Award-winning and best-selling nature writer Mary Taylor Young spent her childhood summers roaming
the Colorado Rockies from her grandparents' cabin in Estes Park. "We awoke to mule deer peering in the windows and hummingbirds
buzzing the feeders," she says. "I think the scent of pine trees in the sunshine and the mica sparkling in the granite
rocks hooked me on Colorado forever."
Her love of wild things and the outdoors led to a degree in Zoology from Colorado State University
and a life devoted to nature and the environment. Studying animal behavior, she hand-raised two litters of coyote pups and
helped a graduate student in studying their learning behavior. "They're smarter than we are," she says.
Her nine books range from Land of Grass and Sky: A Naturalist's Prairie Journey, a story
of spiritual growth inspired by the landscape of the High Plains, to the Watchable Birds series.
Mary's "Words On Birds" column has appeared in the Rocky Mountain News of Denver since 1993. She
has published hundreds of articles in periodicals such as Ladies Home Journal, Outside and Wildlife Conservation. Mary has
done extensive nature interpretation and writing for such agencies as the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service
and the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
Mary is a board member of the Colorado Authors League, a past board member of the Audubon Society
of Greater Denver and the Colorado Bird Observatory. She has taught nature writing at Rocky Mountain National Park for 19
years and presented workshops at numerous conferences including the National Association for Interpretation and the Pikes
Peak Writers Conference.
Mary lives in Castle Rock, Colorado with her husband, daughter, two dogs and many winged neighbors.
