Displaying the top 100 results that match your query. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/rssapi.jsp?Ne=6642&N=3+5525+4294963660 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1713925 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1674810 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1660555 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1536761 Frozen Planet captures extraordinary views of vast frozen landscapes and animal behavior impossible to see from the ground, including the remote interior of the Antarctic continent and the migration of whales to the polar regions. The Frozen Planet team also takes us under the ice, into the heart of glaciers and inside volcanic ice-crystal caves.--P. [2] of jacket. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1681742 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1306272 Pioneering a new niche in the study of plants and animals in their natural habitat, this book allows readers to peer over the shoulders and into the notebooks of a dozen eminent field workers, to study firsthand their observational methods, materials, and fleeting impressions. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1277824 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1204139 Bird Cloud is the name the author gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and four hundred foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. She also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She fell in love with the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she wanted to build on it, a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character, a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen. Her first work of nonfiction in more than twenty years, this book is the story of designing and constructing that house, with its solar panels, Japanese soak tub, concrete floor and elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets. It is also an enthralling natural history and archaeology of the region, inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians, and a family history, going back to nineteenth century Mississippi riverboat captains and Canadian settlers. The author here turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1210554 Highlighting the serene Wyoming landscape and its rich heritage, Annie Proulx, author of The shipping news, chronicles living in the Cowboy State. Bird Cloud is the name Proulx gave to the 640-acre land she fell in love with on her first visit. This work of nonfiction follows Proulx as she builds a house (essentially a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen) from the ground up. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1277572 While other books play the blame game of what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon and who is responsible, Shadows on the Gulf offers a surprising, harder truth: As bad as the oil spill was, it doesnt touch the damage done to the Gulf every year by what one expert in the book calls a 100-year catastrophe.Readers who believe they know the story will find their thinking changed by Rowan Jacobsens surprising perspective: At the height of BPs dispersant madness, the amount sprayed each day merely equaled the amount of dispersant that washes down the Mississippi from the Heartlands dishwashers and washing machines. The Gulfs shrimpers have damaged the regions ecology as much as BP has. The acres of marsh destroyed by oil slicks cant compare to the amount that disappears in every hurricane, thanks to the work of the Army Corp of Engineers. And even if we save every mile of beach and wetland from the oil spill, the entire Mississippi Delta will still be lost in the next forty years, and New Orleans will sink beneath the waves, an American Atlantis. Shadows on the Gulf reveals the key players in this catastrophe and explains why it will affect quality of life for us all. In doing so, it celebrates the little-recognized global wonder in our backyard. Not only are the Gulfs wetlands the best oyster reefs and fish nurseries in the world, they also provide critical habitat to most of Americas migratory songbirds and waterfowl, as well as a home base for the energy and shipping industries. If the Gulf is allowed to fail, the effects will ripple across America. And fail it will, unless a national effort is made to save it--Provided by publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1262773 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1129545 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1170195 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1150069 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1148832 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1195605 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1003862 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1007407 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=996056 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1295259 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=997132 Author Basss account of life in Montanas Yaak Valley is a crowning achievement in his career. It begins with his family settling in for the long Montana winter, and captures all the harbingers of change that mark each passing month--the initial cruel teasing of spring, the splendor and fecundity of summer, and the bittersweet memories evoked by fall. It is full of rich observation about what it takes to live in the valley--ruggedness, improvisation and, of course, duct tape. Bass emerges not just as a writer but as a father, a neighbor, and a gifted observer, uniquely able to bring us close to the drama and sanctity of small things, ensuring that though the wilderness is increasingly at risk, the voice of the wilderness will not disappear.--From publisher description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1043569 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1007683 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1135657 Remote and difficult to access, Desolation has a surprisingly lively history. Cattle and sheep herding, moonshine, prospecting, and hideaways brought a surprising number of settlers--ranchers, outlaws, and recluses--to the canyon. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=720741 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=725577 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=744029 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=724150 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=660613 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=624963 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=630338 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=661863 There is nothing out there. Such is the claim, at least, of politicians and oil company executives, amazed that anyone would fight to protect the miles of plateaus and canyon bottoms that stretch across southern Utah. Even tourists see this region as an empty spot on the map - an excuse to drive directly from Capitol Reef to Arches National Park. But it is precisely this - nothing - that writer Brooke Williams and photographer Chris Noble find captivating about Escalante. In this thoughtful and exquisitely illustrated rumination, the authors tour the intricate network of chasms and gorges that began forming millions of years ago on the Colorado Plateau and today constitute a desert paradise of mesas, buttes, and boundless solitude. At the center of this landscape is the region known as Escalante, 1.7 million mostly roadless acres, where silence, darkness, and emptiness have no intrusions. Part narrative, part poetry, and part meditation, this book charts the quiet places where the human spirit delights in solitude. It reminds us of our intimate connection with the wild and of the landscapes powerful pulse even when there is nothing to be found.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=610700 First published in 1988, Islands in a Far Sea offers a comprehensive environmental history of Hawaii. This thoroughly revised edition begins with an up-to-date account of the geological formation and shaping of the Islands, their colonization by plants and animals, and the patterns of ecology and evolution that unfolded in nurturing seas and on breathtaking landscapes. This book tells the story of human interaction with Hawaii native landscapes and rich biological heritage. The authors accessible language allows readers to grasp basic geological and biological principles and to understand the perhaps surprising vulnerability of Hawaiian ecosystems - which have coevolved with volcanoes - to human impact. Islands in a Far Sea includes many well-documented historical examples of such impacts, featuring growth and greed, fears and foibles as humans confronted endemic nature in Hawaii. Citing a large array of sources, the author makes it possible for interested readers to probe more deeply the changes in natural systems that have ensued on all of the Hawaiian Islands. To date the result has been the tragic reduction of a unique and benign biota. However, the book holds out hope that current efforts to protect what is left of Hawaiis flora and fauna in their remaining wild settings may yet succeed.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=653226 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=613909 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=655297 Charles Bowden has been an outspoken advocate for the desert Southwest since the 1970s. Recently his activism helped persuade the U.S. government to create the Sonoran Desert National Monument in southern Arizona. But in working for environmental preservation, Bowden refuses to be one who outline[s] something straightforward, a manifesto with clear rules and a set of plans for others to follow. In this deeply personal book, he brings the Sonoran Desert alive, not as a place where well-meaning people can go to enjoy nature, but as a raw reality that defies bureaucratic and even literary attempts to define it, that can only be experienced through the senses. Inferno burns with Charles Bowdens passion for the desert he calls home. His vivid descriptions, complemented by Michael Bermans acutely observed photographs of the Sonoran Desert, make readers feel the heat and smell the dryness, see the colors in earth and sky, and hear the singing of dry bones across the parched ground. Written as an antibiotic during the time Bowden was lobbying the government to create the Sonoran Desert National Monument, Inferno repudiates both the propaganda and the lyricism of contemporary nature writing. Instead, it persuades us that we need these places not to remember our better selves or our natural self or our spiritual self. We need these places to taste what we fear and devour what we are. We need these places to be animals because unless we are animals we are nothing at all. That is the price of being a civilized dude.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=593412 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=653222 Discovering Natural Processes illustrates beauty through elegant photographic imagery that depicts natural processes and their products. Although the photographs and captions can stand alone, apart from the text, readers are encouraged to ask and answer questions about natural processes by interpreting the images, For this book, readers need only their personal experience, in whatever field. A brief introduction to each section provides non-technical support for unfamiliar topics.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=610089 Jonathan Waterman blends historical narrative with tales of his journeys into the Arctic wilderness, creating a tension between past and present, science and politics, reflection and investigation. Since 1983 he has taken eighteen trips to the far North, and spent over two hundred days in and around the embattled refuge. While paddling or trekking cross-country, Waterman encounters howling wolves, British Petroleum workers, Inupiat hunters, and the oil-ravaged Prince William Sound. Where Mountains are Nameless explores how the hunt for oil has choked Alaskas pristine wilderness and also traces the lives of the celebrated Muries, who spearheaded the establishment of the original wildlife range. This portrait makes the stakes over the refuge vividly clear.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=605745 The publication of The Colorado Plateau: Cultural, Biological, and Physical Research in 2004 marked a timely summation of current research in the Four Corners states. This new volume, derived from the seventh Biennial Conference on the Colorado Plateau in 2003, complements the previous book by again focusing on the integration of science into resource management issues. The 32 chapters range in content from measuring human impacts on cultural resources, through grazing and the wildland-urban interface issues, to parameters of climate change on the Plateau. The book also introduces economic perspectives by considering shifting human population patterns and regional disparities in the Colorado Plateau economy.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=594588 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=684049 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=527754 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=653291 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=624938 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=606541 In 1953, birding guru Roger Tory Peterson and noted British naturalist James Fisher set out on what became a legendary journey - a one-hundred-day trek covering thirty thousand miles around North America. They traveled from Newfoundland to Florida, deep into the heart of Mexico, up through the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest, and finally across Alaska to the Pribilof Islands. Two years later, Wild America, their classic account of the trip, was published. On the eve of that books fiftieth anniversary, the naturalist Scott Weidensaul retraces Peterson and Fishers steps to tell the story of wild America today. How has the continents natural landscape changed over the past fifty years? How have its wildlife and wild lands fared through decades that saw both the rise of the modern environmental movement and extraordinary human pressures? And what does the future hold? The journey finds changes both tragic and unexpectedly hopeful, taking Weidensaul from the coastal communities of Newfoundland, where tourism, not cod, now drives the economy; through the Northeast, where wildlife is returning to the most urban environments; to Florida, where he mourns the languishing Everglades even as parts of the state recover their ancient wilderness character. He travels to the tropical highlands of Mexico, where local conservationists are saving one of the richest ecosystems in the world, and into the Northwest, where Americans are grappling with how to manage fire, water, and timber for people and wildlife. Perhaps most surprising of all, Weidensaul finds that much of what Peterson and Fisher celebrated remains vibrant and unsullied fifty years on - the beating heart of a still-wild continent. Poised to become a classic in its own right, Return to Wild America is a sweeping survey of the natural soul of North America today.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=569454 Packing an off-kilter sense of humor and keen scientific minds, authors Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson take off with renowned artist Alexis Rockman on a postmodern safari. Their mission? Tracking down the elusive Tasmanian tiger. This mysterious, striped predator was once the worlds largest carnivorous marsupial. It had a pouch like a kangaroo and a jaw that opened impossibly wide to reveal terrifying choppers. Tragically, this rare and powerful animal was hunted into extinction in the early part of the twentieth century. Or was it? Journeying first to the Australian mainland and then south to the wild island of Tasmania, these young naturalists brave a series of bizarre misadventures and uproarious wildlife encounters in their obsessive search for this long-lost beast. Filled with Alexis Rockmans drawings of flora and fauna - originally made from soil, wombat scat, and a drop or two of the artists own blood - Carnivorous Nights is a hip and hilarious account of an unhinged safari, as well as a portrayal of a wildly unique part of the world.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=548266 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=563869 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=744889 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=521183 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=425904 In the pages of The New Yorker, Harpers, the New York Times, and his books Making Hay and The Last Fine Time, Verlyn Klinkenborg has mastered a voice of singular lyricism and precision. His subject is the American landscape: not the landscape admired from a scenic overlook, but one taken in from a rusty chair propped against the worn siding of a screened-in porch, or from the window of a pickup driving down an empty highway into the teeth of an approaching storm. He has a keen appreciation of the peculiarly American tableau - a Memorial Day parade, or a boy riding a bike down the middle of a dusty street. Whether reporting from a small farm in upstate New York, a high pasture deep within the Rocky Mountains, or the bricked edge of a city shuddering in the wake of a sudden Tuesday, Klinkenborg follows the momentum of the seasons in a language as simple, unsentimental, and exacting as life itself.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=443077 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1423498 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=453469 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=518101 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=425732 The companion book to the six-part Discovery Channel series, Weird Nature is an astonishing exploration of natures strangest behaviors. 150+ color photos. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=511287 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=425956 This history records the lives, adventures, and discoveries of pioneering American naturalists and conservationists -- including Lewis and Clark, Thomas Say, Martha Maxwell, John James Audubon, and John Muir -- who wandered purposefully through the fresh American wilderness with pen and ink in hand to sketch and to write about the natural wonders that they encountered. Early American Naturalists offers a gripping celebration of these unique and eloquent trailblazers as they boldly navigate and document the then-untrammeled and awe-inspiring frontier west of the Mississippi. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=425994 If you traveled across the United States from Boston to San Diego, you still wouldnt have crossed the Sahara, write de Villiers and Hirtle, painting a vivid picture of this most extraordinary place. They chart the genesis and course of Atlantic hurricanes, many of which are born in the Tibesti mountains of northern Chad, showing that the Sahara, which has a strong influence on weather patterns the world over, is much closer than it seems. They offer a description of the physics of windblown sand and the formation of dunes and describe in detail the massive aquifers that lie beneath the desert, some filled with water that predates the appearance of humankind on Earth. They marvel at the jagged mountains and at ancient cave paintings deep in the desert that reveal the Sahara was a verdant grassland 10,000 years ago; whats more, this cycle has been repeated several times, and may well repeat again.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=383447 The natural history museum is a place where the line between high and low culture effectively vanishes - where our awe of nature, our taste for the bizarre, and our thirst for knowledge all blend happily together. But as Stephen Asma shows in Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads, there is more going on is these great institutions than just smart fun. Asma takes us on a wide-ranging tour of natural history museums in New York and Chicago, London and Paris, interviewing curators, scientists, and exhibit designers, and providing a wealth of fascinating observations. We learn how the first museums were little more than high-toned side shows, with such garish exhibits as the pickled head of Peter the Greats lover. In contrast, todays museums are hot-beds of serious science, funding major research in such fields as anthropology and archaeology. Asma also points out that these museums actively shape our perception of nature, and that these efforts are swayed as much by politics as by science. In countless exhibits, for instance, the idea of the traditional human and nuclear family is evident in displays of everything from extinct animals to grizzly bears (in nature, alas, the male bear is more likely to devour its young than to nurture them). Where else but at a natural history museum could you find a T. rex, a high-tech planetarium, a Native American totem pole, and flesh-eating beetles - all under one roof. And in Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads, Stephen Asma reveals that what we dont see - the scientific research that is going on backstage - is just as fascinating as the exhibits on display.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=375779 The Southwest Inside Out is a fact-packed and visually compelling guide to a region where awe-inspiring landscapes abound. Travel back through geologic time to see how the inexorable forces of nature have shaped the land and its inhabitants. Discover where earthly colors and textures come from, which volcanoes are potentially dangerous, what makes the Grand Canyon grand, and what draws millions of birds to the desert Southwest every year. An annotated list of more than one hundred parks, monuments, and scenic attractions is included. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=502293 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=376141 Sun-spangled coral reefs and stark desert canyons. Luxuriant green hillsides and cascading rivers. Hyenas and wolves, otters and ostriches, parrotfish and turtledoves. Pistacias, acacias, date palms, orchids... Israel boasts a natural diversity that rivals most places on Earth. In Discovering Natural Israel, award-winning nature writer Michal Strutin takes us on a journey through a land where three continents meet, where natural and human history intertwine in often surprising ways. With our spirited guide, we embark on a four-day camel expedition into the heart of the Eilat Mountains, to the ancient copper mines of Timna. We stand enchanted before the shimmering waterfalls of Ein Gedi, where King David once wrote psalms and where visitors now gather to watch ibex and hyrax leap among the cliffs. Together, we climb Israels northern hills, quilted in spring with the pinks, purples, and blues of anemones, iris, and cyclamen. And at the base of the dazzling chalk-white cliffs of Rosh ha-Niqrah, we explore exquisite grottoes carved by the crashing waves of the azure Mediterranean. Artfully weaving together ancient history and lore with tales of modern adventure, Michal reveals how the land and people of Israel have changed over the millennia. As we pass gnarled oaks clinging to the sides of forested slopes, giant papyri swaying over cool waters, and brittle artemisias blooming in the desert, she sheds light on the natural wonders of the land where Abraham dwelled among broad pistacia groves and where Elijah, fleeing Queen Jezebel, sought succor under a broom bush. Today, white-blossomed broom anchors canyon floors where hikers wind past pools and caves used by the ancients. Brimming with passion, intelligence, humor, and grace, Discovering Natural Israel is Michal Strutins testament to a land where nature and people have interacted since the dawn of civilization. It is an eloquent tribute to a beauteous land whose geography is inscribed upon her heart.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=373289 It is a simple equation, writes Terry Tempest Williams, place + people = politics. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the American West, where millions of acres of wilderness are at stake in the redrock desert of southern Utah. How are we to find our way toward conversation? she asks. One story at a time. Red traces Williamss lifelong love of and commitment to the desert, as she explores what draws us to a place and keeps us there. It brings together the lyrical evocations of Coyotes Canyon and Desert Quartet with new essays of great power and originality, essays that range from a family discussion on the desert tortoise to an investigation of slowness to startling encounters with Anasazi artifacts (including a ceremonial sash made of scarlet macaw feathers).--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1047324 This book is an account of the history, ecology, and mystique of the arctic region. The author offers a thorough examination of this obscure world, its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires, and dreams. Its prose as hauntingly pure as the land it describes, and is nothing less than an indelible classic of modern literature. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=511291 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=290659 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=374722 A comprehensive guide to the plants, animals, and geology in southern Utah and the adjacent states. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=295426 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=285945 With eight published titles and two new fall books produced in just two short years, it is easy to see why this successful series was named June 1998s book-of-the-month by Travel & Leisure Magazine. Each book features the best the mountains have to offer in a comprehensive, yet concise, format. The reader is introduced to the natural history, geology, flora, and fauna of hundreds of sites. Longstreet Highroad Mountain guides give detailed information on hiking, mountain biking, fishing, hunting, skiing, and other mountain sports of interest to outdoor enthusiasts. There are also many historic sites, special restaurants and bed-and-breakfast places noted. These books are packed with detailed information for both the experienced outdoors traveler or first-time explorer. No one should visit the mountains without a Longstreet Highroad Mountain Guide. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=281875 From Louisiana to Tennessee, this field guide covers the animals, plants, and natural environments of the Southeastern States. 1,200 color illustrations. 200 maps, diagrams & drawings. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=289280 With eight published titles and two new fall books produced in just two short years, it is easy to see why this successful series was named June 1998s book-of-the-month by Travel & Leisure Magazine. Each book features the best the mountains have to offer in a comprehensive, yet concise, format. The reader is introduced to the natural history, geology, flora, and fauna of hundreds of sites. Longstreet Highroad Mountain guides give detailed information on hiking, mountain biking, fishing, hunting, skiing, and other mountain sports of interest to outdoor enthusiasts. There are also many historic sites, special restaurants and bed-and-breakfast places noted. These books are packed with detailed information for both the experienced outdoors traveler or first-time explorer. No one should visit the mountains without a Longstreet Highroad Mountain Guide. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=286929 The opalescent deserts of the American Southwest have become romantic icons in the public imagination through the words of writers, the images of artists and photographers, and the visual storytelling of filmmakers. In this spirited, personal, beautifully written book, Peter Wild explores the lives and works of sixteen writers whose words have shaped our visions of the opal desert. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=311028 Aldo Leopolds classic work A Sand County Almanac is widely regarded as one of the most influential conservation books of all time. In it, Leopold set forth an eloquent plea for the development of a land ethic - a belief that people have a responsibility to treat the soils, waters, plants, and animals that collectively comprise the land in ways that ensure their well-being. For the Health of the Land is a new collection of rare and previously unpublished essays by Leopold that builds on that vision of ethical land use. It develops the important concept of land health - by which Leopold meant the capacity for self-renewal in nature - and the practical measures land-owners can take to sustain it.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=292128 Since its first appearance in 1901, John C. Van Dykes The Desert has been considered one of the classics of American nature writing. Before its publication, Americans thought of deserts as scorpion-infested wastelands - with names like Devils Domain and the Lands That God Forgot. All this changed as The Desert drew attention to the extraordinary beauty that existed in the American West: rolling sand dunes, golden vistas, vibrant sunsets, and remarkable plant and animal life. Van Dykes book captured the nations imagination at a time when attitudes about the land were changing. It provided a vocabulary that continues to be used as appreciation of deserts increases and ever greater pressures lead to new calls to protect these fragile environments. With a critical introduction by Peter Wild, this edition offers new insights - and reveals some surprising truths - about this legendary author and his best known work.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=274743 This contemporary account of the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition is nature writing at its best. One hundred years after that landmark voyage, Nancy Lord follows by boat and dream, seeking to understand this centurys attitudes toward nature, landscape, and culture. The Harriman Alaska Expedition assembled a company of exceptional characters - the nature writers John Burroughs and John Muir, photographer Edward Curtis, scientist William Dall, conservationist and ethnographer George Bird Grinnell, bird artist Louis Agassiz-Fuertes, geologist Henry Gannett, and others - to explore Alaskas untamed coast. They cruised glacial fjords, collected specimens, and photographed Alaskas Native people. Nancy Lord, an Alaskan well-rooted in coastal life and commercial fishing, revisits many of the same stops made by the expedition. Lord tells of John Burroughs visit to a cannery where imported Chinese laborers wielded their knives, then boards a modern processing ship turning salmon into frozen product. Lord witnesses whales and imagines whalers, shows us the Native acculturation of a century ago against the fishing lives of todays villagers, and passes time with a family living in the last house on the contiguous North American continent.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=281263 Explore the plants, animals and habitats of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah with the help of this informative, portable guide. 1,200 color illustrations. 200 maps, diagrams & drawings. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=283656 Drive through the Sierra Morena in winter and hear the pebbles from swollen streams crashing on the car roof, unwind on a thyme-scented Guadalajara hillside to the flute-like tinkling of sheep bells at dusk. Following the personal style set by this series, the author indulges his own fancies while at the same time offering independent travelers a thorough and up-to-date guide to wild Spain. Full-color photos and maps. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=118883 Reprinted four times since it was first published in 1980, this new and expanded edition offers a generously illustrated natural history set in the context of the states geologic and human pasts. A broad ecological overview written in engaging narrative for lay readers as well as naturalists, conservationists, and biologists, the book is enhanced with 142 photographs, drawings, maps, and diagrams. Also a practical guidebook, it directs people to where they can see what is being discussed, gives current references, and offers a complete directory of conservation organizations. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=289304 Whether headed to the rugged backcountry, a day of scenic driving, or a summer vacation, the HIGHROAD GUIDES lead you to the best the mountains have to offer. Includes a minimum of 55 new maps, natural history information, and other general travelers information. Written by award-winning nature journalist Garvey Winegar and acclaimed outdoor writer/nature photographer Deane Dozier Winegar. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=92040 A Natural History of Australia takes a comprehensive look at the sometimes bizarre, oftentimes spectacular, and always fascinating natural history of the island continent. It describes in words, illustrations, tables and charts, and with some truly inspiring photographs Australias geography and geology, its Aboriginal people, the Great Barrier Reef, and its fauna and flora. It also deals with the countrys colorful history, its laidback lifestyle and the quirky and entertaining brand of English that Australians speak. A Natural History of Australia is a serious but accessible book that describes how isolation and aridity have shaped Australias fauna and flora. The book explains the principles of Australias biogeography and the complexity of its Great Barrier Reef. It compares the reproductive system of Australias unique monotremes (egg-laying mammals) with those of its well-known marsupials and with placental mammals, and it reviews the latest discoveries in paleoanthropology.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=150949 Recent Thoreau scholarship has concentrated on Thoreau as prescient forest ecologist; McKibben - author of the End of Nature and one of our best-read social and environmental critics - places him firmly back in his role as cultural and spiritual seer. McKibben identifies two questions asked by Thoreau as central to a late-twentieth-century reading of Walden: How much is enough? and How do I know what I want? Questions, McKibben reminds us, that must come to dominate the end of the twentieth century if we are to live well into the twenty-first. McKibbens relevant and lively introduction and annotations to the 1854 edition make us see Walden as, among other things, a way to think about how we use our time, how we spend our money - how to live essential lives.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=251427 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=431444 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=225604 Searching for Yellowstone is the first environmental history of one of Americas greatest and most far-reaching experiments. Combining exhaustive research with twenty-five years of experience at Yellowstone, Paul Schullery paints a dramatically new picture of the park and its meaning to the world, showing how Yellowstones discovery by whites followed 10,000 years of occupation and use by native Americans, and how the parks founding became a creation myth for the conservation movement.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=26661 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=27211 A chatty and informative book (that) conveys a wonderful sense of contentment with our not always hospitable countryside. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=275171 This guide is brimming with necessary information wonderfully combined with a naturalists love of wildlife and keen photographic eye. The sum of Western National Wildlife Refuges is a magnificent tour of each sanctuary, with everything necessary to plan a nature trip. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=733370 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=97633 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=131704 Drawing inspiration from the magical realism of Latin American fiction as much as from the documentary natural history tradition of the North American West, ethnobiologist Gary Paul Nabhan and photographer Mark Klett celebrate the many lives of the Sonoran borderlands. Their Sonoran Desert home is the most biologically and culturally diverse of any arid lands on this continent. As we travel with Nathan and Klett, we hear Seri Indian songs of the summer heat, the bleating of mating desert toads, and the chants of an elderly Hispanic curandera. We catch sight of a night-blooming cereus ready to flower; of homes handmade from the mud, mesquite, and cactus bones surrounding them; and miniature mescal gardens planted for the Virgin Mary. We also confront, face to face the forces threatening to weaken the communities of plants, animals, and cultures of the desert: charcoal making, pesticide spraying, groundwater pumping, overpopulation and rampant ethnocentrism and anthropocentrism. If the damaged deserts of North America are ever to be restored to their wildness and cultural richness we will need a different set of stories and images to guide our conservation and preservation efforts. This is the underlying theme of Desert Legends, which links startling and ironic photographs with ecologically informed parables.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=134851 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=92353 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=27980 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=241420 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=232977 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=36425 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=228666 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=62416