Book Description

An easy-to-read, beautifully illustrated undergraduate-level introduction to fresh- and running-water biology. Each chapter includes practical information on simple experiments. The text begins with the physical features that define running water habitats, then continues with organisms that inhabit these habitats, and concludes with a discussion of applied issues surrounding water use, including pollution, species diversity, and conservation. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Biology of Streams and Rivers
This is a very good introductory text on how streams and rivers function. It covers the habitat, organisms that live in them, and factors that affect them. The book has numerous references of source material and additional reading. I recommend this as great background material for this subject area. ... Read more

Book Description

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Amazon.com

Passionate outdoorsman Stephen Bodio manages to pull off an important feat in these collected naturewritings: he makes the natural world fresh and new. With a seemingly small detail or minor twist, Bodio takes us to theedge of wildness and beyond. Consider his musings on the fierce but seldom seen--and always inscrutable--goshawk,culled from a piece titled "Why I Love Goshawks": "...you may come around a corner of brush in thelate afternoon to see a big young female gos sitting in the top of a willow, at eye level, no more than thirty feet away.Her streaked buffy breast glows in the bloody light; her eyes, still the pale yellow of youth, are on yours. She's waitingfor you to flush a bird for her; using you, quite consciously, as her dog. We are not used to such arrogance."Bodio writes about other raptors, hunting, some of his favorite books--even a recipe for "reconciliationchili," a dish tailored to local tastes and designed to bring together the frequently warring factions in theAmerican West, or wherever else people are too busy arguing about the land to sit down together over a hearty meal.These essays are not necessarily meant to be read in order; pick up the book, open it anywhere, and find yourselftransported to the few remaining nooks and crannies where humanity is still a visitor. ... Read more

Book Description

As the largest river on the East Coast of the United States, the rolling Susquehanna, is the indispensable tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary. Gathering strength from scores of streams along its 444-mile journey, the river delivers half of the freshwater the bay requires to maintain its ecological balance.

Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake traces the course of the Susquehanna River through New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to the bay. Fifty-six short chapters discuss key locations along the route and how the river changes from sources to sea. These chapters also look at how natural resources influence, and in some ways shape, the lives of the people and their communities.

Along the river tour, Jack Brubaker examines the natural and human history of the Susquehanna, exploring how the river has been used and abused, as well as its current condition and future prospects. He explains how the unusually shallow, rocky river has substantially altered its drainage pattern over geologic time and how it continues to cut channels while erasing and creating islands.

For generations the Susquehanna has ebbed through the daily lives of the riverside residents, providing water to drink and a place to pump sewage. Floods have humbled those who chose to live close to the river’s edge, and droughts have fretted farmers. A vibrant fishery has provided sustenance and recreation for hundreds of thousands.

The Iroquois and the Susquehannocks reluctantly yielded the river to white settlers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the Susquehanna defined the American frontier. Coal mining, lumbering, and hydroelectric and nuclear energy production polluted the water and nearly ruined the landscape beyond hope in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Hope returned in the latter part of the last century as the people of the Susquehanna began restoration efforts.

With the aid of more than 70 maps and illustrations, Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake provides a bold new look at a dynamic old river. This powerful journey brings alive the Susquehanna, its history, and the colorful personalities who live along its banks. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent Reading
It should come as no surprise that I would pick up DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA TO THE CHESAPEAKE since I live within a few blocks (and, gratefully, a few feet above the flood plain) of the beautiful Susquehanna River. However, I read it not because I heard about it from local sources but because the estimable literary critic, Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post, named it as a top non-fiction book of 2002, a competitive year for quality publishing. In other words, this book is that good and I recommend it not only to fellow citizens of the huge watershed that feeds the river but to everyone.

Author Jack Brubaker reminds me of John McPhee as he deftly corrals a considerable volume of information on both natural and human history into a fine narrative. The Susquehanna offers universal lessons in the human effect on our waters and the effect of the waters on humans. The river is an important feature in Pre-Columbian cultures in North America and its European contacts go all the way back to 1588. Settlements as far north as Northumberland were originally considered as possible sites for our nation's capital. The river is an often ironic education in the development of American commerce and the Industrial and technological revolutions. It is the seat of Three Mile Island, the victim of Hurricane Agnes, the source of our drinking water, the playground of sportsmen, and, down river, the power behind major electrical companies. It is at once strong and fragile, feeding yet threatening the Chesapeake Bay. Its obvious non-navigability has frustrated developers for nearly four centuries now, though someone in Congress decided to have it declared navigable. There are thousands of stories to tell and Brubaker pulls together the most representative in a lucid trip from the headsprings to the Susquehanna's actual submerged mouth at the edge of the Atlantic.

Examines both the natural and human history of the river
Down The Susquehanna To The Chesapeake by Jack Brubaker (columnist for the Lancaster New Era) traces the course of the Susquehanna River as it winds through New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland ending at the Chesapeak bay. Comprised of 56 brief chapters discussing key locations along the route, as well as how the river changes from its sources to the sea, the reader is informed as to how natural resources influence and shape the lives of the people and the communities along the way. Brubaker deftly examines both the natural and human history of the river, exploring how it has been both used and abused, its current condition and its future prospects. Of special note is how this unusually shallow, rocky river has substantially altered its drainage pattern over geologic time and how it continues to cut channels while erasing and creating islands. Enhanced with more than 70 maps and illustrations, Down The Susquehanna To The Chesapeake is a fascinating, well written, highly recommended treatise and would serve as an admirable model to writing about and exploring the histories of other major American rivers. ... Read more

Book Description

Glen Canyon, now Lake Powell, is rediscovered through wonderful color images by Eliott Porter. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A visual rhapsody
I got a copy of Eliot Porter's Glen Canyon book after reading Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire," a chapter of which is devoted to a downriver rafting trip along this stretch of the Colorado River just before the dam was built. While Abbey's descriptions are vivid, I wanted to see with my own eyes what he was describing. And Porter's camera is the closest you can get to doing that today.

His pictures are, of course, not the real thing, but they are about as breathtaking as photography can be. The colors, textures, reflections, and the play of light and shadow are wonderful, and each photograph is distinctly different. His own description of the canyon's display of color and light in the introductory essay "The Living Canyon" give an instructive insight into the eye of the photographer. His awareness of what he is looking at and his ways of choosing to look help the reader to see even more in the 80 photographs that follow.

While some of the photographs capture the monumental scale of the canyon walls and formations, many focus on the myriad surfaces that are revealed to the eye: erosion patterns, lichen, rippling water flow, the dark streaking mineral stains extending from seeps, the rough texture of weathered sandstone in glancing sunlight, smooth river stones, the layered stripes of exposed sediment, the trickling spread of water falling from overhead springs, the hanging tapestry coloration of the walls, whorled and striated rock, dry sand. There are also photographs of plants: moonflower, maidenhair fern, willow, tamarisk, redbud, columbine, cane. Above all, there is the rich array of colors, capturing a great variety of moods and attitudes.

Porter was recognized for his photography of birds, and while there are no birds visible in these photographs, his introductory essay makes mention of them, and when looked at with that awareness, many of the pictures also seem to capture a sense of "air space" for flight. Before turning to photography, Porter was a Harvard professor of biochemistry and bacteriology, and it's interesting to see the somewhat dispassionate eye of the scientist in the way he uses the camera. While the story of Glen Canyon may induce sorrow or anger, the photographs are strong for their lack of sentimentality.

The pictures also excite a curiosity about the geology of the river, and the book concludes with a short essay describing how the canyon walls reveal the geological ages that have gone into forming this part of the earth, going back millions of years. The book also includes a catalog of all the plants and animals that inhabited Glen Canyon before its inundation. Altogether, with its quotes from other writers, including Loren Eiseley, Joseph Wood Krutch, Wallace Stegner, and members of John Wesley Powell's expedition in the 19th century, this book is a fitting record of a great lost national treasure.

A heartbreakingly beautiful book
These photographs are just about all that is left of Glen Canyon. After the Sierra Club and other environmentalists had lost the battle to prevent the Glen Canyon River Dam from being built, Eliot Porter took this extraordinary series of photographs to memorialize the gorgeous area that has been lost forever. Few people at the time knew much about the Canyon. It was too remote, too difficult to get to. Although it was one of the areas that John Wesley Powell found most beautiful in his first expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers, no access roads or paths were ever built to make it possible for many people to view the areas firsthand. As a result, very few people knew precisely what we were about to lose.

The tragedy is that these areas are really, truly are gone. Even if the Glen Canyon River Dam were magically removed, many of the areas viewed in these gorgeous photographs have already been silted up. The Green and Colorado Rivers carry extreme quantities of minerals, and when the dam stops the flow to form a reservoir, they tend to drop to the bottom. All dams have a limited life. They don't last for as long as one might imagine. Basically, they create a new landmass behind them over the course of a century or so. Many of the spots photographed in these pictures are now solid earth.

One would hope that such beautiful photographs as these, photos that create tremendous longing for what we have already lost, would make us more concerned to preserve what is left. But with the current presidency even today as I write this review opening the national parks to snowmobiles and with people speculating that there will be new attempts to open arctic areas in Alaska to oil exploration, we can't assume that in the least. These photographs may end up being emblematic of all endangered areas, of the ongoing fragility of all of nature.

Oversized Paperback Rivals Original Sierra Club Hardback
I was expecting a reprint similar to the small-sized Ballantine issue of the late 1960s. I was surprised to receive a book almost as large as the original Sierra Club hardback! The color in several of the photographs is even better than in the original (and difficult to find/very expensive) book, thanks in part to the cooperation of the museum which received Porter's works as a bequest.

A beautiful and truly tragic book
I'm at something of a loss to explain why I've been so moved by a place I never saw and (barring visionary leadership and luck) never will. I was born about two years before the diversion tunnels closed in 1963. I, and most likely you, never had a chance to know what was there.

What was there was, quite simply, the most beautiful place in the world, and Eliot Porter's photographs make this abundantly clear. A calm Colorado River gently whisked travelers through nearly two hundred miles of Glen Canyon, past zebra-striped 2,000-foot walls and twisted domes and spires of bare rock. Dozens of old mining camps and thousands of Anasazi sites, pictographs and petroglyphs lined the banks. Hundreds of smaller side canyons branched from the river. Some opened into massive ampitheaters like Music Temple and Cathedral in the Desert. Others twisted and turned for miles into salmon-colored sandstone, the rock's convolutions hiding the sky from view. In spots you could span the width of a canyon 500 feet deep with your outstretched arms. These were canyons lush with moss and trees, watered by streams and springs and rich with wildlife - all in the heart of one of America's most forbidding regions, all accessible to anyone with a canoe or rubber raft and a week or two of extra time.

Now all of this is gone. The reservoir has inundated almost every scene portrayed in Porter's photographs with hundreds of feet of water and mud. A few pathetic fragments of the canyon's beauty and solitude remain along the northern edge of Escalante National Monument, but all of its most magical places have been obliterated beneath a faceless sump of oily water across which houseboats rumble and jetskis roar.

The NPS and Bureau of Reclamation harp upon the "improved accessibilty" afforded by the lake. They neglect to mention the inaccessibility of permanently submerged canyons and the financial cost of trying to explore Glen Canyon in its current lobotomized state. To leaf through this book is to know what we had - an incredibly beautiful place, of National Park caliber - and also to know that we threw it away for the sake of a few megawatts of electricity, a net annual loss of available water for downstream use and for the purpose of boosting gasoline and boat sales in Coconino County, Arizona.

Perhaps there's an emotional explanation for being haunted by a place I'll never see - an outraged sense of having been robbed. ... Read more

Book Description

This book will be an edited volume in which specialists will be invited to write chapters on the major river basins and regions of North America.The introduction will cover general aspects of geology, hydrology, ecology and human impacts on rivers.The book will consist of 21 chapters on the major basins.The chapters will include 3-5 featured rivers of the basin/region as well as 3-7 other rivers to be described in contrast, ina one-page format.Rivers slected for coverage will include the largest, the most natural and the most affected by human impact.

The book will also include a seperate section of color photographs of key river basins and important features of those basins.

A major theme of the book will be the ability to compare one system to another in terms of its physiography, hydrology, ecology, biodiversity and human impacts

* Extensive treatment provides a single source of information for North Americas major rivers
* Regional specialists provide the most authoritative information available
* Full color photographs and topographical maps demonstrate the beauty, major features, and uniqueness of each river system
* One-page summaries make finding key statistics easy and enables comparisons among rivers ... Read more

Book Description

Used and abused. Straightened and channelized.
Reversed and revered. But never ignored...

An Intimate Biography of
the Heroic Creek that Chicago Made

When French explorers Jolliet and Marquette used the Chicago portage to access the Mississippi River system, the Chicago River was but a humble, even sluggish, stream in the right place at the right time. That's the story of the making of Chicago. This is the other story -- the story of the making and perpetual re-making of a river by everything from pre-glacial forces to the interventions of an emerging and mighty city.

Author Libby Hill brings together years of original research and the contributions of dozens of experts to tell the Chicago River's epic tale from its conception in prehistoric bedrock to the glorious rejuvenation it's undergoing today, and every exciting episode in between. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The Chicago River and More
This book delivers on its title by providing a thorough account of the natural and unnatural (affected by humans) history of the Chicago River. Although the title is apt, it understates the breadth of fascinating material in the book. The "natural history" covers every facet of the river and its environs and provides a good primer about nature in general and the effect that people can have on it. Through the "unnatural history" we learn about the growth of Chicago and its suburbs as well as the Midwest and the United States, with the unifying theme of the river holding everything together.

It's clear that a huge amount of research went into this book, and even technical sections are presented clearly and enlivened by interestuing tidbits of information. I wish this book existed when I lived in Chicago. I would have had a much greater appreciation of what was around me.

CHICAGO, WISCONSIN?!?!?
This is one of the strange and interesting facts found in this book. The author spent six years meticulously researching and writing this book about "the historic creek that Chicago built". The book does many things for Chicago's history: it gives a great perspective of the political realities of managing one of the main forms of transportation in the city's early growth; it describes the economice of developing the land along the river (and its many courses); and it shows the part the river played in the lives of everyone along its banks. The drawings and maps in the book are carefully chosen to give the reader an accurate visual picture of the times. My favorite is the one on pg. 96 where men are lifting an entire hotel to accomodate the installation of sewers in the city. I also loved the story about the "kidnapped dredge"! The last third of the book is very pertinent to the people in the area who truly love the outdoors. It describes the development of the Skokie Lagoons and the Chicago Botanic Garden where many of us bird and the start of the natural areas restoration for which Chicago has become so well known along the banks of the North Branch. For folks who grew up in or near the city, the neighborhood references are sure to bring back fond memories but, even for those of us who did not grow up in this area, there is much to learn. This book would be a great addition to a reference library or a wonderful gift for someone interested in Chicago and its varied history. Looking for the answer to the question that began this review? Well, you'll have to read the book to see how a stroke of luck- or a pen!- made us the "City of Big Shoulders" rather than the "City of the Northwoods"!

An in-depth, comprehensive history and presentation.
Libby Hill's The Chicago River is the result of years of painstaking research and presents an outstanding historical survey of the Chicago River from its creation by pre-glacial forces, to the days of the French explorers using it to access the Mississippi, to its contemporary presence in one of the most densely populated urban areas in the Midwest. The Chicago River is an in-depth, comprehensive work that reveals the never ending struggle between humans and nature over the centuries, as well as the commercial, recreational, and ecological projects currently underway on and in the river. The Chicago River is highly recommended, rewarding reader for those with an interest in Chicago, natural history, environmental issues, and Midwestern history. ... Read more

Book Description

In his passionate, luminous novels, David JamesDuncan has won the devotion of countless criticsand readers, earning comparisons to Harper Lee,Tom Robbins, and J.D. Salinger, to name just a few.Now Duncan distills his remarkable powers ofobservation into this unique collection of shortstories and essays.

At the heart ofDuncan's tales are characters undergoing thecomplex and violent process of transformation, withresults both painful and wondrous. Equallyaffecting are his nonfiction reminiscences, the"river teeth" of the title. He likens hismemories to the remains of old-growth trees that fallinto Northwestern rivers and are sculpted by timeand water. These experiences--shaped by his ownriver of time--are related with the art and graceof a master storyteller. In RiverTeeth, a uniquely gifted American writer blendstwo forms, taking us into the rivers of truth andmake-believe, and all that lies in between. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

I laughed out loud in the library . . .
as I read this book. Although I don't like fishing (Duncan's favorite subject), I do like good stories. And Duncan knows how to write them. This book is easy to read because it is a compilation of short stories, albeit some better than others. But all the stories are worth reading at least once. And believe me, after the first time, you will be returning to read a few of the stories over and over. I know I did.

Yes, there are worse books...
This book is sentimental, overwritten, trendy and sickeningly mediocre. Duncan may very well be the master of kitch readers crave from years of Hollywood molding their aesthetic preferences. Perhaps it would not be so bad if Duncan actually had some biting or original insight into human lives or the human condition. He appropriates "eastern philosophy" to not only trivialize the philosophy itself, but to make his lack of originality transparent. With Duncan, eastern religion can indeed be bought in a Santa Barbara bead boutique or between the lines of a hippie's banter.

YES! It truly is a horrifying experience to get lost in the store when one is a toddler. But Duncan's style and knack for cheese reduce such moments to the most trite melodrama. He is the classic example of the writer who has used more words than he knows what to do with. If you admire the aesthetics of Hallmark cards, buy this book and swoon away.

For better nature writers, turn to Henry David Thoreau, (early) Robert Bly, Paul Theroux or even Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams stories. Compared to Duncan, a man like Hawthorne takes readers closer to nature by having characters walk through a forest.

Required reading for all westerners with a far eastern bent
I was a hitch-hikn' looking for Sissy out there somewhere and along comes this book with the upside down fish-hook on it and I finally had the term for my favorite piece of women's clothing (i.e. 'the upper tenth of a pair of levis').

Ten years later I was having babies and was reading The Brothers K with my son asleep on my chest.

Now, well beyond that divorce, I find "home" in David's stories in River Teeth. His attention to me not his characters is extremely evident through his writing. I can still get chills up my spine just thinking about that Oregon concert when the lightning and thunder peeled...

My favort book is only a click away
On a long trip up and down the west coast I picked this book up in a shabby bookstore in the hills of San Francisco on a lonely rainy night. It gave me a strange and warm comfort as I battled my way through the vicous rain for the last two weeks of my trip. The book is erre in ways I cannot explain, simply because you read it and understand it so well. Everything Duncan describes has been a part of all our lives somewhere, somehow. This book deeply moved me, and though I was mearly 16 on that rainy night I can never escape the vivid imagery of Duncan's voice.

Really deserves more than 5 stars!
If you laughed at the "River Why?" and cried over "The Brothers K" then you'll do much more with "River Teeth." You'll meet old friends and make new ones as well as learn who that wonderful writer, David Duncan, is. A truely wonderful book! ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Mentor, storyteller
Dr. Fremling, I will address this to you.You were graduate advisor to my dad, Glenn Jergens, when he earned his Master's degree.You were my most revered college professor many years later.Now I have my Master's and will teach biology when our son doesn't need me at home quite so much.Your influence on my dad, and on me, was profound.If I am half the teacher you were, much of the credit will be yours.I remember the slide-peppered lectures and the frequent field trips that made scientists of your students.I appreciate more than ever your gift for making learning so effortless because the teaching was so relevant and so rigorously planned.I have rated your book as worthy of five stars even before I've read it, as I suspect it will reflect this gift as well.I'm purchasing two copies, one for my brother and his wife, which will be passed around, I know, and one for my family.Thank you, Dr. Fremling, and congratulations.With all best wishes, Merri Beth Nord ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excellent look at early 20th century wilderness expeditions.
Patterson makes a 200 mile snowshoe trek in 50 below weather to pick up the mail seem like slightly unusual walk to the post office!

This is a Far North adventure you'll never forget!
"Dangerous River" is one of the finest Far North adventures ever written. R. M. Patterson and his partner Gordon Matthews were the last of a breed of men who tackled the Far North with nothing but stamina, courage, and consummate skill with rifle, pack and canoe. Trapping and searching for gold in the legendary South Nahanni River country in the 1920's, Patterson describes their adventures in language that makes the reader yearn to see one the premier rivers of the world. Patterson's style is laced with wonderfully dry British humor as well as a poet's skill in describing the breathtaking landscapes. You feel as though you're right beside him throughout his adventures and hungering to go there yourself. You can't ask more a writer and his book than that!

Exceptional wilderness story of gold-rush era Canada
This tale of wilderness adventure is set in the unexplored region of the South Nahanni river valley in the Nortwest Territories, Canada. It tells of unexplained deaths (the reason it was called Dead-Man's Valley), and the survival tactics and techniques of explorers during the gold-rush days of the area. Patterson spins the tale in a way which makes you feel the icy cold winters and the lavish and wildlife filled summers. His writings are non-fictional, and he includes maps and photographs taken while he was there. It is exciting, and laden with danger about the rapids, ice-flows, and Indian legends. I highly recommend it to anyone with a love of the outdoors, adventure, or wilderness history!

The Classic Canadian wilderness canoe adventure.
Paddling upstream through "Hells Gate" rapids and past 4000 feet canyons on the South Nahanni River in Canada's Northwest Territories in the 1920's before the advent of the bush plane was northern adventure at it's best. After reading the book, I took the canoe trip and the beauty of the scenery actually exceeded the best descriptive prose in the novel. Look up Black Feather outfitters in Toronto and sign up. Rob Evan ... Read more

Amazon.com

Less well known than the embattled Everglades, northern Florida's St. Johns River has long been subject to the same forces that have imperiled that vast wetland. "The St. Johns," writes naturalist Bill Belleville, "is surely one long and meandering palimpsest," a place that has been remade many times over as humans have sought to grow crops, raise livestock, and otherwise make the river bend to their will. With 3.5 million people now living in its broad valley, the St. Johns is coming under increased pressure to change, its dense forests cleared for shopping malls and housing developments.

The river harbors many secrets, and Belleville is only too happy to share them as he makes a case for why the river should be allowed to follow its own path. It is a place, he writes, of giant snails and nesting herons, a place of wild storms and suffocatingly hot days.And more: it is a place of rare qualities, one that deserves to be protected. The author writes approvingly of grassroots efforts to do just that. His book is a fine piece of advocacy journalism blended with memoir, as he recounts his long history kayaking and hiking the length of the St. Johns. In Belleville, the river has a gifted champion. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Book Description

Ideal for paddlers of all ages and abilities! Each water trail description highlights the wildlife, ecology, and landforms of the region, rewarding explorers with insights into the abundant natural wonders of this area.

Special features include: guided tours of the best quietwater, quickwater, and whitewater paddling in the western half of Massachusetts; Boot Prints - describes a scenic hiking trail or nature walk near a featured paddle. Great for those eager to explore on foot as well as by boat, this guide includes: trip highlights chart, locator map, special section on gear and safety, trip planning tips, detailed map, driving directions, access points, paddling distance, scenery, and special features for each trip. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Essential Guide for Michigan Waterfalls
I carry this book with me whenever I go into the U.P. I like to photograph the waterfalls of Michigan and this guide is constant travel companion. The book gives clear directions on how to get to each of the falls. The falls are broken down into the corresponding counties. Not only is this a unique guide it is a comprehensive guide to Michigan falls. The only minor enhancement that could be made to the book to make it even better is more photographs of the falls. However, the bit of mystery of what the falls will look also is a good motivation for exploring more and more. There are more to Michigan falls than Tahquamenon. I highly recommend Bond Falls. This book is the bible to exploring the falls.

Fantastic Book
I highly recommend this to anyone who's interested in waterfalls. The photography is very nice and the directions are clear and concise. My family and I visited twenty-four waterfalls so far this summer/fall in the Marquette area using this book.

Great Guide to Michigan Waterfalls
We recently took a vacation to the upper peninsula. On our way up there we stopped by a friends home who gave us the guide. We met the folks we were staying with in Munising,they said they loved to explore waterfalls, but were unable to find many just going on the directions from the locals. With this guide we were able to easily locate many falls, the directions are right on, down to the tenth of a mile. I would heartily recommend this guide to anyone wanting to explore Michigan's Waterfalls. We are buying this guide for our friends so that they can explore and know exactly where to find the falls.

A MUST FOR THE MICHIGAN WATERFALL ENTHUSIAST!
The Penrose family has gone far beyond the call of duty in providing this precise guide for the waterfall enthusiast! Directions to those hard to find falls make this growing Michigan past time fun and exciting. Can't wait for their next release! ... Read more

Book Description

"I once believed all those myths about Bambi. I saw the movie." Now a homeowner and a gardener, Adler has changed his tune. "Deer are a scourge. They invade our yards and eat our previous plants, shrubs, fruits, and vegetables." And the worst part is, they're nearly impossible to keep out of backyard gardens. As adaptable as squirrels, deer will jump fences, trample flowers, even enter your house--all in search of a good meal.

Adler offers over 100 truly ingenious methods for outwitting these voracious ungulates. With Outwitting Deer, you'll learn how to:

* Identify deer damage in your yard
* Make homeade repellents
* Buy commercial deterrents that really work
* Landscape your garden to repel deer by using plants they hate
* Protect yourself from Lyme disease and prevent deer/vehicle collissions
* Get involved with population management techniques such as birth control and authorized deer hunts
* Develop long-term, succcessful anti-deer stratagies and more!

Armed with Outwitting Deer, you will keep your gardens and shrubbery safe from these lovely by ravenous pests. A must for all vegetable and flower gardeners, suburban home owners, and anyone with a yard at stake.

Bill Adler Jr. is the author of Outwitting Critters and Outwitting Squirrels. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

This book got rid of my deer
I have read dozens of books on how to get rid of deer from your garden and found this one the most helpful and pleasurable to read. The author's sense of humor helps what would otherwise be a dry, boring subject. I found myself laughing and saying aloud, "Yes, he understands!"

Adler knows what a tremendous problem the overpopulation of deer has become in America, and he has gone to the best source for helping eradicate the problem in our own homes: REAL PEOPLE. I appreciated that Adler consulted with people who have tried and succeeded (or in some cases failed) to rid their yards and gardens of deer and shares with his readers how they did it.

In Maryland, where I live, we have a serious problem with deer, and I, too, was tired of wasting time and money feeding them with the best of what my garden had to offer. I employed several of Adler's suggestions and found my garden a lot more lush than ever before.

Adler hits his readers with a dose of common sense and compassion. He tells us to talk with our neighbors and try different plants to see if the specific deer in our area like to eat them or not. Deer can be as picky as your average four-year-old at the dinner table. The trick is to plant what those deer in your area will not eat.

Alder's extensive product list as well as contact information made work easy. All I had to do was pick a couple techniques I wanted to use and I was soon outsmarting these creatures.

As Adler says, no one technique will rid your homes of these ever-hungry deer, but with his helpful hints, homemade remedies, and deer-resistant plant list, I think anyone who seriously tries to outwit deer can do so with his book. I recommend buying his book today and reading it before you plant next year's spring garden.

Wonderfully helpful!
I love this book. When I bought Outwitting Deer I didn't really expect to find that much practical advice -- after all, there aren't that many things you can do to keep deer out of gardens. Or so I thought.

But I was pleasantly surprised. There is a wealth of valuable information in this book, including a lengthy list of deer-resistant plants. I also liked Adler's approach to investigating how deer are invading your garden, and using that information to outthink deer.

This book saved my garden!
I was at wit's end over deer intrusions when I got this book. It's just filled with practical advice, and fun to read, too! Unlike some other advice books, this one doesn't assume that all gardens and all gardeners are alike. There are lots of different approaches offered, and you can pick the one you think will work best for the type of garden you have created. Adler knows, too, there's no such thing as an absolutely deer-proof plant, because somewhere out there, there's a deer who will eat anything. But he definitely encouraged me to keep trying--and kept me laughing at the same time.

This book is long overdue - highly recommended
Yes, we all love Bambi, but sometimes deer can be a nuisance - eating our gardens, stomping our yards and scaring our dogs and cats. This book shows how to keep these pesky critters at bay. Offering well-researched and downright clever ploys, Outwitting Deer gives us tools and instructions to keep deer where they belong, in the woods. And there's a bonus: by keeping these wild animals in the wild and away from human habitat, they are less likely to be killed by cars and backyard hunters.

This Book Made Me Angry
When I started to read this book, I had very high hopes. Unfortunately, not only did it not meet my expectations, it made me rather angry.

The book starts out with a very fact filled, yet fun to read, discussion about deer. While the book didn't tell me much new, I felt comfortable that the author knew his subject matter, as what he was relaying I knew to be true. Unfortunately, when the book progressed to a discussion of deer resistant plants it lost credibility.

Providing a list of plants deer rarely eat that will be referenced by people throughout the United States and possibly the world is no trivial matter. Like people, deer in different regions of the world have different taste preferences. As such, I would expect such a list to contain only those plants that deer consistently tend not to eat anywhere. Plants that deer may or may not eat, depending on geography and other variables should be listed separately.

When I first saw how long the author's list of plants that deer rarely eat was, I immediately suspected something was wrong. If deer generally tended to stay away from so many plants, why was deer browsing becoming such a serious national problem? On closer scrutiny, I saw numerous plants that deer absolutely love to eat in much of the United States listed. For example, the author included the following deer delicacies in his list of plants deer rarely eat: tulips (Tulipa spp.), daylilys (Hemerocallis spp.), rose-of-sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), ivy (Hedera spp.) and plantain lily (Hosta sieboldiana).

To make matters worse, the author then cites another reference that recommends homeowners "plant a selection of deer pleasing greens around the perimeter of the garden". The intent here is that the deer will eat the plants they like and leave the rest of the garden alone. Unfortunately, most homeowners with a serious deer browsing problem know that unless you have several acres of land, planting things the deer actually like anywhere near your garden only serves to invite the deer into the garden, where they will promptly eat all but the things they absolutely hate. The author clearly states in his book, "An adult elk can eat up to thirty pounds of food daily, and a moose can eat up to fifty pounds." It is also well known and stated by the author that deer travel and live in herds. If the average homeowner with a serious deer browsing problem followed the author's advice, he or she would have to bring in truck loads of deer pleasing greens to insure the deer didn't mosey on over to the rest of the garden!

Given the growing magnitude of the deer browsing problem in the United States, it is rather disturbing to read such inappropriate advise. In addition to the millions of dollars of crops destroyed by deer each year, millions of homeowners have individually lost hundreds and thousands of dollars of landscaping. Some of these homeowners, in search of sound advise, will buy this book. While no one is perfect, it is irresponsible to sell such ill advised advise to the public. ... Read more

Book Description

In the first half of the nineteenth century, only a small handful of Westerners had ventured into the regions watered by the Nile River on its long journey from Lake Tana in Abyssinia to the Mediterranean-lands that had been forgotten since Roman times, or had never been known at all. In The Blue Nile, Alan Moorehead continues the classic, thrilling narration of adventure he began in The White Nile, depicting this exotic place through the lives of four explorers so daring they can be considered among the world's original adventurers -- each acting and reacting in separate expeditions against a bewildering background of slavery and massacre, political upheaval and all-out war.

Reviews (9)

The Blue Nile
This book and its companion book The White Nile are both some of the more enjoyable and interesting history books available. They will not disappoint anyone looking for an interesting story of equatorial exploration, in the days when the interior of African was still the "great unknown " to the world at large. One should read both the Blue and White Nile books by this author to really get a feel for the history that concentrates on the era of European involvemnt into the Nile area and of course the discovery of the source of the Nile. It also gives a good background into the roots of modern history of Egypt and Ethiopia with respect to the European powers in light of todays events.

Truly absorbing!
The Blue Nile and its companion, The White Nile are historical accounts with details that are almost beyond belief. Even as an avid reader of history and exploration, I was taken with accounts, that if presented as fiction, would be dismissed as too fantastic to be credible. The author's style is reminiscent of Daniel J. Boorstin and similarly readable. Details of the Marmelukes that ruled Egypt, and of the charismatic Islamic figure, The Mahdi, are only two of the portraits that will fascinate.

An interesting book
This book traces the history of the socalled 'Blue Nile' from the early 18th and 19th centuries forward (the 'Blue Nile' is the stretch of the Nile running from Etheopia to Alexandria). The book focuses on the exploration of the region as well as the wars, including that of Napoleon fighting the Mamelukes, and how he later was ousted by the English and the Turks. There are also many vivid and detailed descriptions of various tribes on the lower Nile, and, as always, Alan Moorehead has an instinct for colour, detail, and action. It is a worthy sequel to 'The White Nile', although it is understandably difficult to find the equals of such characters as Livingstone and Stanley who loomed large in the first book. Still it is well worth reading and superbly entertaining.

Excellent Reading and very informative.
I truely enjoyed this book as well as the companion book "The White Nile". I read this book while living in Nairobi, Kenya and found it enlightening to the politics of Colonial Africa.

Companion to WHITE NILE is readable but limited
After reading THE WHITE NILE, this companion book seems a bit rushed and not as well researched. Admittedly, there was more to-do over the While Nile than the Blue Nile, but the focus seems to veer from Napoleon to the Mamelukes to the Turks to the Ethiopians to the the Brits. I would have loved more history on Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Particularly the latter, whose people are both distinct and ancient, yet we hear more about the bloody Brits again. Basically, a good read, but just not enough. ... Read more

Book Description

This guide to one of the longest-settled and most enchanting estuaries in New England weds historical preservation to ecological stewardship. ... Read more

Book Description

The authors recount twelve millennia of history along the lower San Juan River, much of it the story of mostly unsuccessful human attempts to make a living from the river's arid and fickle environment.From the Anasazi to government dam builders, from Navajo to Mormon herders and farmers, from scientific explorers to busted miners, the San Juan has attracted more attention and fueled more hopes than such a remote, unpromising, and muddy stream would seem to merit. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A succinct environmental history of the Lower San Juan river
James Aton and Robert McPherson successfully collaborate to present a succinct environmental history of the Lower San Juan river in River Flowing From The Sunrise. Profusely illustrated throughout with period photos, this seminal survey ranges from the Clovis Hunters and Corn Farmers of prehistory, to views of the region as "sacred land" by Navajos, Paiutes, and Utes. River Flowing From The Sunrise presents a fascinating and informative history of exploration and geological science defining the river; and presents chapters dedicated to livestock, agriculture, city building, mining, the impact of the federal government with dams and river wildlife; and the role of local and national values with respect to the San Juan's symbolisms and realities. River Flowing From The Sunrise concludes with a superb epilogue "Visions: Flowing from the Sunrise or a Water Spigot?". The highly recommended, accessible, reader friendly text is enhanced with notes, a bibliography, and an index. River Flowing From The Sunrise could well serve as a template for similar environmental histories of other major and minor rivers elsewhere in the country. ... Read more