Nature Field Guides

See Bears Up Close from the Comfort of Your Sofa

Professional naturalist, wildlife photographer, and author Stan Tekiela explores some of North America's most desolate areas, pursuing smart, powerful, and resourceful creatures: bears. With his instinct for being in the right place at the right time, Stan utilizes rare opportunities to capture some of the most compelling images of his career. Through this book, you can enter the world of these powerful creatures through stunning photos and personal anecdotes from Stan's journeys into the wild. Share in his travels and develop a new appreciation and respect for bears.

Continuing a tradition that began in 1842, this book examines 24 localities of particular interest to mineral collectors. These localities are organized by how they occur (in sedimentary rocks, in crystalline rocks, in fractures)--a new approach that brings coherence to relationships among similar localities. For each locality, its significance to specimen mineralogy, collecting history, geological setting, origin, and a thorough description of the minerals of particular interest to collectors are presented, based on the latest research and nomenclature. Over 150 clear color photos show some of the finest specimens ever collected from each locality. Similar New York state localities are listed for each featured occurrence. While the GPS coordinates for each locality are provided, this is an introduction to what minerals occur in the State of New York, how beautiful they are, and why they are so interesting. Why have a mere field guide when you can have so much more?

Wild spinach about 7 feet tall and fully mature. Well-fed wild spinach is well-branched and produces a huge quantity of seeds when mature. The leaves are still edible at this stage but are reduced in quality, taking on a somewhat off-flavor. According to research on other mature plants, the leaves on these older plants retain most of their nutrients and phytochemicals as long as they are still green. (Left: The author stands in for perspective, 2006.)

Imagine what you could do with eighteen delicious new greens in your dining arsenal including purslane, chickweed, curly dock, wild spinach, sorrel, and wild mustard.

John Kallas makes it fun and easy to learn about foods you've unknowingly passed by all your life. Through gorgeous photographs, playful, but authoritative text, and ground-breaking design he gives you the knowledge and confidence to finally begin eating and enjoying edible wild plants.

Edible Wild Plants divides plants into four flavor categories -- foundation, tart, pungent, and bitter. Categorizing by flavor helps readers use these greens in pleasing and predictable ways. According to the author, combining elements from these different categories makes the best salads.

This field guide is essential for anyone wanting to incorporate more natural and whole foods into their diet. First ever nutrient tables that directly compare wild foods to domesticated greens are included. Whether looking to enhance a diet or identify which plants can be eaten for survival, the extensive information on wild foods will help readers determine the appropriate stage of growth and how to properly prepare these highly nutritious greens.

John Kallas is one of the foremost authorities on North American edible wild plants and other foragables. He's learned about wild foods through formal academic training and over 35 years of hands-on field research. John has a doctorate in nutrition, a master's in education, and degrees in biology and zoology.

He's a trained botanist, nature photgrapher, writer, researched, and teacher. In 1993 he founded the Institute for the Study of Edible Wild Plants and Other Foragables along with its educational branch, Wild Food Adventures.

John's company is based in Portland, Oregon, where he offers regional workshops, and multi-day intensives on wild foods.

For more information, see www.wildfoodadventures.com

Easily Identify the Ferns You Find!

Enjoy learning to identify ferns with this guide from authors Anne Hallowell and Barbara Hallowell. With this handy, easy-to-use book, you'll be able to identify a wide variety of ferns in no time. And its small size makes it just right for fitting into your pocket or pack when you go for a hike or a walk in the woods.

Features:

Provides information to help you identify native ferns that grow in the United States Midwest and Northeast, as well as eastern Canada

Uses a dichotomous key, like other plant guides in the Nature Study Guides Finders series

Leads the user step-by-step through a series of choices, culminating in the identification of the species

Includes a large number of illustrations with line drawings