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Identify the wild green in your path!
The black ink line drawings by Regina O'Hughes, prepared from herbarium specimens, are exquisite in detail and scientific accuracy and are works of art, besides. The nearly 500 pages, drawings on right hand page (9 inches by nearly 7 inches), text and distribution map on left hand page, make this a comprehensive, yet easy to understand and use, reference book. First published in 1970 by the United States Department of Agriculture, this Dover republication book is a tremendous value for the money and its contents are as timely today as they were 30 years ago. These are the plants that Peterson Field Guides ignored. The book contains an extensive bibliography for those who want to further their study of these amazing plants. This book is definitely worth 5 stars! ... Read more

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Reviews (2)

How to grow orchids
After doing research on the internet and libraries, my questions were not answered until I read this book. Wanting instant gratification I went directly to the index which gave me the areas to read that I needed. The book explains how to pot, water and fertilize quickly with less anxiety. It gives pictures of many orchids, their colors, sizes and needs. I recommend this book highly and my next purchase is a deep purple Denrrobium phalaenopsis.

A good source for home orchid growing.
There's a large section here on growing orchids under artificial lights including home-made set ups and commercially available light stands and wardian cases. The book needs a resource listing as to where to purchase the light stands and recommendations on how to build your own. Half of the book lists generalizations of the different orchid families and how to care for them, but even that is only touched upon. The author goes into detail on the description of the flowers and leaves, but not much info on the care. An example of this is "bright light, warm temperatures, and plenty of water and humidity" to describe the care of Ascocentrum orchids. This doesn't tell us how much is needed which I think is important since "warm" can be anywhere from 50-90 degrees. ... Read more

Book Description

With more than 250,000 copies in print, Simon & Schuster's Guide to Dogs is the best guide available -- whether you need a dog book for general identification or to select the breed that is most suitable for you. With more than 320 breeds of dogs described and illustrated in full color, this book provides quick access to essential information on physical and psychological characteristics and care required. The entries for each breed give details on weight, height, markings, and type of coat, as well as information on personality traits, origins, uses, and care. Each entry also features easy-to-read visual symbols that indicate, for example, whether a breed of dog is good with children or has a tendency to bite, whether a breed is well- suited as a hunting dog or a guard dog, whether the dog needs to be kept outdoors or indoors or can live happily in the city, and much more.

Filled with useful information and illustrated throughout, Simon & Schuster's Guide to Dogs is a valuable reference to the world of canines. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A Good Resource for Potential Dog Owners
I bought this book about 6 years ago and it's still interesting to look at today. It is a good reference for anyone who is interested in getting a dog of a certain breed or a mix of certain breeds. It has personality traits which I found to be very helpful and it has interesting information about origins of certain species, my favorite story being of the Bernese Mountain Dog. It also has general information before breed profiles in the beginning of the book which is helpful has well. This book is reccomended to anyone who's interested in owning a dog.

Well done general canine reference
This is a well done, quick & general reference. It provides a high level overview & attempts to note general variances in many of the breeds. It falls a bit short on adequately describing temperaments, which are as critical in chosing a dog as the type, size, coat & color. It's especially beneficial to novice pet owners who are trying to learn about & compare suitable options. The picture quality is generally quite good but dated for some breeds.

Excelent resource tool.
I have been training dogs for six years now and out of all of the breed reference materials that I have used, this is one of the easiest that I have found. Its size makes it easy to carry with me to the office and out in the field. Its pictures are excellent for identification and its provided history on each breed is a great help for understanding each breeds behavior drives in training. In the front it offers a wonderful story as to how dogs as we know them came to be, and a unique look on how man domesticated the dog. This is a book that no dog trainer or dog owner should be without.

Guide to 320 Dog Breeds
This volume is about the size of the Audubon field guides and is easy to carry and fairly lightweight. There is a general discussion at the beginning of the book on the history of dogs, the different types, and basically general information including grooming, training etc. The keyword here is general, this information is not breed specific. The book is divided in the sections for Terriers, Working Dogs, Toys, etc. There is an illustration or photograh for each breed with about a paragraph of text on each breed. This text includes origin, description, personality, and uses. It should be noted these are brief general descriptions of the breed. Readers who want extensive information on a specific breed are advised to get a breed specific book. However if this book is taken in the spirit it was written, as a brief identification guide it is more than adequate. For readers who want a general guide with a little more text and larger pictures should consider the Atlas of Dog Breeds, but it should be noted this is a heavy book not easy to carry around and also does not go in to a great deal of depth on each breed. With that being said I would recommend this book as an easy to carry identification guide, affordable, and it would actually be a good book for children and teenagers who are interested in dogs and would like an overview to identifiy breeds and which ones they would like to do further reading and research on.

excellent overview of breeds and their characteristics
we have turned to this particular book time after time for our own information as well as when making a recommendation to a friend who is interested in deciding upon a dog to adopt or buy. we have been using this book for over 15 years and have gone through 2 copies of our own as well as having bought it for gifts for others. ... Read more

Book Description

Learn how interesting and delicious the wild harvest of Alaska, western Canada, and the Northwest can be in this significant illustrated volume on 147 wild plants. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An excellent resource with high-quality photos.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly, from it's interesting tidbits on historic uses of plants, to the explanations of known toxic principles within plants. The cautions about harvest, use, and overuse are well-stated. Thedescriptions enhance the line-drawings, and each plant description comeswith an excellent photograph, making this a terrific guide foridentification of wild edibles!

Wow, what a field guide, and check out all those recipes!
I just got this book (fourth printing, 1998) in my mail, and I can testifythat it's well worth the money. It's a really good field guide to plants ofThe Far North, be it Alaska or Finland.

In addition to excellentpictures (which really show you clearly how to tell this plant apart fromothers) you'll frequently run across a sentence that goes something like"So-and-so says in his/her book that it's edible after it's been dried/boiled /whatever, but my taste tests implied ...".

Trulyoutstanding research and practical information, both on medicinal andculinary uses of these plants, make this an invaluable addition to thelibrary of anybody interested in plants in the Far North.

Great work,Janice! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

There I was, sitting in a canyon, thinking like a mountain.
I read this book while sitting under a cottonwood tree at the bottom of the Grand Canyon (a "mountain lying down"). This collection of deep-ecology essays, teachings, meditations, and poems allowed me to experience my surroundings in a new way: "Every atom in this body existed before organic life emerged 4000 million years ago. Remember our childhood as minerals, as lava, as rocks? Rocks have the potentiality to weave themselves into such stuff as this. We are the rocks dancing" (p. 36).

This book's title is taken from the 1949 SAND COUNTY ALMANAC, in which Aldo Leopold warned us that unless we attempt to connect with our ecosystem by thinking like a mountain, disaster is inevitable. Stated differently by Thich Nhat Hanh, we must listen within ourselves to "the sounds of the earth crying" (p. 7). Contributors to this 122-page book include, among others, John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming, Arne Naess, Gary Snyder, and Chief Seattle. John Seed recognizes that "nothing short of a total revolution in consciousness will be of lasting use in preserving the life-support systems of our planet" (p. 9). He reminds us that we are "part of the rainforest recently emerged into thinking" (p. 36). Joanna Macy observes that we touch the Earth by touching our face, by touching our brothers and sisters (pp. 60-61).

This thin book contains a mountain of deep thinking, including exercises designed to "help make us more conscious of our embeddedness in the web of life" (p. 80), and meditations to protect the Earth "from the blades of men unhinged by greed, prestige and authority" (p. 91): "Relax and breathe in, breathe in Mountain, I feel my rock-roots go deep deep down to where the Earth herself is very hot" (p. 80). Reading this book could change the way you think about your life. "When you think like a mountain, one also thinks like the black bear, so that honey dribbles down your fur as you catch the bus to work" (p. 39).

G. Merritt

Amazing book on the sacredness of all beings
Deep and thought provoking is how I found this book. Quotes and theories and musings upon how we are all connected and the impacts we have on one another on this green earth. Something in this book warmed my heart. Knowing there are others out there with incredible respect for even the most tiniest and seemingly insignificant creatures was very heartening. Other books that may compare are Machelle Wrights "Behaving as if the God in all life mattered" and any book concerning the spiritual community of Findhorn. I highly recommend this book to those of you who like a thoughtful read on Nature and spirit. Thanks Brenda Tataryn. ... Read more

Book Description

"This book is exhaustive, accurate . . . One of its outstanding features is the 47 F. H. Round watercolors. Truly a great book."—Tulsa Daily World. A legendary resource in the history of botanical literature, this volume comprises the life's work of the world's foremost authority on irises. Scholarly yet accessible, it converts the tangle of iris hybrids and varieties into clear, complete groupings and descriptions that form the modern classifications. Magnificent reproductions of 47 full-color paintings of irises by F. H. Round complement the text, along with 31 other illustrations.
... Read more

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Reviews (1)

Still Pertinent after all these years...
In anticipation of a forthcoming trip to the Galapagos a visit to the local library turned up this 1924 book by Wm Beebe. Somewhat to my astonishment, the book captivated me. Wm Beebe (1877-1962) was not (as I heretofore had thought) merely a one-dimensioned, deep sea explorer. World traveler, naturalist, director of the NY Zoological Society -- he wrote books ranging from birding to jungle exploration. Beebe turns out to have been an early 20th century Loren Eiseley. This book records a 1923 trip undertaken by fourteen scientists from New York to the Galapagos in a steam power yacht, provided by a wealthy patron. They were later to learn that it was more suited to ladies "sipping tea" than oceanic cruising. They discovered to their astonishment that it was "neither an inexhaustible reservoir of fresh water, nor a floating coal mine". They had to cut short their Galapagos collecting and beat an unplanned retreat to Panama for more provisions. Beebe is a very readable author, with many a well turned phrase sprinkled thru the book. He describes the ocean voyage as, "... driving a momentary wedge thru sunshine, wind, and water..." Later, in a small boat, going ashore in the Galapagos, he describes the gentle swell "...which rose and fell as if the Pacific were breathing quietly and regularly." Accordingly, when it came time to jump, he appropriately waited for the ocean to "exhale". He finds both comfort and wonder in contemplating the Darwinian explanation of all he sees. For Beebe, there is an "honour of being one with all about me and in a small way to have at least an understanding..." He marvels, for example, in picking up a crustacean's shell, that having parted ways uncountable millions of years previously, now, quite by accident, they cross again. Beebe deplores both the early sailing depredations of the tortises and the wholesale slaughter of animals by previous scientific expeditions (how many flightless cormorants do you need to get an accurate description?). This expedition restricts themselves to capturing various specimens, which they hauled back to the NYC Zoo. They also took back sacks full of lava rocks, sand, plants, etc with which to make scenic dioramas in the AM Museum of NH. On page 265 one comes across the single most arresting observation in this book. As usual, profundity lies hidden in the details. It seems that Beebe "secured" (his euphimism for collecting) several specimens of different Darwin finches on Daphne, and found to his astonishment that their crops all contained identical food items, despite their differing bill shapes. All, even the heavy beaked birds, for exaple had uncrushed seeds in their crops. He repeated this observations several times, always with the same results. So there is more to the oft repeated, now almost cannonical evolutionary explanation of the differing finch beaks. The various finches are all eating the same things! Natural selection provides what appears to be a reasonable hypothesis to explain the various beaks, but what is really going on? I can think of no less than four explanations, but that is another tale. If anybody reads this and is curious, I am at proode@pol.net. ... Read more

Book Description

For almost forty years, Chet Raymo has walked a one-mile path from his house in North Easton, Massachusetts, to Stonehill College where he has taught physics and astronomy. The woods, fields, and stream he passes are as familiar as his own backyard, yet he admits, "There has never been a day I have walked the path without seeing something noteworthy. . . . Every pebble and wildflower has a story to tell."

Raymo chronicles the universe he finds on his path with a scientist's curiosity, a historian's respect for the past, and a child's capacity for wonder. With each step, the landscape he traverses becomes richer and more multidimensional, opening door after door into astronomy, geology, biology, history, and literature, making the path universal in scope.

"The flake of granite in the path was once at the core of towering mountains pushed up across New England when continents collided," he writes. "The purple loosestrife beside the stream emigrated from Europe in the 1800s as a garden ornamental, then went wantonly native in a land of wild frontiers. The light from the star Arcturus I see reflected in the brook beneath the bridge at night has been traveling across space for forty years before entering my eye. I have attended to all of these stories and tried to hear what the landscape has to say. . . . Scratch a name in a landscape and history bubbles up like a spring."

Borrowing the words of the early-twentieth-century naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger, Raymo urges us all to walk "with reverent feet, stopping often, watching closely, listening carefully." His wisdom and insights inspire us to turn our local paths-whether through cities, suburbs, or rural areas-into portals to greater understanding of our interconnectedness with nature and history. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Good Book
I am a 15 year old from North Easton, Massachusetts. My highschool, OLiver Ames, has their cross country course throughout Sheep Pasture, where much of this book takes place. IT was SO interesting finding out the history of the place, because I run there nearly every day. I would definently reccommend you to purchase this book, it is a bit chopppy, but overall you can learn a lot about nature.

A Path worth taking
Mr. Raymo takes a very unique perspective on a seemingly mundane topic - his daily commute. He takes the idea of stopping to smell the roses to a whole new level. Every day for over 30 years he has taken the same mile-long walk to his office. This book takes none of that walk for granted as Mr. Raymo examines every step of the way with fascinating detail. He explores the history of the city, the background of the path, and gives insightful, yet easily readable, scientific explanations of the wonders of the world that surrounds him.

At times the book feels disjointed. After all, the only glue that holds this work together is the mile-long path through nature. However, the patchwork writing allows Mr. Raymo to explore his world - a world he happily gives to the reader. I recommend this book; you'll never view your commute the same. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Another "MUST HAVE" for your bookshelf
If you enjoy the Appalachian culture, you'll love the FOXFIRE books. Volume No. 5 covers bear hunting, blacksmithing and gun making. If you've never read these books, it may be difficult, since the text is written in the vernacular of the mountain folk, but this adds to the charm and "character" of the books. The bear hunting stories wer entertaining, but I really enjoyed reading about Hacker Martin and Hershall House. If you want to know how life really was in the Smokey Mountains, read this book.

As always, a pleasure to read and apply
One of our nation's treasures is being lost one person at a time, and because of Eliot Wigginton, at least some of the treasure is being documented. The people of Appalachia have been marginalized and treated as backwoods hicks and hillbillies, only because of their poverty. That is what makes the richness of their culture all the more amazing. These people live on what an average family throws away every day. They're frugal, resourceful, and highly intelligent. This book only serves to prove it.

If you haven't spent time with hill people, your live is incomplete.

A Must For Hacker Martin Fans
If you need info on Hacker Martin, the famous gunmaker, this is the book!

Just Get It!
The Foxfire Series are Great Books just to read, or to learn the old ( Real ) ways. I had all of them ( The older editions ) these here are the same with fancy covers. If you are between 7-77 get them! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Renowned anthropologist Wade Davis shows us how preserving the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual beliefs is just as important as preserving our endangered plants, insects, and animals. In this collection of personal essays, Davis tells of dramatic personal adventures during which he visits and often lives with indigenous communities in the remote regions of the world. He offers reports of toad-smoking shamanistic journeys in the Amazon forests, tracking an elusive cloud leopard in the mountains of Tibet, and a soulful lament for the lost American buffalo.

Although he has been called a modern-day Indiana Jones, Davis has far more integrity. His stories are not in service to self-glorification, but rather to one resounding theme:

If there is one lesson I have drawn from my travels, it is that cultural and biological diversity are far more than the foundation of stability; they are an article of faith, a fundamental truth that indicates the way things are supposed to be.... There is a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills, and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame and reinventing the poetry of diversity is the most important challenge of our times.

Book Description

Filled with concise descriptions and stunning photographs, the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southeastern States belongs in the home of every resident of the Southeast and in the suitcase or backpack of every visitor.This compact volume contains:

An easy-to-use field guide for identifying 1,000 of the state's wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, mosses, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, mammals, and much more;

A complete overview of the southeastern region's natural history, covering geology, wildlife habitats, ecology, fossils, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather patterns, and the night sky;

An extensive sampling of the area's best parks, preserves, hiking trails, forests, and wildlife sanctuaries, with detailed descriptions and visitor information for 50 sites and notes on dozens of others.

The guide is packed with visual information -- the 1,500 full-color images include more than 1,300 photographs, 13 maps, and 16 night-sky charts, as well as more than 100 drawings explaining everything from geological processes to the basic features of different plants and animals.

For everyone who lives or spends time in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee, there can be no finer guide to the area's natural surroundings than the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southeastern States. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Probably the Best All-Around Field Guide for the South
I live out of this book. A must for anyone going outdoors in the South. I continue to impress my friends with the knowledge I retain from this book. If you are packing on the trail this is the book for you. Don't carry 10 different books. This is the only one you need.

nifty, all encompassing field guide for the not so patient
This field guid is really easy to extract information from. My sister-inlaw, who lives on a boat traveling all around the southeastern states, absconded with mine and I was left in the dark. I own many audubon field guides but I truely like the format of this one because all aspects are under one cover. It makes my pack much lighter! Alden and Nelson do a wonderful job for introducing the newcomer to the southern states. Thank you, JE Rifkin ... Read more

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Book Description

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William Stafford: Crossing Time & Distance
"You are a memory
too strong to leave this world..."

So wrote William Stafford in "For A Lost Child"
but it could apply equally as well to him.
His absence continues to leave a conspicuous void.
Still, there remains his writing, and this definitive volume
contains the majority of his finest work.

"Starting here, what do you want to remember?"

So opens "You Reading This, Be Ready"
and it's somewhat telling of what his writing was predominantly about:

Assuring remembrance. Making note of what endures.
The beauty. The sorrow. The questions.
Marking even the smallest snapshot scene as every bit as worthy of recall
as any grand-scale panorama.
Even as his own life and times become relegated to the past,
his poems ~ indeed, every insight he set on paper ~
forever will remain in the present tense ~
ever as accurate and timely as they were when first composed.
It's not only how things were, but how they are ~ the way it still is.

His based his work on common human experience,
the lessons and questions garnered in the day-to-day world.
Uncomplicated. Mindful. Authentic. Perceptive.
Life-affirming even as they question,
life-enhancing even when they convey a brutal truth.
Certainly no poet or writer should be without his presence on their nearest bookshelf.
His perceptions and voice reach across time and distance so vividly alive
that he easily incites a creative response ~
setting any aspiring writer fast upon his or her own path.
Serving as a literary generator, of sorts,
to paraphrase something Robert Frost once called those rare inspiring individuals.
He had a way of speaking to each reader so directly,
he made of them a friend.

You will never fail to notice every thread of light upon a leaf,
every solitary play of colour across the sunset sky,
every sad passenger in any passing car once you've shared his vision.
Rare was the moment, memory, thought or question,
he let go by without notice, contemplation, honourable mention.

"What can anyone give you greater than now...?"
he once asked and that thought still holds true.

And if you open this book completely at random, right here and now,
letting it fall open to any given page,
whatever line your eyes come to rest upon and read
will be pure gift: your life will be better for it.

Stafford's Voice Makes You Listen
When I read the poems of William Stafford, it feels less like reading and more like "listening." There's something about his voice that calls me to attention, that makes me notice not only the words on the page but all the sounds that attend my mornings: the return of the finches to the Hawthorne tree, for example, or the rustle of wind in the new cherry blossoms. As I re-read some of my favorite poems from The Way it Is, I find myself in a strange situation; I feel as though I have traded places with the poet, "partly propped up" on the sofa in his den at 4 a.m., where he wrote every day until he died in 1993. Perhaps it is because he often tells us so much about the writing process itself; Stafford's poems are imbued with that particular room; they arise from that private space he allows us to enter for a few moments at a time. He often brings in the same details over and over, the mundane yet transcendent things he notices in the early hours: sunlight moving across a wood floor, trees "still trying to arch as far as they could," the houses that "waited, white, blue, gray..." The things themselves, as in the poetry of William Carlos Williams, become the containers of ideas, thought, emotion. The diction is simple, the rhythm a comfort; before we know it, we've been lured into a place of transcendence without even trying.
The sun becomes a constant companion to the writing act, a kind of muse that illuminates the hand at work. For instance, the last poem he wrote, just hours before he died, begins with the line: "Well, it was yesterday./Sunlight used to follow my hand." Towards the end, he reiterates: "I listened and put my hand/out in the sun again. It was all easy." Perhaps the knowledge that these are the last lines Stafford will write adds to their poignancy (that hand will soon be stilled, in darkness), but I feel privileged, every time I open this book, to be in the presence of a voice that speaks so simply and yet with such passion. Because of the sheer number of poems and writings Stafford left behind, there are bound to be some clunkers, some lines that seem overly simplistic and sentimental, but the force of Stafford's voice overcomes these occasional lapses. The Way it Is is a "must have" for the writer's library; crack open the book at the start of your own writing session and you'll remember why you ever wanted to be a writer in the first place.

Intelligent and meditative.
This latest and last living collection of William Stafford's work covers the past 20 odd years of his poetry as well as giving the reader some new, never before published work including the poem he wrote on the day that he died. This collection gives us an overview of Stafford's poetry that reveals him to be a man who is both interested and amused by the world around him. The book is divided into four sections, each of which is full of intelligent and meditative work reminiscent of the best of E.B. White's essays. While White was an essayist (not just a children's writer), and Stafford a poet, both men revel in unraveling the intricacies of the world using nothing more than the simple information provided to them in their daily lives. In "Stories From Kansas", Stafford simplifies the voracious egos of humankind into silly yet proud tufts of grass, "Little bunches of/grass pretend they are bushes/that will never bow./ They bow..." "The Way I! ! t Is" is reccomended reading for those who like a little zen with their humility or a little salt with their watermelon.

(excerpted from "Sic Vice & Verse" review by Carlye Archibeque.) ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Showcases nature studies and appreciation activities
Joseph Cornell is the author of Sharing Nature With Children and Sharing Nature With Children II . This two volume set showcase nature studies and appreciation activities that any parent, teacher, or child care provider can readily engage in with children. Ann appreciation for the complex and interrelated life forms that comprise the exosphere of their environments is a solid basis to establish a life-long enthusiasm for nature and the out-of-doors, as well as a lasting commitment to environmental issues and concerns. Each volume is available independently, but school and community libraries are urged to acquire them both for the nature activities and environmental reference collections.

Cornell's book for children
I had no idea that Joseph Cornell had written a book for children. This is a rare find. (It ranks up there with Robert Walser's little-known treatise on horse-grooming, or Arthur Brand's book of stock quotes.) There are stories here of hope and joy. You really get a sense of Cornell's engagement with a visionary romanticism when he encourages the reader to "let the child see into the world of nature, for there they will find a balm for their sorrows, a calm for their heart, and a palm against time." Cornell filled his boxes with the doodads of youth, and it's wonderful to find him speaking to children without any form of mediation. A must.

Old activities
I have worked in outdoor environmental education, so many of the activities suggested in this book were known to me prior to reading it. Therefore, I was a little disappointed in the book b/c I had hoped to get fresh ideas. I would reccommend this book to any and all parents/teachers who have not worked in EE. These activities are the standard in teaching kids/adults about nature. I look forward to reading Sharing Nature with Children II, which I have also purchased. I feel it will have new activities to inspire me and many others who love nature.

Nature study made easy!
Thanks to this book, I have embarked on a new career in environmental education. I always dreamed about it but never realized that I could do it until I was introduced to this book. It is a must have for anyone who works with kids: teachers, parents, youth leaders, babysitters, etc. This book was so instrumental to me, that I gave a copy of it to two of my professors who were most influential in making my first year back in college to persue this new career a success. I know it has had an impact on one of these professors! Even after being introduced to some of the major environmental education programs (i.e.: Project Wild, etc) I still return to this simple book again and again.

Clasic guide to outdoor education games for children
Describes Cornell's philosophy of outdoor education and gives instructions for playing outdoor education games that work. This is an excellent guide for educators, camp counselors and scout leaders. Some games are designed to work in forested areas and are difficult to adapt to treeless areas. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Artistically stunning! Biologically Accurate!
I find that this book is excellent for providing accurate background information on the animals and plants as well as portraying each species with characteristic body language. This is by far my favorite photography book as a piece of art as well as a biological reference tool.

Amazing, beautiful photos.
Amazing, beautiful photos of some of North Americas rarest species. A "must have" coffee-table book! ... Read more

Book Description

A Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country is the perfect companion if you plan to explore the northern Colorado Plateau, that vast province that encompasses eastern Utah, far western Colorado, and sections of northern Arizona and New Mexico. It is a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated trailside refernce to plants, animals, and geology of an area that includes nine national parks and monuments.

With this guide in hand, you will gain a sympathetic understanding of the desert ecosystems that make up the region. You will learn about the battle between uplift and erosion that has sculpted the sandstone fins of Arches National Park and the needles of Canyonlands. You will learn to differentiate between prickly pear and claret cup cacti and between the tracks of striped and spotted skunks. You will find out how the lizard uses its tail as a first line of defense. In short, you will learn to appreciate this remarkable land as you never did before. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Best single "naturalist" reference for canyon county...
If you can only take one book with you to the Colorado Plateau, this is it! It covers all the basics--wildflowers, animals and geology, as well as clear information and illustrations on topics such as cryptobiotic soil, desert varnish, pothole life and hanging gardens. It also has information on cacti, wildflowers, reptiles, birds, mammals and their tracks. For an "all-in-one" type of book, this is fabulous. After years and a dozen backcountry trips to the San Rafael Swell area in Utah, this is the book we grab when we want more information. It is the only book we put in one of our packs when we go on a hike or mountain bike ride. On a recent trip with family members who have never been to the area-- the book was indispensible. As we came across hanging gardens, potholes, cryptobiotic soil, desert varnish, lizards, bats, cacti, and wildflowers-- this guide provided the information we wanted, and it explained everything much better and more concisely than we could have done. For people interested in detailed information on specific topics like wildflowers or reptiles, then a more comprehensive guide would be a good companion to "A Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country". (If you want information on hiking or canyoneering, then I would recommend books by Steve Allen and Michael Kelsy.) If you are going to the Colorado Plateau, take this book with you.

Excellent all-in-one guide
"A Naturalist's Guide to the Canyon Country" is an excellent overview of the natural history of the Colorado Plateau, and especially valuable for first time visitors and amateur naturalists. When my sister brought her family to visit this past June, we consulted this book every hour of every day. The adults and the children all found it invaluable for both identifying plants and animals and learning something about their life history. No, the guide is not all-encompassing, but most of the major players are here. I especially appreciated the inclusion of the little guys- especially the beetles lizards! We also appreciated the extremely sturdy binding, which held up well against all of the abuses that a 9-year-old could think of.

A Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country
I have been visiting the four-corners every summer for 25 years and this is one of the most delightful books I have seen yet! In fact I just returned from my four-week summer 2000 trip and this Guide was my constant companion. Of the many guides and books I have collected over the years, this was the one that I carried in my Jeep, kept with me in my tent, and consulted on my hikes. As an academic biologist, I appreciate the accurate (and beautiful) paintings of the animals and plants that I routinely encounter on the Colorado Plateau. The selection of species is representative of those that a visitor will likely see.

And the one thing that distinguishes this guide from the many others I have is the inclusion of interesting, yet concise, information about the different species pictured. Many guides merely help identify, while this one tells you something about what is identified. Each night above my desert tent a common nighthawk performed as the Guide described: "While they dive and climb during courtship, wind moving across their wing feathers produces a 'booming' sound. This has led to another common name: bullblasts." So much better than just color, pattern, length, scientific name.

I have recommended this Guide already to anyone I know who is considering a first trip to the Colorado Plateau, and even to those who, as I have done, continue to visit canyon country every chance they get. The beautiful paintings alone are worth the price. ... Read more

Book Description

From famines and deforestation to water pollution, global warming, and the rapid rate of extinction of plants and animals--the extent of the global damage wrought by humankind is staggering. Why have we allowed our environment to reach such a crisis? What produced the catastrophic population explosion that so taxes the earth's resources?Reg Morrison's search for answers led him to ponder our species' astonishing evolutionary success. His extraordinary book describes how a spiritual outlook combined with a capacity for rational thought have enabled Homo sapiens to prosper through the millennia. It convincingly depicts these traits as part of our genetic makeup--and as the likely cause of our ultimate downfall against the inexorable laws of nature. The book will change the way readers think about human evolution and the fate of our species.Small bands of apes walked erect on the dangerous plains of East Africa several million years ago. Morrison marvels that they not only survived, but migrated to all corners of the earth and established civilizations. To understand this feat, he takes us back to a critical moment when these hominids developed language and with it the unique ability to think abstractly. He shows how at this same time they began to derive increasing advantage from their growing sense of spirituality. He convincingly depicts spirituality as an evolutionary strategy that helped rescue our ancestors from extinction and drive the species toward global dominance.Morrison concludes that this genetically productive spirituality, which has influenced every aspect of our lives, has led us to overpopulate the world and to devastate our own habitats. Sobering, sometimes chilling, consistently fascinating, his book offers a startling new view of human adaptation running its natural course. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Chilling, eye-opening, essential reading
This book puts the entire human predicament in perspective. It clearly explains how we got to the point of six billion people on a small, fragile planet and why we are unable to stop ourselves from multiplying our way into a disaster. Reg Morrison has done his research and the conclusions he draws, while not pleasant, make a lot of sense. I've read a lot of environmental books and this one is one of the best. Highly recommended.

Reg Morrison wrote the book I wanted to write.
Why is economic theory so screwed-up? Why do economists invariably assume what they hope to prove? Or what's even more incredible, why does everyone on the planet seem believe this stupidity? Obviously, we must answer these questions before we can even hope to solve our collective survival problem.

Guess what? Humans are genetically predisposed to believe in mystics, UFO's, Neoclassical Economic Theory, good-luck charms, etc.! In short, we evolved to believe in all kinds of gods -- including the Free Market God.

Reg Morrison wrote the book I wanted to write. The forward is written by Lynn Margulis. Morrison's book is endorsed by E.O. Wilson of Harvard, and Thomas Eisner of Cornell. If you are ready for some answers, read The Spirit in the Gene : Humanity's Proud Illusion and the Laws of Nature by Reg Morrison, Lynn Margulis from Cornell University Press

(This was a 07 August, 1999 BrainFood Book Alert! Permission to reprint granted!)

Great Stuff
The author thinks our species is genetically programmed for extinction and can't do anything about it. He may be right. Species usually disappear immediately after an enormous run-up in population, and our population has doubled in the last 50 years. (Without people generally taking much notice of it, I might add.)

Morrison doesn't think we have much choice in the matter, and I couldn't help remember the comment of the lead character in Neil Elliott's THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JESUS CHRIST, when asked if mankind had free will sufficient to control his destiny. "Of course I believe in free will," he said, "--I have no choice!"

The elusive beast within
Reg Morrison summarizes in succinct and personal polemic style what problems the human race really faces, and does a good job of unmasking the nature of our mystically constructed delusions. It is a short book for covering such a broad sweep of our evolutionary and cultural heritage. Possibly some minor details are amiss, but the message is clear. For such an ultimately pessimistic view of what we prize most about ourselves, its punches are well delivered.
According to Morrison, globalism is heading for global ecological collapse under the weight of the human plague, and will be followed by massive decline in human numbers, if not outright extinction. As the situation gets more dire, the search for mental escape in our mystical beliefs in culture-land, nationalism, media will increase, not decrease. We will be all mentally "off the planet" by the time we are kicked off it.

Taking his presentation of facts and conclusions seriously means that the present course of human affairs is still heading for disaster. I present some conclusions of the book. Reg debunks some of our cherished mystical beliefs, and counterpoises his grim facts, and I present here his main conclusions.
Belief 1. Humans have spiritual autonomy and are therefore accountible for their actions.
Fact 1. We are genetically driven just like any other animal. We have no mind other than the body, and we lack behavioural choice.
Belief 2. The environment is inherently stable and will rebound if given half a chance.
Fact 2. The environment is a chaotic system and is therefore inherently unstable and always has been. If it were not so, evolution could not have occurred. Rebound is a not characteristic of the system.
Belief 3. With enough moral courage, political will and technical know how, time and money, the environment could be repaired.
Fact 3. Most environmental damage is inevitable product of overpopulation. The more technological the attempted solutions, the greater the environmental debt. All human activity adds to environmental debt.

We fall for the false beliefs most of the time, because humans have a split brain, with "two spheres of awareness available to us, with two entirely separate behaviour control systems, one rational and one entirely non-rational.... ". Unfortunately for the human species " ... the rational brain should be viewed, not as the principal generator of behaviour and the pivot on which the species turns, but as an optional extra designed to be switched off the moment any serious evolutionary matters, such as genetic survival or propagation, arise."
The best course for human species survival would be a global, concious coordinated reduction in human environmental impact, and a strong reduction in birth rate. Instead we are probably going to get conflict, continued exploitation to death and extinction, with war and upheavals on the scale of the Biblical Revelations. As Reg says, "All species must fail eventually, especially the very successful ones, or the whole system will grind to a halt". Reg hopes we will wipe ourselves out quickly as plagues tend to do, so the system can carry on without us.

Exactly what is happening and why you don't believe it.
Reg Morrison tells us, in this book, not only what is happening to the world's ecosystem but he also tells us why most people do not believe it. Morrison lays it out step by step. He explains why the population, in the last century has grown at such an exponential rate, and why that growth will soon come to an end....and head dramatically in the other direction. But one of the most important things covered in this book is why we refuse to believe the obvious, why we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Easter Islanders and refuse to believe that our actions must inevitably lead to a dramatic population collapse.

Morrison tells it like it is, we are by nature anthropocentric and have ultimate faith in the ability of Homo sapiens to overcome any difficulty. Faith, Morrison tells us, is the magic ingredient that enables to make that wondrous leap from grim reality into the totally bloody ridiculous. So those who have given this book one star are the true believers. They have criticized it because they say it smacks of genetic determinism, a term invented by the critics of sociobiology, and not subscribed to by sociobiologists themselves. Or they have criticized the book because it does not offer a rosy picture where we are all saved by the wonders of science. Morrison paints science as one of the culprits in the rape of the world and not our ultimate savior. That is a message that raises the ire of many a true believer.

Yet all Morrison is trying to tell us is that what has happened many times in the past on a much smaller scale, is happening again on a worldwide scale. And it will happen because our population has already reached plague proportions and is now way beyond any sustainable level.

This is the very best book I have read in years, and I read an awful lot of books. ... Read more

Book Description

In this comprehensive and abundantly illustrated book,AllanSchoenherr describes a state with a greater range of landforms, agreatervariety of habitats, and more kinds of plants and animals than any areaofequivalent size in all of North America. A Natural History of Californiawillfamiliarize the reader with the climate, rocks, soil, plants and animalsin eachdistinctive region of the state. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A must for outdoor enthusiasts
This well thought out introduction to the natural setting of California is a must for anyone that either lives in the state or is planning a visit. I used this book as a reference in a report I wrote on California's environment. The all emcompassing narratives about flora, fauna, geology, geography and the wonder of California, makes this book priceless! This is by far the most thorough book on California's native environment that I have seen. Augment this book with, Audobon's Guide to California, and you have a history, guide and interesting information about California to make any vacation or field trip into a journey of unfathomable wonder of California and the natural environment that most of us fail to take advantage of and appreciate. This book really is a must have for anyone who considers themselves a Californian.

Comprehensive and fascinating
If you have an interest in natural history, especially of California's natural history, this is an excellent book. The reader learns all sorts of fascinating things, practically from page one. It is very comprehensive in its breadth while not requiring high-level courses in geology, zoology, botany, etc. to understand it. The writer does buy into a couple of ideas that I think are influenced more by eco-religion than ecological science, but he attempts to maintain scientific discipline and does not harangue the reader with political axe-grinding. He writes in a readable, objective, tone that doesn't get in the way of the interesting "hard" facts conveyed in a clear, interesting style.

The book is an excellent survey text of natural history, California's in particular. I'm an immigrant to California from the Midwest, and did not have the advantage of learning about my adopted state during my school years. I have been looking for a good comprehensive book explaining the formation of the geography and an explanation of the operation of nature here in this state. This is the best book I have found on this subject since I moved here five years ago.

If you are an amateur naturalist, like myself, even just to the extent of having a fondness for programs like Discovery Channel, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, and the National Geographic Specials, you'll like this book. If you're a California parent, the book is really useful for answering the questions kids ask about the world around them.

Not as intimidating as one would think . . .
Though it's authoritative and thorough, it's also entertaining and very accesible. It belongs in every outdoor enthusiast's "camping box."

One of the Best
This is one of the best books on Natural History I have ever read. It is thoughtful and precise, while reading much like a story at times. Reading it reminds me of the true beauty of California

An excellent comprehensive guide to california bioregions.
I have found this book very useful in my trips around California visiting various regions. It is a large book and written in a bit of a ponderous tone - not exactly light reading. But after a day of hiking, my friends and I usually have several questions about the natural areas that we have encountered, such as "Why are there less trees in this part of the Sierra?" Or "What's the deal with all of these creosote bushes?" This book is a great book for evening reading to answer questions like this. It is organized by california bioregion = california geography, so it is very easy to quickly find the relevant sections of the book. It is a non-technical book, so there is no need for any training in biology. I would recommend this book (and I have) to any nature-lover/amateur naturalist who is visiting California or parts of California. It has enhanced my trips and my understanding of nature enormously. The reason that I give it four stars instead of five is simply due to the writing, which is a bit dull, and occasional small lapses in choice of content. ... Read more