2817 books match the query 'Nature' and 165 start with f

cover of For All Waters: Finding Ourselves in Early Modern Wetscapes

For All Waters

Finding Ourselves in Early Modern Wetscapes

Lowell Duckert

University of Minnesota Press, 2017

Recent years have witnessed a surge in early modern ecostudies, many devoted to Shakespearean drama. Yet in this burgeoning discipline, travel writing appears moored in historicization, inorganic subjects are far less prevalent than organic ones, and freshwater sites are hardly visited. For All Waters explores these uncharted wetscapes. 

Lowell Duckert shows that when playwrights and travel writers such as Sir Walter Raleigh physically interacted with rivers, glaciers, monsoons, and swamps, they composed “hydrographies,” or bodily and textual assemblages of human and nonhuman things that dissolved notions of human autonomy and its singular narrativity. With a playful, punning touch woven deftly into its theoretical rigor, For All Waters disputes fantasies of ecological solitude that would keep our selves high and dry and that would try to sustain a political ecology excluding water and the poor. The lives of both humans and waterscapes can be improved simultaneously through direct engagement with wetness. 

For All Waters concludes by investigating waterscapes in peril today—West Virginia’s chemical rivers and Iceland’s vanishing glaciers—and outlining what we can learn from early moderns’ eco-ontological lessons. By taking their soggy and storied matters to heart, and arriving at a greater realization of our shared wetness, we can conceive new directions to take within the hydropolitical crises afflicting us today.

[more]
cover of For Love of Lakes

For Love of Lakes

Darby Nelson

Michigan State University Press, 2011

America has more than 130,000 lakes of significant size. Ninety percent of all Americans live within fifty miles of a lake, and our 1.8 billion trips to watery places make them our top vacation choice. Yet despite this striking popularity, more than 45 percent of surveyed lakes and 80 percent of urban lakes do not meet water quality standards. For Love of Lakes weaves a delightful tapestry of history, science, emotion, and poetry for all who love lakes or enjoy nature writing. For Love of Lakes is an affectionate account documenting our species’ long relationship with lakes—their glacial origins, Thoreau and his environmental message, and the major perceptual shifts and advances in our understanding of lake ecology. This is a necessary and thoughtful book that addresses the stewardship void while providing improved understanding of our most treasured natural feature.

[more]
cover of For Love of the World: Essays on Nature Writers

For Love of the World

Essays on Nature Writers

Sherman Paul

University of Iowa Press, 1992

Along with poets, philosophers, and deep ecologists, nature writers—who may be something of all three—address the world alienation of Western civilization. By example as well as with words, they teach us to turn from the self to the world, from ego to ecos.In these deeply felt meditative essays, Sherman Paul contemplates the cosmological homecoming of nature writers who show us how to reenter the world, participate in it, and recover respect for it.
In For Love of the World Sherman Paul considers Thoreau, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold, major writers in the American tradition of nature writing; Henry Beston and Loren Eiseley, writers not yet so canonical; and Richard Nelson and Barry Lopez, our estimable contemporaries.
Paul's meditative mode follows the practice of naturalists who enter the field, come into the open, and relate their immediate experiences. In the most primary and direct way, his essays belong to our moment in history when nothing is more essential than our reattachment to earthly existence. They will reawaken our love of the world—the necessary eros of ecos—and our wonder at and gratitude for being.
[more]
cover of For The Birds: An Uncommon Guide

For The Birds

An Uncommon Guide

Laura Erickson

University of Minnesota Press, 2001

In 365 day-by-day sketches, Laura Erickson brings more than 250 birds right into your living room-from rare hawk owls to elusive sedge wrens to plastic lawn flamingos. Light-hearted, yet authoritative, For the Birds is brimming with fascinating birdlore.

Did you know that you can mail three chickadees with a single stamp? That Black-billed Cuckoos flourish on a diet of army worms? That winter finches are especially attracted to feeders offering grit and eggshells?

Enjoy Laura’s entertaining observations and record your own in For the Birds: An Uncommon Guide.

[more]
cover of For the Bees: A Handbook for Happy Beekeeping

For the Bees

A Handbook for Happy Beekeeping

Tara Dawn ChapmanIllustrations by Caroline Brown

University of Texas Press, 2024

A handbook for what to expect the first year of beekeeping and beyond.

The path to becoming a successful beekeeper begins with a deep understanding of the bees themselves. Taking an approach that is both holistic and practical, Tara Chapman, founder and operator of Austin’s beloved Two Hives Honey, begins with a primer on honey bee biology and nutrition as well as beehive architecture. (Did you ever wonder why honey combs are composed of tiny hexagons?) A little scientific knowledge goes a long way: a beekeeper who understands how these fascinating creatures work will be better equipped to recognize a particular colony’s needs, make sound decisions when the unexpected happens, and adapt their care regimen to changing conditions. Moving beyond the basics, Chapman shows potential beekeepers how to spot pests and diseases; manage swarms (those bees aren’t angry; they’re just looking for a good home); and, of course, harvest delicious homegrown honey.

Imbued with the joy of the beekeeping journey, For the Bees provides practical visual explanations through appealing illustrations, that, alongside Chapman’s own stories from the bee yard, share the charms of these essential insects.

[more]
cover of For the Birds: Protecting Wildlife through the Naturalist Gaze

For the Birds

Protecting Wildlife through the Naturalist Gaze

Elizabeth Cherry

Rutgers University Press, 2019

2020 Award for Distinguished Book from the Animals & Society Section of the American Sociological Association

One in five people in the United States is a birdwatcher, yet the popular understanding of birders reduces them to comical stereotypes, obsessives who only have eyes for their favorite rare species. In real life, however, birders are paying equally close attention to the world around them, observing the devastating effects of climate change and mass extinction, while discovering small pockets of biodiversity in unexpected places.
 
For the Birds offers readers a glimpse behind the binoculars and reveals birders to be important allies in the larger environmental conservation movement. With a wealth of data from in-depth interviews and over three years of observing birders in the field, environmental sociologist Elizabeth Cherry argues that birders learn to watch wildlife in ways that make an invaluable contribution to contemporary conservation efforts. She investigates how birders develop a “naturalist gaze” that enables them to understand the shared ecosystem that intertwines humans and wild animals, an appreciation that motivates them to participate in citizen science projects and wildlife conservation.
 
[more]
cover of For the Love of Rivers: A Scientist's Journey

For the Love of Rivers

A Scientist's Journey

Kurt D. Fausch

Oregon State University Press, 2015

Rivers and streams supply our water and capture our imaginations. We seek the more pristine ones to fish or paddle, to hike along or simply sit and watch. But what is it we are seeing?  What is essential about streams and rivers for us as humans?

In For the Love of Rivers, stream ecologist Kurt Fausch draws readers across the reflective surface of streams to view and ponder what is beneath, and how they work. While celebrating their beauty and mystery, he uses his many years of experience as a field biologist to explain the underlying science connecting these aquatic ecosystems to their streamside forests and the organisms found there—including humans.

For the Love of Rivers introduces readers to the life and work of Shigeru Nakano, a pioneering river ecologist who inspired other scientists around the world with his innovative research on stream-forest connections. Fausch takes readers along as he journeys to Japan, where he awakens to an unfamiliar culture, to Nakano, and his research.

Nakano’s life was abruptly ended in a tragic field accident, and his death was deeply mourned. Fausch joins Japanese and American colleagues to continue Nakano’s research legacy, learn everything they can about the effects that humans have on rivers, fish, and their intricate links with riparian zones, and share this knowledge with others.

More than a book about stream ecology, For the Love of Rivers is a celebration of the interconnectedness of life. It is an authoritative and accessible look at the science of rivers and streams, but it also ponders the larger questions of why rivers are important to humans, why it is in our nature to want to be near them, and what we can do now to ensure the future of these essential ecosystems.
[more]
cover of For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States

For the Prevention of Cruelty

The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States

Diane L. Beers

Ohio University Press, 2006

Animal rights. Those two words conjure diverse but powerful images and reactions. Some nod in agreement, while others roll their eyes in contempt. Most people fall somewhat uncomfortably in the middle, between endorsement and rejection, as they struggle with the profound moral, philosophical, and legal questions provoked by the debate. Today, thousands of organizations lobby, agitate, and educate the public on issues concerning the rights and treatment of nonhumans. For the Prevention of Cruelty is the first history of organized advocacy on behalf of animals in the United States to appear in nearly a half century. Diane Beers demonstrates how the cause has shaped and reshaped itself as it has evolved within the broader social context of the shift from an industrial to a postindustrial society. Until now, the legacy of the movement in the United States has not been examined. Few Americans today perceive either the companionship or the consumption of animals in the same manner as did earlier generations. Moreover, powerful and lingering bonds connect the seemingly disparate American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of the nineteenth century and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals of today. For the Prevention of Cruelty tells an intriguing and important story that reveals society’s often changing relationship with animals through the lens of those who struggled to shepherd the public toward a greater compassion.
[more]
cover of Foraging for Survival: Yearling Baboons in Africa

Foraging for Survival

Yearling Baboons in Africa

Stuart A. Altmann

University of Chicago Press, 1998

Stuart A. Altmann presents the results of one of the most intensive investigations ever carried out on foraging behavior and its consequences for survival and reproduction.
[more]
cover of Force of Nature: George Fell, Founder of the Natural Areas Movement

Force of Nature

George Fell, Founder of the Natural Areas Movement

Arthur Melville Pearson

University of Wisconsin Press, 2020

Efforts to preserve wild places in the United States began with the allure of scenic grandeur: Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon. But what about the many significant natural sites too small or fragile to qualify as state or federal parks? George Fell was determined to save these places, too—prairie remnants, upland forests, sedge meadows and fens, ocean beaches, desert canyons, mountain creeks, bogs, caves and gorges, and the full spectrum of other habitats essential to biological diversity.

Force of Nature reveals how a failed civil servant, with few assets apart from his tenacity and vision, initiated the natural areas movement. In the boom years following World War II, as undeveloped lands were being mined, drained, or bulldozed, Fell transformed a loose band of ecologists into The Nature Conservancy, drove the passage of the influential Illinois Nature Preserves Act, and helped spark allied local and national conservation organizations in the United States and beyond.
[more]
cover of Forced to Abandon Our Fields: The 1914 Clay Southworth Gila River Pima Interviews

Forced to Abandon Our Fields

The 1914 Clay Southworth Gila River Pima Interviews

David H. DeJong

University of Utah Press, 2011

During the nineteenth century, upstream diversions from the Gila River decreased the arable land on the Gila River Indian Reservation to only a few thousand acres. As a result the Pima Indians, primarily an agricultural people, fell into poverty. Many Pima farmers and leaders lamented this suffering and in 1914 the United States Indian Irrigation Service assigned a 33-year-old engineer named Clay “Charles” Southworth to oversee the Gila River adjudication. As part of that process, Southworth interviewed 34 Pima elders, thus putting a face on the depth of hardships facing many Indians in the late nineteenth century.

Southworth’s interviews fell into obscurity until recently, when they were rediscovered by David DeJong. The interviews cover decades of Pima history and reveal the nexus between upstream diversions and Pima economy, agriculture, water use, and water rights. In Forced to Abandon Our Fields, DeJong provides the historical context for these interviews; transcripts of the interviews provide first-hand descriptions of both the once-successful Pima agricultural economy and its decline by the early twentieth century. These interviews suggest that it was not the triumph of Western civilization that displaced the Pima agricultural economy but the application of a philosophy of economic liberalism that prevented the Pima from building on their previous successes.
 
[more]
cover of Forest Park: Exploring Portland's Natural Sanctuary

Forest Park

Exploring Portland's Natural Sanctuary

Marcy Cottrell Houle

Oregon State University Press, 2023

Situated in the rugged hills west of downtown Portland, Forest Park is the nation’s premier urban natural sanctuary. It supports essential habitat for hundreds of native plants and animals, including species at risk, and is one of the largest city parks in the world. While extending critical ecosystem services to the region, it offers miles of outstanding hiking trails, all within minutes of the downtown core.  

Forest Park: Exploring Portland’s Natural Sanctuary showcases this treasure in new light, offering a compendium of the most up-to-date and comprehensive information available. Twenty-one hikes covering 75 miles bring a full awareness of the park’s outstanding attributes. Hikes are grouped by theme to encourage people to explore Forest Park’s watersheds; geology; lichens and mosses; vegetation; amphibians and reptiles; pollinators; native wildlife; and wildlife corridors. Beautiful photographs and full-color maps accompany each trail description.  

Forest Park is a shining example of the Pacific Northwest western hemlock community--an ecosystem unique among all temperate forests of the world. It is also an exciting model for a future Urban Biodiversity Reserve, a concept under development recognizing the park’s scientific, natural, and cultural qualities. Forest Park: Exploring Portland’s Natural Sanctuary will help all visitors discover the beauty and wonders of this extraordinary natural resource.

[more]
cover of Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa

Peter J. van der Linden

University of Iowa Press, 2011

@font-face { font-family: "Times";}@font-face { font-family: "Palatino";}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }

Back in print at last in a third edition, the classic Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa now has a wealth of full-color photographs and updated, reorganized information that will please both new and returning readers.

Part 1 of this guide focuses on identification, with user-friendly keys to both summer and winter trees and illustrated descriptions of more than one hundred common species. The trees are arranged according to similarities in foliage; each entry includes a large scan of a leafy branch along with two or three smaller photos of buds, flowers, fruits, and winter twigs. The text contains a description of the species, its geographical distribution, and notes on how to distinguish it from similar species. Part 2 is divided into conifers and flowering trees and includes all trees native to Iowa, trees that are widely planted, invasive species, some less commonly planted trees, and tall native shrubs that might be mistaken for trees. The authors provide information about the natural history of individual trees, their ecological requirements, pests and diseases that affect them, and their usefulness for such different purposes as windbreaks, landscaping, wildlife plantings, fuel, lumber, and food. Following these two main parts, three shorter sections describe the planting and care of trees, Iowa’s forest communities, and good places to see trees in the state; a glossary and a bibliography are also included.

A complete guide to Iowa’s trees, both native and introduced, full of hundreds of color photos, this new edition of Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa will be immensely useful to arborists, foresters, horticulturists, landscape architects, gardeners, and all Iowans and midwesterners who appreciate the beauty and value of trees and want to learn more about them.

[more]
cover of Forests: A Naturalist’s Guide to Woodland Trees

Forests

A Naturalist’s Guide to Woodland Trees

By Laurence C. Walker

University of Texas Press, 1997

First published in 1990, Forests explores the ecological, economic, and human influences on over thirty significant types of woodlands. Laurence Walker focuses especially on the effects of site factors—climate, physiography, biology, and soils—upon the growth of various kinds of trees. Projects for amateur naturalists, reading lists, and a glossary make this the perfect introduction for general readers.

[more]
cover of Forests: The Shadow of Civilization

Forests

The Shadow of Civilization

Robert Pogue Harrison

University of Chicago Press, 1992

In this wide-ranging exploration of the role of forests in Western thought, Robert Pogue Harrison enriches our understanding not only of the forest's place in the cultural imagination of the West, but also of the ecological dilemmas that now confront us so urgently. Consistently insightful and beautifully written, this work is especially compelling at a time when the forest, as a source of wonder, respect, and meaning, disappears daily from the earth.

"Forests is one of the most remarkable essays on the human place in nature I have ever read, and belongs on the small shelf that includes Raymond Williams' masterpiece, The Country and the City. Elegantly conceived, beautifully written, and powerfully argued, [Forests] is a model of scholarship at its passionate best. No one who cares about cultural history, about the human place in nature, or about the future of our earthly home, should miss it.—William Cronon, Yale Review

"Forests is, among other things, a work of scholarship, and one of immense value . . . one that we have needed. It can be read and reread, added to and commented on for some time to come."—John Haines, The New York Times Book Review
[more]
cover of Forevering

Forevering

Carol Mavor

Duke University Press, 2027

Forevering is a memoir about practicing practice. When art theorist Carol Mavor’s beloved husband Kevin passed away unexpectedly, her lifelong practices collapsed. In a blend of lyric essay and poetry, Mavor reflects on living and doing after his death, relearning how to write and make art and love in a world without him. She also takes up horseback riding, giving her a new bond, a new being’s touch, and a new challenge with which she grounds herself in an unstable world. Mavor dives deep into the eternal pleasures and difficulties of learning, unlearning, and practicing the things that make up a life as she continues writing, riding, drawing, and touching, each activity bringing with it the joys and pains of remembering her life with her husband. Illustrating a journey to build and celebrate a life of endless practice, Forevering is a reflection on continuing to live in and through grief.
[more]
cover of Forging a Sustainable Southwest: The Power of Collaborative Conservation

Forging a Sustainable Southwest

The Power of Collaborative Conservation

Stephen E. Strom

University of Arizona Press, 2024

Nature has presented us with a gift of incalculable value: astounding diversity of plant and animal life and interwoven biological and physical systems of intricate complexity and beauty. We are faced today with an existential environmental and moral challenge: can we find common purpose in protecting and cherishing these masterpieces and in restoring a sense of shared responsibility for stewarding our endowment?

Forging a Sustainable Southwest introduces readers to four conservation efforts that provide insight into how diverse groups of citizens have worked collaboratively to develop visions for land use that harmonized sometimes conflicting ecological, economic, cultural, and community needs. Through the voices of more than seventy individuals involved in these efforts, we learn how they’ve developed plans for protecting, restoring, and stewarding lands sustainably; the management and funding tools they’ve used; and their perceptions of the challenges that remain and how to meet them.

This book details efforts to craft the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, establish Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, protect Cienega Ranch, and create the Malpai Borderlands Group. It will appeal to anyone interested in grassroots efforts to protect the vital ecosystems of the western United States.
           
These inspiring stories of citizens and groups working together demonstrate a path for the future built day-by-day: breaking bread at potlucks, holding informal front-porch discussions, and later finding common purpose in community-wide meetings. Might their efforts reveal a path to rebuilding our democratic systems from the ground up?
 
[more]
cover of Fossil Lake and the Rise of Modern Birds: Snapshots from Early Avian Evolution

Fossil Lake and the Rise of Modern Birds

Snapshots from Early Avian Evolution

Lance Grande, Daniel T Ksepka, and Gerald Mayr

University of Chicago Press, 2027

Lavishly produced with color fossil photographs throughout, the first comprehensive summary of findings at one of the world’s best fossil bird localities, offering profound insight into early avian evolution after the end-of-Cretaceous extinction event.

What is today a high mountain desert in southwestern Wyoming was, 52 million years ago, a magnificent subtropical lake system. Part of the famed Green River Formation, the limestone layers of this region’s Fossil Lake provide an unparalleled record of life in the Early Eocene of North America. Evolutionary biologist Lance Grande has spent much of his career collecting and studying the beautiful and diverse assemblage of fossils from this locality. Since his 2013 book, The Lost World of Fossil Lake, researchers have uncovered many new fossil bird specimens—often stunningly preserved skeletons, sometimes even including feathers—and benefited from significant advances in our understanding of avian evolution. Their findings help to illuminate the early days of bird life on Earth.

In this volume, Grande and his collaborators—paleornithologists Daniel T. Ksepka and Gerald Mayr—explore these birds of Fossil Lake, where various researchers have formally named and described thirty avian species. The authors also present an additional twenty possible new species awaiting further study and formal review, birds that may soon be added to that list. Fossil Lake and the Rise of Modern Birds then places these avian ancestors within the global context of other fossil birds. Like Grande’s previous publications, this comprehensive work features stunning imagery, including nearly two hundred detailed fossil photographs—fifty that have never appeared elsewhere. 

Whether you are an ornithologist, paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, or amateur fossil enthusiast interested in the early evolutionary diversification of modern birds, this book is a treasure.

[more]
cover of Fossil Vertebrates of Alabama

Fossil Vertebrates of Alabama

John T. Thurmond and Douglas E. Jones

University of Alabama Press, 1981

The only comprehensive description of the fossil-vertebrate content of this important part of the world.

[more]
cover of Fossils in the Making: Vertebrate Taphonomy and Paleoecology

Fossils in the Making

Vertebrate Taphonomy and Paleoecology

Anna K. Behrensmeyer and Andrew P. Hill

University of Chicago Press, 1988

One of the first interdisciplinary discussions of taphonomy (the study of how fossil assemblages are formed) and paleoecology (the reconstruction of ancient ecosystems), this volume helped establish these relatively new disciplines. It was originally published as part of the influential Prehistoric Archeology and Ecology series.

"Taphonomy is plainly here to stay, and this book makes a first class introduction to its range and appeal."—Anthony Smith, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
[more]
cover of Fossils: An Essential Guide

Fossils

An Essential Guide

Paul D. Taylor

University of Chicago Press, 2025

With stunning images and an expert guide, explore the world of fossils to uncover the story of life on Earth, from the origins of new life to mass extinctions.

Ancient Earth seems like an alien world. But the fossil record can help reveal the mysteries of the organisms that have lived on our planet since its formation some 4,600 million years ago. In this engaging and beautifully illustrated book, world-renowned paleontologist Paul D. Taylor provides a comprehensive guide to all aspects of fossils to tell the story of life on Earth.

Taylor begins with the basics: how fossils form, how they mark geological time, and what they tell us about the origins of life and major evolutionary events like the Cambrian Explosion. He then shows the oldest fossils—single-celled bacteria in amazing, three-billion-year-old microbial rock structures—before introducing the first animals in the fossil record. From fishes to amphibians, reptiles, and mammals, we meet these animal fossils in an appropriate evolutionary parade. Next, we imagine plants long past, charting the evolution of this kingdom and learning how ephemeral botanical remains can become permanent records. While comprehensive in his coverage of fossil groups and ages, Taylor pays particular attention to specimens fossil hunters are most likely to encounter, like crinoids and the iconic ammonites. Throughout, he introduces us to fascinating fossil folklore—like the idea that ammonites are the petrified remains of coiled snakes—and helps us distinguish true fossils from fakes.

With stunning color images of many original specimens from the collections of London’s Natural History Museum, Fossils is an essential introduction, connecting life on Earth today to the ancient past.
[more]
cover of Fostering Reasonableness: Supportive Environments for Bringing Out Our Best

Fostering Reasonableness

Supportive Environments for Bringing Out Our Best

Rachel Kaplan and Avik Basu, editors

Michigan Publishing Services, 2015

We humans are difficult animals. We are the source of environmental degradation, the culprits of resource decline. We are reluctant to trust and easily angered. However, we are also the source of inspiration, compassion, and creative solutions. What brings out the reasonable side of our capacity? The Reasonable Person Model (RPM) offers a simple framework for considering essential ingredients in how people, at their best, deal with one another and the resources on which we all rely. RPM is a hopeful and engaging framework that helps us understand and address a wide diversity of issues. The 20 chapters of Fostering Reasonableness provide the conceptual foundations of the framework and applications examining contexts as diverse as a region, organization, the classroom, finding common ground in resource planning, education in the prison environment, greening in the inner city. Our collective hope in putting the book together is to encourage a way of seeing, a way of understanding and examining circumstances that might lead to more wholesome, adaptive, and effective means of addressing the big and little issues that depend on humanity’s reasonableness.
[more]
cover of Foundations of Animal Behavior: Classic Papers with Commentaries

Foundations of Animal Behavior

Classic Papers with Commentaries

Edited by Lynne D. Houck and Lee C. Drickamer

University of Chicago Press, 1996

Beginning with Darwin's work in the 1870s, Foundations of Animal Behavior selects the most important works from the discipline's first hundred years—forty-four classic papers—and presents them in facsimile, tracing the development of the field. These papers are classics because they either founded a line of investigation, established a basic method, or provided a new approach to an important research question.

The papers are divided into six sections, each introduced by prominent researchers. Sections one and two cover the origins and history of the field and the emergence of basic methods and approaches. They provide a background for sections three through six, which focus on development and learning; neural and hormonal mechanisms of behavior; sensory processes, orientation, and communication; and the evolution of behavior.

This outstanding collection will serve as the basis for undergraduate and graduate seminars and as a reference for researchers in animal behavior, whether they focus on ethology, behavioral ecology, comparative psychology, or anthropology.

Published in association with the Animal Behavior Society

[more]
cover of Foundations of Colonial Rule: Rebuilding Lima after the Earthquake of 1687

Foundations of Colonial Rule

Rebuilding Lima after the Earthquake of 1687

Judith Mansilla

University of Alabama Press, 2026

Foundations of Colonial Rule analyzes diverse primary documents to understand how the viceroyalty, the Catholic clergy, local authorities, and everyday citizens of Lima, Peru, managed and rebuilt after the 1687 earthquake. 

[more]
cover of Foundations of Conservation Biology: A Guide to the Classic Literature

Foundations of Conservation Biology

A Guide to the Classic Literature

Edited by Jeffrey D. Brawn, Erica Fleishman, Curt Meine

University of Chicago Press, 2026

For students, practitioners, and researchers, a comprehensive guide to conservation biology’s foundational literature.
 
This book summarizes over a century of multidisciplinary scientific literature that contributed to the development of conservation biology. It explores how different scientific, social, and cultural traditions have informed that literature, enabling a deeper comprehension of the natural world and conservation practices. The volume traces conservation biology’s scientific and cultural foundations and its emergence in the mid-1980s in response to the accelerating effects of human activity on biological diversity. As conservation moved beyond its early emphasis on sustaining yields of selected natural resources and responding to environmental degradation, it both reflected and required changes in its scope and foundations. Today, conservation biologists aim to understand the complex ecological and social causes of biodiversity loss and apply that integrated understanding to sustain life and ecological integrity at all levels.
 
Examining this evolving field’s foundations in philosophy and culture, population genetics, landscape ecology, management techniques, law, the social sciences, and climate change science, the contributors to this volume identify and provide historical and contextual interpretations of the key literature. Foundations of Conservation Biology shows how insights from the past have influenced contemporary studies, and how they may continue to shape future research and actions.
[more]
cover of Foundations of Ecology II: Classic Papers with Commentaries

Foundations of Ecology II

Classic Papers with Commentaries

Edited by Thomas E. Miller and Joseph Travis

University of Chicago Press, 2022

The classic papers that laid the foundations of modern ecology alongside commentaries by noted ecologists.

The period of 1970 to 1995 was a time of tremendous change in all areas of ecology—from an increased rigor for experimental design and analysis to the reevaluation of paradigms, new models for understanding, and theoretical advances. Edited by ecologists Thomas E. Miller and Joseph Travis, Foundations of Ecology II includes facsimiles of forty-six papers from this period alongside expert commentaries that discuss a total of fifty-three key studies, addressing topics of diversity, predation, complexity, competition, coexistence, extinction, productivity, resources, distribution, abundance, and conservation. The result is more than a catalog of historic firsts; this book offers diverse perspectives on the foundational papers that led to today’s ecological work. Like this book’s 1991 predecessor, Foundations of Ecology edited by Leslie A. Real and James H. Brown, Foundations of Ecology II promises to be the essential primer for graduate students and practicing ecologists for decades to come.
[more]
cover of Foundations of Stream and River Ecology: A Guide to the Classic Literature

Foundations of Stream and River Ecology

A Guide to the Classic Literature

Edited by Wyatt F. Cross, Jonathan P. Benstead, Amy M. Marcarelli, and Ryan A. Sponseller

University of Chicago Press, 2024

For students and practitioners, a comprehensive primer on the key literature in stream and river ecology.
 
The study of streams and rivers combines ecology, chemistry, hydrology, and geology to reveal the factors that control the biological diversity and functioning of these unique ecosystems. Although stream ecology is a relatively young discipline, foundational papers published over the past half century have shaped our current understanding of these ecosystems and have informed our efforts to manage and protect them. Organized by topics such as the physical template, community structure, food webs, ecosystem energetics, and nutrient dynamics, the chapters of this book offer summaries of the key literature, historical and contextual information, and insightful discussions of how past research has influenced present studies and may shape future work.
[more]
cover of Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology: Classic Papers with Commentaries

Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology

Classic Papers with Commentaries

Edited by Robin L. Chazdon and T. C. Whitmore

University of Chicago Press, 2002

Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology presents a timely collection of pioneering work in the study of these diverse and fascinating ecosystems. Modeled on the highly successful Foundations of Ecology, this book consists of facsimiles of papers chosen by world experts in tropical biology as the "classics" in the field. The papers are organized into sections on related topics, each introduced with a discussion of their role in triggering subsequent research. Topics covered include ecological and evolutionary perspectives on the origins of tropical diversity; plant-animal interactions; patterns of species diversity and distribution of arthropods, vertebrates, and plants; forest dynamics and ecosystem ecology; conservation biology; and tropical forest management.

Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology makes essential works in the development of tropical biology available in a convenient form to both senior scholars interested in the roots of their discipline and to students encountering the field for the first time, as well as to everyone concerned with tropical conservation.
[more]
cover of Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds

Fractivism

Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds

Sara Ann Wylie

Duke University Press, 2018

From flammable tap water and sick livestock to the recent onset of hundreds of earthquakes in Oklahoma, the impact of fracking in the United States is far-reaching and deeply felt. In Fractivism Sara Ann Wylie traces the history of fracking and the ways scientists and everyday people are coming together to hold accountable an industry that has managed to evade regulation. Beginning her story in Colorado, Wylie shows how nonprofits, landowners, and community organizers are creating novel digital platforms and databases to track unconventional oil and gas well development and document fracking's environmental and human health impacts. These platforms model alternative approaches for academic and grassroots engagement with the government and the fossil fuel industry. A call to action, Fractivism outlines a way forward for not just the fifteen million Americans who live within a mile of an unconventional oil or gas well, but for the planet as a whole.
[more]
cover of Fractured Communities: Risk, Impacts, and Protest Against Hydraulic Fracking in U.S. Shale Regions

Fractured Communities

Risk, Impacts, and Protest Against Hydraulic Fracking in U.S. Shale Regions

Ladd, Anthony E.

Rutgers University Press, 2017

While environmental disputes and conflicts over fossil fuel extraction have grown in recent years, few issues have been as contentious in the twenty-first century as those surrounding the impacts of unconventional natural gas and oil development using hydraulic drilling and fracturing techniques—more commonly known as “fracking”—on local communities. In Fractured Communities, Anthony E. Ladd and other leading environmental sociologists present a set of crucial case studies analyzing the differential risk perceptions, socio-environmental impacts, and mobilization of citizen protest (or quiescence) surrounding unconventional energy development and hydraulic fracking in a number of key U.S. shale regions.  Fractured Communities reveals how this contested terrain is expanding, pushing the issue of fracking into the mainstream of the American political arena.  
[more]
cover of Fragile Giants: A Natural History of the Loess Hills

Fragile Giants

A Natural History of the Loess Hills

Cornelia F. Mutel

University of Iowa Press, 1989

Just east of the Missouri River in Iowa and northeastern Missouri, an angular band of rugged, prairie-topped and woodland-cloaked hills spans the otherwise uneventful skyline. These are the Loess Hills, recognized throughout the United States for their distinctive natural features. With clarity and thoroughness, Fragile Giants gives us a complete natural history of this area, including three auto tours and a comprehensive listing of public-use areas and educational programs.
[more]
cover of Fragile Web: What Next for Nature?

Fragile Web

What Next for Nature?

Edited by Jonathan Silvertown

University of Chicago Press, 2010

Biodiversity is as close as your breakfast table. Your cereal and coffee are the products of at least a dozen species of plants and animals. And believe it or not, you are related to your morning meal—all life on earth is descended from a common ancestor, giving new meaning to the old saying “You are what you eat.”

            Making clear why the future of biodiversity matters, Fragile Web—which takes its name from the delicate mechanism that holds all life together—unites a team of international experts to explore the wonder of the natural world. Drawing on the very latest research, the book explains what biodiversity is and explores its evolution, from 3.5 billion years ago to the present day. It discusses the importance of the world’s ecosystems and how directly or indirectly humans are responsible for the fate of nature. Crucially, it also examines what can be done to protect the natural world and why it matters. Although we cannot undo all that we have done, ignoring the current crisis facing biodiversity could fundamentally change the lives of future generations.

Fully illustrated with color photographs, diagrams, and maps, and edited by celebrated ecologist Jonathan Silvertown, this book is a timely snapshot of the state of life on Earth. From the plant and animal products that make up our breakfast to the ecosystems that help to produce clean water, our very survival depends upon the variety of plant and animal life on our planet. The year 2010 has been declared by the United Nations the International Year of Biodiversity, and The Fragile Web will be an essential guidebook for our time.

[more]
cover of Framing the Problem: Causes and Consequences of a Shrinking Great Salt Lake

Framing the Problem

Causes and Consequences of a Shrinking Great Salt Lake

Kevin D. Perry

University of Utah Press, 2024

The Great Salt Lake ecosystem is on the verge of collapse due to unsustainably large water diversions, the ongoing megadrought, and climate change. Plummeting lake levels will result in a cascade of tremendous economic, ecological, and human health problems if no action is taken. One consequence of particular concern to the public is the potential for exposure to arsenic-laden dust emanating from the exposed portions of the Great Salt Lake lakebed. Framing the Problem explores how climate change has affected the lake, the consequences of low lake levels, and potential strategies for saving this ecological oasis.
[more]
cover of Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature

Frankenstein

Penetrating the Secrets of Nature

Lederer, Susan E

Rutgers University Press, 2002

As science penetrates the secrets of nature, with each discovery generating new questions, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will sound its note of warning. Many scientific developments have provoked references to Frankenstein, a story that, for nearly two centuries, has gripped our imaginations and haunted our nightmares. How can society balance the benefits of medical discoveries against the ethical or spiritual questions posed?

Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature accompanies a traveling exhibit of the same name. This lavishly illustrated volume begins by highlighting Shelley's novel and the context in which she conceived it. It next focuses on the redefinition of the Frankenstein myth in popular culture. Here, the fate of the monster becomes a moral lesson illustrating the punishment for ambitious scientists who seek to usurp the place of God by creating life. The final section examines the continuing power of the Frankenstein story to articulate present-day concerns raised by new developments in biomedicine such as cloning and xenografting (the use of animal organs in human bodies), and the role scientists and citizens play in determining acceptable limits of scientific and medical advances.

[more]
cover of Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary

Freedom and Nature

The Voluntary and the Involuntary

Paul Ricoeur

Northwestern University Press, 1966

This volume, the first part of Paul Ricoeur's Philosophy of the Will, is an eidetics, carried out within carefully imposed phenomenological brackets. It seeks to deal with the essential structure of man's being in the world, and so it suspends the distorting dimensions of existence, the bondage of passion, and the vision of innocence, to which Ricoeur returns in his later writings. The result is a conception of man as an incarnate Cogito, which can make the polar unity of subject and object intelligible and provide a basic continuity for the various aspects of inquiry into man's being-in-the-world.
[more]
cover of Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary

Freedom and Nature

The Voluntary and the Involuntary

Paul Ricoeur

Northwestern University Press, 2007

This volume, the first part of Paul Ricoeur's Philosophy of the Will, is an eidetics, carried out within carefully imposed phenomenological brackets. It seeks to deal with the essential structure of man's being in the world, and so it suspends the distorting dimensions of existence, the bondage of passion, and the vision of innocence, to which Ricoeur returns in his later writings. The result is a conception of man as an incarnate Cogito, which can make the polar unity of subject and object intelligible and provide a basic continuity for the various aspects of inquiry into man's being-in-the-world.
[more]
cover of French Thinking about Animals

French Thinking about Animals

Louisa Mackenzie

Michigan State University Press, 2015

Bringing together leading scholars from Belgium, Canada, France, and the United States, French Thinking about Animals makes available for the first time to an Anglophone readership a rich variety of interdisciplinary approaches to the animal question in France. While the work of French thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari has been available in English for many years, French Thinking about Animals opens up a much broader cross-cultural dialogue within animal studies. These original essays, many of which have been translated especially for this volume, draw on anthropology, ethology, geography, history, legal studies, phenomenology, and philosophy to interrogate human-animal relationships. They explore the many ways in which animals signify in French history, society, and intellectual history, illustrating the exciting new perspectives being developed about the animal question in the French-speaking world today. Built on the strength and diversity of these contributions, French Thinking about Animals demonstrates the interdisciplinary and internationalism that are needed if we hope to transform the interactions of humans and nonhuman animals in contemporary society.
[more]
cover of Freshwater Fish Distribution

Freshwater Fish Distribution

Tim M. Berra

University of Chicago Press, 2007

With more than 29,000 species, fishes are the most diverse group of vertebrates on the planet. Of that number, more than 12,000 species are found in freshwater ecosystems, which occupy less than 1 percent of the Earth’s surface and contain only 2.4 percent of plant and animal species. But, on a hectare-for-hectare basis, freshwater ecosystems are richer in species than more extensive terrestrial and marine habitats. Examination of the distribution patterns of fishes in these fresh waters reveals much about continental movements and climate changes and has long been critical to biogeographical studies and research in ecology and evolution.

Tim Berra’s seminal resource, Freshwater Fish Distribution,maps the 169 fish families that swim in fresh water around the world. Each family account includes the class, subclass, and order; a pronunciation guide to the family name; life cycle information; and interesting natural history facts. Each account is illustrated, many with historical nineteenth-century woodcuts.

Now available in paperback, this heavily cited work in ichthyology and biogeography will serve as a reference for students, a research support for professors, and a helpful guide to tropical fish hobbyists and anglers.
[more]
cover of Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba

Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba

Kenneth Stewart

University of Manitoba Press, 2004

Manitoba's ninety-three species of fish give the province the third most diverse fish population in Canada. The provinceís variety of geological features, with its major lakes, rivers, tributaries, and watersheds, is due in large part to its history as the basin for Glacial Lake Agassiz. This, combined with its access to the waters of Hudson Bay and large American river systems, has provided habitat for a wide diversity of freshwater fish. Species from lampreys to goldeye, catfish to perch, bigmouth bass to slimy sculpin swim in waters from arctic rivers in the north to Red River tributaries and down to the Mississippi in the south.Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide. Each species is accurately depicted in detailed colour photographs and accompanying map, with descriptions of physical characteristics, spawning and feeding habits, distribution, habitat, ecological role, and economic importance. The guide also includes an extensive glossary, keys to identifying the families, species, and subspecies, and information on documentation and preservation of specimens. Freshwater Fishes of Manitoba is not only the definitive guide to these fishes of Manitoba, it is also accessible and reliable for a range of users from general fishers to professional fish biologists.
[more]
cover of Freshwater Fishes of Mexico

Freshwater Fishes of Mexico

Robert Rush Miller, W. L. Minckley, and Steven Mark Norris

University of Chicago Press, 2006

Though Mexico is only one-fifth the size of the continental United States, it is home to nearly two-thirds as many freshwater fishes as those that swim the waters of the United States and Canada combined. Mexico's diverse freshwater fauna can be attributed to the country's highly varied physical geography, a wide latitudinal range, the largest river system in middle America, and, ironically, its oceans—many marine groups left the brine for the inland springs and never returned to the sea.

No one knew these Mexican freshwaters or the fish that inhabit them better than the late world-renowned ichthyologist Robert Rush Miller. A pioneer of the field, Miller undertook his first field excursion more than fifty years ago and, in the decades following, amassed the information necessary to write the first encyclopedia of Mexican inland ichthyology. Providing keys to more than 500 native species—accompanied by detailed distribution maps and illustrations—Freshwater Fishes of México offers a historical overview of the country's ichthyology, as well as syntheses of the unique biogeography of Mexican fishes and their current conservation status. Organized by family, the species accounts are supplemented with color galleries containing photographs of live fishes in their native environments and natural habitats. Exploring ecological, biological, and taxonomic issues, the book also considers the evolutionary history of the ichthyofauna itself and the human history of the scientists who researched it during the last several centuries.

The life's work of Robert Rush Miller, the long-awaited Freshwater Fishes of México will be welcomed not only by students of Mexican fishes, but by all ichthyologists working in Central and North America. This book will also find an audience among home aquarium hobbyists, fishery managers, conservation biologists, and environmental planners and managers.
[more]
cover of Freshwater Marshes: Ecology and Wildlife Management

Freshwater Marshes

Ecology and Wildlife Management

Milton W. Weller

University of Minnesota Press, 1994

Freshwater Marshes was first published in 1994. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Prairie potholes, wetland edges of lakes and rivers, and other freshwater marshes play a vital role in maintaining a clean and plentiful water supply for wildlife and human use. These wetland areas provide habitat for spawning fish, feed waterfowl, purify and retain water, and control erosion. In this updated third edition, Milton W. Weller describes the components of the freshwater marsh: its annual and seasonal dynamics as affected by rainfall cycles and the plant and animal population's response to such changes. Weller discusses how such wetland areas are managed for wildlife populations and diversity, and how such processes can be used in wetland conservation and restoration. He considers the impact society has on wetlands and offers conservation goals for freshwater wetland complexes.

Weller broadens the third edition to include an analysis of how prairie wetlands compare in water dynamics with swamps, tidal marshes, and other wetlands. He also expands the discussion of wetland classification, evaluation, mitigation, and restoration, and introduces a new glossary of current wetland terminology.

Freshwater Marshes is Volume 1 of Wildlife Habitats.

Milton W. Weller is professor emeritus and former Kleberg Chair in Wildlife Ecology, at Texas A&M University.

[more]
cover of Freshwater Mussels of Florida

Freshwater Mussels of Florida

James D. Williams, Robert S. Butler, Gary L. Warren, and Nathan A. Johnson

University of Alabama Press, 2014

An exhaustive guide to all aspects of the freshwater mussel fauna in Florida, Freshwater Mussels of Florida covers the ecology, biology, distribution, and conservation of the many species of bivalve mollusks in the Sunshine State. In the past three decades, researchers, the public, businesses that depend on wildlife, and policy makers have given more attention to the threatened natural diversity of the Southeast, including freshwater mussels. This compendium meets the increasingly urgent need to catalog this imperiled group of aquatic organisms in the United States.
 
Each entry in this definitive guide provides a detailed description and multiple depictions of the species as well as select characteristics of its soft anatomy and miscellaneous notes of interest. Individual distribution maps pinpoint the historical and present occurrence of each bivalve species and are just one component of the rich set of 307 mussel and habitat photographs, seventy-four maps, and thirteen tables that illustrate the book. Of particular interest are remarkable electron micrographs of glochidia, the specialized larval life history stage parasitic upon fishes.
 
Freshwater Mussels of Florida will be of lasting value to state and federal conservation agencies as well as other government and nongovernment entities that manage aquatic resources in Florida. The research provides a key baseline for future study of Florida mussels. The survey results in this guide, along with extensive reviews of historical mussel collections in natural history museums, provide a complete picture of the Florida mussel fauna, past and present. 
[more]
cover of Freshwater Wetlands: A Guide to Common Indicator Plants of the Northeast

Freshwater Wetlands

A Guide to Common Indicator Plants of the Northeast

Dennis W. Magee

University of Massachusetts Press, 1981

Although public interest in wetlands has grown considerably in recent years, the associated issues of legislation and environmental policy are often confused by the need to correctly define a wetland area. Much of the difficulty comes from an inability to identify wetland indicator species and to determine whether a given area contains a significant proportion of such plants. The 182 species treated in this work represent the fast majority of genera commonly encountered in freshwater wetlands throughout the Northeast, consequently, this will prove an invaluable book for those concerned with how a correct definition of wetland areas affects decisions about land use, development, and/or conservation.

Following a brief introduction that discusses the functional values of wetlands and describes their various types, the manual is organized into two major components, the first consisting of keys that are based on life form and arrangement of plant parts, the second consisting of a description of each species. Such factors as range, habitat, general characteristics, stem, leaves, inflorescence, fruit, and similar species are covered in the descriptions.
[more]
cover of Friendly Fallout 1953

Friendly Fallout 1953

Ann Ronald

University of Nevada Press, 2011

Friendly Fallout 1953 is a hybrid work of literature that combines the actual history of aboveground atomic testing in the Nevada desert in 1953 with fictional vignettes that explore the impact of the tests on the people who participated in them and on civilian "downwinders." The book brings to life a turbulent era when Cold War fears, patriotic enthusiasm, scientific progress, and unacknowledged political agendas often collided with the welfare of ordinary citizens and the environment.

[more]
cover of Frigid Embrace: Politics, Economics, and Environment in Alaska

Frigid Embrace

Politics, Economics, and Environment in Alaska

Stephen Haycox

Oregon State University Press, 2002

[more]
cover of Fringed Orchids in Your Pocket: A Guide to Native Platanthera Species of the Continental United States and Canada

Fringed Orchids in Your Pocket

A Guide to Native Platanthera Species of the Continental United States and Canada

Paul Martin Brown

University of Iowa Press, 2009

Native orchids are increasingly threatened by pressure from population growth and development but, nonetheless, still present a welcome surprise to observant hikers in every state and province. Compiled and illustrated by long-time orchid specialist Paul Martin Brown, this pocket guide to the fringed orchids forms part of a series that will cover all the wild orchids of the continental United States and Canada.

Brown provides a description, general distributional information, time of flowering, and habitat requirements for each species as well as a complete list of hybrids and the many different growth and color forms that can make identifying orchids so challenging. For the fringed-lipped orchids, which make up some of the most intriguing and richly colored of all wild orchids, he includes information on fourteen species and thirteen hybrids.

The genus Platanthera is the largest genus of orchids to be found in North America north of Mexico; the fringe-lipped group is found primarily in the eastern U.S. and Canada, extending west to the prairies and Great Plains. The fringed orchids, so-called because of the delicately fringed petals and lips on many of the species, comprise some of the largest and showiest native orchids found in our region. Most of these species are easy to identify based upon their general appearance, range, and time of flowering. Answering three simple questions—when, where, and how does it grow?—and comparing the living plants with the striking photos in the backpack-friendly laminated guide and the information in the simple key should enable both professional and amateur naturalists to achieve the satisfaction of identifying a specific orchid.
[more]
cover of Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast

Fritz Lang

The Nature of the Beast

Patrick McGilligan

University of Minnesota Press, 2013

The name of Fritz Lang—the visionary director of Metropolis, M, Fury, The Big Heat, and thirty other unforgettable films—is hallowed the world over. But what lurks behind his greatest legends and his genius as a filmmaker? Patrick McGilligan, placed among “the front rank of film biographers” by the Washington Post, spent four years in Europe and America interviewing Lang’s dying contemporaries, researching government and film archives, and investigating the intriguing life story of Fritz Lang. This critically acclaimed biography—lauded as one of the year’s best nonfiction books by Publishers Weekly—reconstructs the compelling, flawed human being behind the monster with the monocle.

[more]
cover of Frog Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Amphibian Lives

Frog Day

A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Amphibian Lives

Marty Crump

University of Chicago Press, 2024

An illustrated hourly guide that follows twenty-four frogs as they eat, find mates, care for their young, and survive our harsh and changing planet.
 
In this short book, celebrated biologist Marty Crump leads readers on a worldwide field trip in search of frogs. Each chapter of Frog Day covers a single frog during a single hour, highlighting how twenty-four different species spend their time. Our day begins at midnight in Indonesia, with the rustle of leaves above. It’s not a bird, but Wallace’s flying frog, using its webbed feet and emerald-green skin flaps to glide through the forest canopy. In the early hours of the morning, we hear a horned marsupial frog “bopping” and a wood frog “quacking” to attract mates. At six o’clock in the morning, beneath a streetlight in Honolulu, we meet a corpulent, invasive cane toad slurping insects—and sometimes snakes, lizards, turtles, birds, and mice. At noon, we watch parenting in action as an African bullfrog bulldozes a path through the mud to free his tadpoles from a drying pond. At dusk, in a Peruvian rain forest, we observe “the ultimate odd couple”—a hairy tarantula and what looks like a tiny amphibian pet taking shelter in the spider’s burrow. Other frogs make a tasty meal for this tarantula, but the dotted humming frog is a friend, eating the ants that might otherwise make a meal of the tarantula’s eggs.
 
For each hour in our Frog Day, award-winning artist Tony Angell has depicted these scenes with his signature pen and ink illustrations. Working closely together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Crump and Angell have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two—and a true gift for readers, amateur scientists, and all frog fans.
[more]
cover of Frog Mountain Blues

Frog Mountain Blues

Charles Bowden; Photographs by Jack W. Dykinga

University of Arizona Press, 1994

The Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson—whose summit is called “Frog Mountain” by native Tohono O’odham people—offer citizens of a major metropolis a wilderness in their own backyard. Today recreational facilities dot the Catalinas’ peaks, while housing developments creep up their foothills. Charles Bowden and Jack W. Dykinga here convey the natural beauty of the Catalinas and warn readers that this unique wilderness could easily be lost through easy access and overuse.
[more]
cover of Frog Mountain Blues

Frog Mountain Blues

Charles Bowden; Photographs by Jack Dykinga; Foreword by Alison Hawthorne Deming

University of Arizona Press, 2018

The Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson—whose summit is called Frog Mountain by the Tohono O’odham—offers up to the citizens of the basins below a wilderness in their own backyard.

When it was first published in 1987, Frog Mountain Blues documented the creeping sprawl of new development up the Catalinas’ foothills. Today, that development is fully visible, but Charles Bowden’s prescience of the urgency to preserve and protect a sacred recreational space remains as vivid as ever. Accompanied by Jack W. Dykinga’s photographs from the original work, this book continues to convey the natural beauty of the Catalinas and warns readers that this unique wilderness could easily be lost.

As Alison Hawthorne Deming writes in the new foreword, “Frog Mountain Blues continues to be an important book for learning to read this place through the eyes of experience and history, and Bowden remains a sobering voice for facing our failures in protecting what we love in this time of global destruction, for taking seriously the power of language to set ourselves right again with the enormous task of living with purpose and presence and care on the land.”
[more]