One final peek over the shoulder of a beloved naturalist

Inthe spirit of full disclosure, I have to confess at the outset that I'm biased when it comes to Mary Paetzel.

Of the countless colorful characters I've met over the decades, she stood head and shoulders above the rest. Yes, she was a feisty curmudgeon at times, one who didn't suffer fools gladly. She told you like it was, with the bark on.

But the self-taught naturalist, who died three years ago this coming August at age 88, could be as sensitive as a butterfly landing on the tip of your nose. She was also brilliant, funny and insightful.

That's why I was happy to hear that the bee book she was working on when she had a stroke not long before she died has been completed and can now be downloaded online, thanks to the editing efforts of her friends Janet Levinson and Lee Webb.

Granted, "Solitary Wasps and Bees: Their Hidden World in the Siskiyou Mountains" may not sound too enticing to those unfamiliar with Mary's work. But we Paetzelphiles know how fascinating nature can be through Mary's keen eye for detail, which she captured in clever essays as well as beautiful brush strokes.

Consider her introduction:

"I want to take you into the world of the solitary wasp, so that you may know them as I do, that you may laugh at their comedies, marvel at their wisdom, share in their small tragedies and come back to your own everyday world with sympathy and understanding for these unassuming fellow travelers with whom we share the planet Earth," she wrote.

If you aren't intrigued, you had better check your pulse. She will entertain and educate you as she reveals secrets about a hidden world underfoot.

You will peek over Mary's shoulder into the lives of potter wasps whose tiny creations reminded Janet of the ancient pots found in the Dead Sea and spend a work day with busy leaf-cutter bees. And you will meet Pompila, a crippled spider wasp Mary helped along by fashioning a bridge out of a twig.

"This book opens a window into a whole biological world most people aren't aware of," says Janet, a retired Forest Service forester/biologist who minored in entomology in college.

For a year before the naturalist died, Janet worked with her every Sunday afternoon on the book compiled from her copious journals.

She likens the late author's sketches and paintings of wasps and bees to those of another great naturalist.

"They are like Audubon's bird paintings," she says, then adds, "I really think Mary's bug paintings could become classics."

"She was very talented and very unique," adds Lee, a retired Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest biologist.

That she was. Born in Peru, Ind., in 1919, she dropped out of school to go her own way following the ninth grade after school administrators insisted she focus on cooking and sewing classes instead of the hard sciences.

When she wasn't accepted into the Army during World War II because she had sight in only one eye, she got a job working as an aircraft mechanic during the war.

She moved to Southern Oregon in the 1940s, where she immediately began exploring the Siskiyou and Klamath mountains. For 30 years she collected pollen for a pharmaceutical company to be used in allergy tests.

In 1986, she discovered a rare population of Mariposa copper butterflies in the Siskiyou mountains. Her interest in butterflies led to a Forest Service contract job to survey butterflies atop 7,420-foot high Dutchman Peak, which rises majestically over the Little Applegate River drainage.

"Years ago when we were talking to her about butterflies, I told her she should have written it down," Lee recalls. "She said she did, and showed me her journals. It was great stuff that I felt ought to be available to people. It's about their public land."

With his help, three of her books have been published conventionally based on her journals, including "Spirit of the Siskiyous: The Journals of a Mountain Naturalist," by Oregon State University Press in 1998.

But this, her fourth book, is available only online by downloading it from www.Lulu.com. The book's identification number is 8501673. You can also bug computer savvy Lee at 541-659-3706 if you get lost in cyberspace.

The cost is admittedly a bit pricey at $56.20, plus shipping.

"It is a rather spendy book, but that's what happens when it is all color, and printed on demand," Lee observes of the 173-page coffee-table book.

But he figures those who knew her would be interested in visiting the world she knew so well.

"I miss her — a lot of us do," he says.

"When I see something interesting on one of my walks, I still talk to Mary," confesses Janet, who played her fiddle during the 2007 memorial held for Mary on Dutchman Peak where the naturalist's ashes were placed at her request.

No doubt our friend is out there, happily flitting with the bees and butterflies as she continues to observe nature's endless wonders.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.