Larry Hufford is a botanist and emeritus professor at Washington State University, where he directed the Marion Ownbey Herbarium and the Conner Museum of Natural History. Through much of his career his research addressed the evolution of plant diversity, especially in the American West. Hufford lives currently in Missoula, Montana, where he writes about the intersection of nature, place and culture. He is at work on a book about Bears Ears National Monument that examines differing cultural values of land and the challenges of protecting public lands.