearances at different times of the year, the amateur botanist will find this guide to be of great assistance. Each plant also has...      (more...)

  • Shrub Seeking? CD Delivers, by Samantha Bonar, Los Angeles Times (March 2, 2004).

    Naturalists Gabi and Cliff McLean, docents at the Los Angeles County Eaton Canyon Natural Area Park and Nature Center, have created a handy CD field guide to the flora in our local mountains. It contains more than 700 photos of 124 plants, each shown at different times of the year (when they can look wildly different), along with...      (more...)

  • Common Plants of Eaton Canyon and the San Gabriel Foothills: A Field Guide on CD” - A Production of “Nature at Hand”, by Karen Mateer, Paw Prints (January, 2004).

    I am one of the many loyal docent/naturalists at Eaton Canyon. I lead nature walks and talk about the plants and animals in the Canyon. I have a confession to make. Unlike many of my fellow docents, I am botanically challenged. Oh sure, I can tell the major plants typical of the Canyon area. However, there is that moment...      (more...)

  • Planting Knowledge, by Shelly Branco, San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Pasadena Star News (December 6, 2003).

    The end of the dry season is not a good time of year for the native flora crowding the front and back yard of Cliff and Gabi McLean’s Covina home. It is now dry and bloom-free. The sage, however, still emits a pungent odor when Cliff McLean crushes a leaf between his fingers one warm, sunny morning. With a yard that defies...      (more...)

  • Nature at Hand press release (November 7, 2003).

    Covina, CA – November 7, 2003 – Nature at Hand, a San Gabriel Valley producer of nature-related educational materials, today announced a new resource for environmental education in the Southern California area. Their new product, Common Plants of Eaton Canyon and the San Gabriel Foothills: Field Guide on CD, will be released on November 15, 2003. This unique learning tool...      (more...)

Scarlet Larkspur
Scarlet Larkspur
(Delphinium cardinale)

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