Randi Minetor is a travel author, a lifelong Rochester resident, an avid birder and an active participant in the efforts to preserve open space in Monroe County and beyond. A member of the board of directors and steering committee for the Genesee Land Trust, Randi’s firsthand understanding of the value of critical habitat in the Greater Rochester area stems from nearly twenty years of combing the region’s grasslands, lakeshores, woods and wetlands to observe bird species and behaviors. She was a volunteer in the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas 2000-2005, and in the Nature Conservancy’s Migratory Bird Survey—and her writings on her Atlas work were quoted in a display in the New York State Museum. She has also written about local birding for Bird Watcher’s Digest. In addition, Randi has written seventeen other books for The Globe Pequot Press, including the nine-book Passport To Your National Parks Companion Guides series, National Parks Pocket Guides to Great Smoky Mountains, Acadia, Zion and Bryce Canyon, and Everglades National Parks, and to Cape Cod, Assateague Island and Gulf Islands National Seashore. Her two Timeline Tours books on Gettysburg National Military Park and Washington, DC, will be published in summer 2009, and her Best Easy Day Hikes guides to Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany, NY, will be out in fall 2009 and spring 2010. She writes the National Parks column on Examiner.com, and she contributes to several websites on America’s national parks. Randi lives with her husband, photographer and lighting designer Nic Minetor, who shoots the photographs for many of her books.