Product Description
First published in 1987, Ralph W. Tiner s A Field Guide to Coastal Wetland Plants of
the Northeastern United States soon established itself as the definitive work on its subject. Now Tiner has prepared a revised and expanded edition, broadening the coverage both botanically and geographically. It emphasizes plant identification and includes descriptions of over 700 species and illustrations of approximately 550 species. More tidal wetland types are covered (beaches, rocky shores, and tidal swamps) and the geographic scope extends as far north as Canada s Maritime Provinces. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Enjoyable Excursion to the Wetlands of the Chesapeake Bay
I would recommend Days Afield to anyone interested in the natural environment, and especially students and educators studying the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay region.The text is easy to read and follow, and personalizes the author's scientific endeavors in the region, as an employee first of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, then later the EPA, as an instructor for the USDA's Graduate School, and also as a concerned citizen and dedicated naturalist.

In Chapter 1, the author assumes the role of instructor, and takes the reader on a composite of one of his many overnight field trips down the Delmarva peninsula.The reader follows along as the trip begins in the freshwater marshes of the Choptank River in Maryland, moves on to Watts Creek in Delaware, then returns to the deciduous swamps of the Nanticoke River in Maryland.On day two, the trip moves to the marshes of Chincoteague in Virginia, onward to the Assateague impoundments and wash flats, and concludes with the dunes, beach, and ocean.

The remaining chapters detail the natural environment of freshwater, brackish, and salt marshes; the Pocomoke and Nanticoke Rivers; Delmarva potholes; and several Western Shore streams.The book also incorporates a fair amount of botanical exploits, some in the form of excerpts from the author's nature journals, which will be enjoyed by anyone with such interests.

The valuable scientific information contained in this book is conveyed in a reader-friendly manner.The language is very descriptive, enabling one to visualize while reading.The book also contains a number of personal anecdotes that make the text fun to read.

The many lists and tables throughout the text, as well as the comprehensive "Literature Cited" section and detailed indexes of plant and animal scientific and common names that appear at the end of the book should be especially useful to the scientific-minded and studious. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful pictorial study of this beautiful coastal area.
This is a wonderful pictorial of this fascinating and rich landscape. The photography perfectly captures the natural beauty and history of the South carolina coast. ... Read more

Product Description
72 drawings *
5 x 8 *
* Unique ecologically-based field guide
* Waterfowl, rails, hawks, herons, finches, and more

Praise for Eastman's Birds of Forest, Yard, and Thicket:

"Presented in a readable, easy to follow narrative...a well-researched look at the birds and their lives."--Eirik Blom, Bird Watcher's Digest

Birds of Lake, Pond and Marsh describes how 39 common water and wetland birds nest, mate, and rear their broods in spring; how they feed in summer; whether, how, and where they migrate in fall; and how they survive in winter. This seasonal approach, together with an emphasis on ecological niches, distinguishes Eastman's book from other field guides.Precise illustration complements informative text, making "Birds of Lake, Pond and Marsh" an appealing and educational guide for birders of any skill level. Entries are arranged in the new taxonomic order based on DNA testing; selected bibliography and index are included.

John Eastman is author of The Book of Forest and Thicket, The Book of Swamp and Bog, and Birds of Forest, Yard, and Thicket. He lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Illustrator Amelia Hansen lives in Asheville, North Carolina. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Takes up where the field guides leave off
Field guides are great for helping you identify the bird you just scoped, but once you want to learn more about the birds you've been seeing the field guides aren't of much use. This book covers a limited number of birds, but the information provided is excellent. He covers the life history of the birds, including a season by season account of the typical year in the bird's life. Mating habits, habitat preferences, and threats to their enviroment are some of the topics covered.In general, there are 3-5 pages devoted to each species.The illustrations are black and white, but are well done. ... Read more

Product Description
Located at the narrow end of the funnel-shaped Mississippi flyway zone, south Louisiana serves as a seasonal stopover for wintering birds from all across North America as well as for some neotropical birds from Central America. Many other bird species make the region their permanent home. For more than fifty years Charlie Hohorst, an avid outdoorsman, hunted ducks in the marshes of south Louisiana. Now he shoots waterfowl with his camera, and his passion extends to all birds living in or passing through the state's wetland areas. Wings of Paradise, the first book of Hohorst's breathtaking photography, demonstrates the attributes that served him well as a hunter--an exceptional eye, focus, keen observation, manual dexterity, patience, a sense of oneness with the outdoors.

Brilliant color and clarity, as well as variety and movement, define Hohorst's photographs. Organized by type as shorebirds, raptors, woodland songbirds, and migratory ducks and geese, his images display dozens of different species engaged in their many and fascinating activities: swooping, skimming, plunging, meandering, soaring, pausing, preening, nesting, romancing, arguing, catching prey, drying their wings, and more. Hohorst captures individual features in remarkable detail, and his commentary shows an intimate familiarity with his subjects.

Following Hohorst's photographic feast for the eyes, noted food writer Marcelle Bienvenu reflects on south Louisiana's cherished hunting rituals and shares twenty-four favorite duck and goose recipes from the area. From close-ups to panoramic scenes, Wings of Paradise provides a visual delight for families, birders, naturalists, conservationists, sportsmen, and all who appreciate the natural beauty of south Louisiana.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Awesome!
This is a lovely book.The photography is great!I certainly would recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description

    After the deaths of her father and father-in-law, Laurie Lawlor discovers an unlikely place for healing and transformation in a wetland in southeastern Wisconsin—a landscape of abundant and sometimes inaccessible beauty that has often been ignored, misunderstood, and threatened by human destruction. In her decade-long personal wetland journey, she examines the sky, delves underwater, and peers between sedges in all seasons and all times of day.
    This Tender Place is a celebration of nature, the elements, and humanity. From the wetland’s genesis during the ice age to its survival in the twenty-first century, Lawlor chronicles the universal ties among people, wild places, and healthy wetlands.

Product Description

The geologically ancient Tidewater region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina rests precariously atop millions of years of erosion from the nearby Appalachian Mountains. An immense wetland at near sea level, it is host to every conceivable body of fresh water, ranging from brooding swamps and large hidden lakes to sluggish blackwater rivers and brackish sounds (one of which was so large an early explorer thought he had found the Pacific Ocean). In this engaging book, biologist and Tidewater native Roy T. Sawyer delivers an ecohistory of this unique waterland whose wind-driven tides cover a rich human and natural past.

Jutting prominently into the Atlantic, this wetland is the final stop for the warmth of the Gulf Stream before it is deflected from the American mainland. At the top of a narrow, warm coastal strip, it provides an ideal home for a vast array of animal and plant life, including prodigious numbers of reptiles (such as the world's northernmost population of alligators) and overwintering waterfowl. It is also home to the oldest known living trees east of the Rocky Mountains. The climate and geography made the area a natural choice for very early human habitation--as far back as the last ice age, when the region was a rich oasis just south of a veritable tundra.

In examining the impact of humans upon this environment, and vice-versa, Sawyer reveals how our alarming shortsightedness has produced a fragile and endangered present. Although human manipulation started here as early as ten thousand years ago (coinciding with extinction of mammoths and other megafauna), the environment has been altered most radically over only the last one hundred years, particularly in regard to land drainage, deforestation, overfishing, and pollution.

The author provides an authoritative overview of the human impact on these wetlands and suggests ways in which we might still salvage them. In so doing, he explores the effects of hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and ice ages of the past--and anticipates, in this age of global warming, natural events that may be still to come.

Customer Reviews (1)

Unique perspective on plants
More than a identification guide, this steel-spiral bound book explores how plants fit into the daily life of wetlands. Covering an area generallyfrom Canada to Florida, between the Missisippi and East coast, it describeshow plants interact with insects, mammals, reptiles, people, and so on. Itis not a complete flora, but it was not meant to be. The entries read likenature center or museum displays; plain English, but still with enoughtechnical features to make a confident ID. The book includes a glossary,species list for interacting organisms, and field forms to recordobservations on specific plants. 394 pages. ... Read more

Product Description
Ecosystem services can be broadly defined as the aspects of ecosystems that provide benefits to people. The aim of this book is to provide guidance on the valuation of ecosystem services, using the case of multi-functional wetlands to illustrate and make recommendations regarding the methods and techniques that can be applied to appraise management options. It provides a review of ecosystem service valuation rationale, including its importance from both a policy and project appraisal perspective, and a useful reference when considering policy and appraisal of ecosystem management options. It shows how legal obligations and other high-level management targets should be taken into account in valuation exercises, thus giving important policy context to the management options. The authors argue that it is not only ecosystems themselves that should be valued but also the goods and services provided, which affect human welfare. They build upon the idea of ecosystem services as the aspects of ecosystems consumed or utilized to produce human well-being, thus including ecosystem organization (structure), operation (process) and outflows. They set out what they call an Ecosystem Services Approach to the full appraisal of the role of ecosystem services in the economy and society. Although concentrating on wetlands, the approaches suggested provide an assessment framework, which can be applied, to other types of ecosystem assets. ... Read more

Product Description
With The Nature of North Carolina's Southern Coast, Dirk Frankenberg's effort to provide a comprehensive field guide to the state's dynamic shoreline is complete. Picking up where his 1995 book The Nature of the Outer Banks left off, this book covers the coastal region from Ocracoke Inlet to the South Carolina border. Along the way, it provides a close-up look at the area's natural environment, highlighting the processes that have shaped, and continue to shape, North Carolina's southern coast.

The book guides the reader to more than fifty different natural areas—including barrier islands, coastal waters, estuaries, wetlands, and forests—that have been preserved along 180 miles of coastline. Drawings, maps, and photographs amplify the text, aid in identifying common plants, and illustrate the local natural communities. In a final section, the author explores the effects of human land use on coastal areas, calling attention to a number of current environmental threats and discussing ways in which these issues might be addressed. Informative and useful, this book will aid and encourage the responsible exploration and enjoyment of North Carolina's coastal environment. ... Read more

Product Description
Louisiana's Chenier Plain is a 2,200-square-mile region of marshes and oak-covered ridges (cheniers) that stretches along the Gulf of Mexico from Sabine Lake to Vermilion Bay. Its inhabitants, some 6,000 people of Cajun and other ancestries, retain strong economic and cultural ties to the land and its teeming wildlife. They call it paradise . . . but it is a vulnerable paradise. In this multifaceted study, Gay Gomez explores the interaction of the land, people, and wildlife of the Chenier Plain, revealing both the uniqueness of the region and the challenges it faces. After describing the geography and history of the Chenier Plain, Gomez turns to the lifeways of its people. Drawing on their words and stories, she tells how the chenier dwellers combine modern occupations with traditional pursuits such as alligator and waterfowl hunting, fur trapping, and fishing. She shows how these traditions of wildlife use provide both economic incentives for conservation and a source of personal and place identity. This portrait of a "working wetland" reveals how wildlife use and appreciation can give rise to a stewardship that balances biological, economic, and cultural concerns in species and habitat protection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book!
I live in Creole, LA. and to read this book was a great experience. I would recomemend this book.It explains how we live our lives down in Creole,LA. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1972, this classic weighs in at1,777 pages and 789 pages of line drawings.

The primary aim of Aquatic and Wetland Plants of the Southwestern United States by Donovan S. and Helen B. Correll is to enable the identification of fern and flowering plans in polluted and non-polluted aquatic and wetland habitats of the Southwestern United States (Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona).The basic requirement for inclusion was a plants ability to withstand a permanent or seasonally long submersion of at least its root system. In addition, plants classified as phreatophytes, or those plants whose deeply penetrating roots tap the groundwater, are included. ... Read more

Product Description

Marine, coastal and wetland habitats are threatened, through exploitation, and also by climate change, as ocean currents change course, sea levels rise, and rainfall patterns change. This book gathers papers on the biodiversity conservation of these increasingly threatened habitats. The papers provide a snapshot of the problems they face, and offer numerous examples which render this volume valuable to educators in marine, freshwater and wetlands ecology, conservation and ecological restoration.

Product Description
Birds that walk underwater.Slugs that mate while suspended in midair.Frogs who star on Hollywood soundtracks.The Pacific Northwest abounds in natural wonders, and here are field guides as interesting as the world they describe.Filled with both amazing and amusing true-life tales about Northwest plants and animals, this new series of uncommon field guides will appeal to the casual observer and the avid naturalist alike.Each of these illustrated books describes more than sixty plants, animals, and natural phenomena of a particular Northwest habitat.Author Patricia Lichen combines standard field guide information about habitat, appearance, and range with delightful and engaging descriptions of the little-known facts, surprising details, and amusing-- even bizarre-- tidbits rarely found in ordinary field guides.Discover how amazing the Northwest natural world really is with these uncommon field guides. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Uncommonly delightful
"Brittle Stars..." was the first of Lichen's"Uncommon Field Guide" series I discovered.They are all uncommonly delightful to poke into.One can read them chapter-by-chapter or just open the book anywhere and delve in. I picked up this one to add to my school's marine biology collection.After scanning it, I bought a second copy for myself.After reading part of it, I ordered the other two books in the series.Recently I showed one of the guides to a friend who is a lifelong outdoorsman.He immediately purchased a set for himself.She gives the reader the sort of understanding about nature one usually only finds in going on a field tour with a great guide.My only complaint is that there is not one of Feltner's lovely detailed illustrations with every single chapter.

This is interesting stuff!!
What could have been a very dry, factual book about marine life turned out to be a book filled with interesting info about northwest marine life and a writing style that isn't just data. I bought the book to use with teenagers and, because of their great interest in anything sexual, I told them, tongue in cheek, the first chapter they should read is the one about dragonflies and damsels. LOL It was hilarious. This is the number one book of interest about local marine life as far as I'm concerned.

Truly an Uncommon Field Guide
Patricia Lichen's Brittle Stars & Mudbugs truly is an uncommon field guide. Newly relocated to the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound area I have half-filled a bookshelf with the more traditional field guide. Those, with their high quality photos or detailed drawings, I use to key out the fine distinctions between hard to discern animals and plants.

When I want pure enjoyment exploring Puget Sound's natural environs I bring out Lichen's book.Her conversational writing style and twinkle-in-the-eye wit along with her obvious love for her subject matter breath life into whatever she describes. Linda Feltner's illustrations are ideally suited for this book and enhance the pleasurable reading.As soon as I finish writing this review I am ordering her two other books on the Northwest.

A delightful, personal introduction to the NW shore life
This delightful little book is an absolute pleasure to read. It fits nicely in the hand, the pages are easy to read, and the illustrations are gentle and lovingly drawn. The author tells you stories about these animals, plants and algae the way she would if you were walking with her along the beach and came across each specimin. It's not ordered by phylum or habitat, but apparently randomly, which ensures that you won't tire of reading all about fish, but instead will move quickly to birds and seaweed and echinoderms and back.

I live on the beach, and volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium, and these stories help me tell compelling stories to audiences and friends of all ages. They bring the funny objects you see on the beach to life, and make each animal or plant that you see seem a friend, a neighbor, someone whose life you care about. This should slow your steps on the beach, so that you will see the life around you more clearly, and should increase your commitment to conservation and cleanup. It's tough to abuse a neighborhood that you care about, and Patricia and Linda bring these organisms close to you so that you will care about them.

As an earlier reviewer pointed out, this is not a field guide that will help you identify what you see -- it is one that will help you understand what you see, and that's what makes it uncommon and (in my opinion) so very special.

Thanks to the author and illustrator for such a magnificent addition to my library of field guides and books on biology. This one is a treasure.

Field Guides need illustrations for ALL the animals/plants!
I bought two of the books in the 3 book series. The writing is excellent, however, what good is a "field guide" if illustrations are not included for all of the featured plants and animals? If the publisher is ever going to consider a new edition, perhaps this could be taken into consideration.I will keep these books, however still look for a "Field Guide" that offers more reference material. ... Read more

Product Description
New information on managing forested wetlands is often developed in isolation of other activities occurring in the region. Although many excellent texts exist on the ecology of southern forested wetlands none present both the ecological and management aspects of these important ecosystems. Compiled by members of the Consortium for Research on Southern Forested Wetlands, this book includes contributions from many experts in the field. It is a collaboration of those working to conserve, study, and manage these economically and environmentally influential areas.Southern Forested Wetlands: Ecology and Management is a textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students as well as a first-rate reference for scientists and managers. ... Read more

Product Description
Salt water is inundating coastal Louisiana, transforming precious wetlands into backwaters of the Gulf of Mexico. Science may hold the key to reversing the problem. But what will the cost be? And will the plan work? These are the quandaries reported in Saving Louisiana? The Battle for Coastal Wetlands.

In what is unquestionably the most ambitious ecosystem management and restoration program ever proposed, calls have been made to save the Louisiana coast, with a price tag of fourteen billion dollars. And how can science contribute to the rescue?

From the Mississippi River's Old River Control Structure to the pipeline canals of the Gulf's oil fields to the capitol in Baton Rouge, Saving Louisiana? follows scientists, conservationists, and politicians, as they persistently ask the same question: Can Louisiana's coastline be saved? For some experts, technical uncertainty impedes progress. For others, bureaucracy and special interests block what they see as the right path. Still others believe that the real challenge lies in determining what society really wants, so that ecosystem restoration becomes a balance of dollars against choices.

Saving Louisiana? builds a story of doubt and discord that captures the technical and human drama of ecosystem restoration and management. Anyone intrigued by the big ecosystem restoration projects underway in the Florida Everglades, the Chesapeake Bay, the Puget Sound, and elsewhere will find this account of Louisiana's morass compelling and cautionary. ... Read more