I believe this is a cause for restoration. This book made me believe that the wolf should be released in to the Adriondack mountians. It also had me believing that the ecosystem needs the wolves to survive. I was especially fascinated by Kristen Deboer's idea of creating corridors between parks in Canada ans the northeast, to help creat migratrion routes for animals. I believet he book itself aswell was ans informative, great, intertaining read.

The Return of the Wolf is an eye-opener as it gives four very distinct and honest evaluations of the possibility of our northeastern forest communities welcoming the timber wolf back to it's native haunts. Let us not confuse the eastern coyote which has hybridized with the eastern wolf as the as the easts top canid predator.....The wolf, just as in Yellowstone and Minnesota is the true predator of the moose , Caribou Elk and Beaver. The coyote, even if hybridized with wolf genes is still not a large enough creature(maximum of 70 pounds whereas the true timber wolf can be 100-150 pounds)to bring down the northeasts growing moose population and hopefully one day a restored caribou herd. Let the voice of Rick Bass,Kristen DeBoer and Bill McKibben weigh heavy.......let us set aside the lands, educate the "Little Red Riding Hood" believers and politic effectively with the state house representatives who tend to buckle to the pressure of corporations who favor short term extraction versus long term sustainability. Give the wolves the chance to push the coyotes to their rightful "fringe" of the forest allowing the true timber wolf and restored(hopefully) Cougar to stand atop the food chain as top predators of the land. Our forests have returned after 400 years of being chopped and burned.Let us stop the shopping malls and second home developments from destroying our wonderful open lands.Let the land be restored to it's glory and allow the current residents of the backwoods to continue their sustainable forestry and wsoodcraft busines while reaping some benefits from a contrulled and managed Ecotourism. What a great thing for us to have the pomeans and will to return and restore our woodlands in the most populated part of the U.S. to their former majesty. We can be a model for the conservative western United States and the emerging 3rd world countries to emulate......The Return of the Wolf speaks of all of these things and more........Fantastic writing! Rivals Charles Little storytelling in the "Dying of the trees". Please pass on to a friend.......Let the restoration of the north woods begin!

I purchased this book to learn more about the Outer Banks, which I have long wished to visit and where we will spend a week this summer. It is an amazingly interesting and informative book. Geology, geography, biology, weather, ecology, politics, and more are all discussed as is the importance of each in relation to the others. I found the book engrossing and would recommend it even if you are not going to this unique area of the world. Now when the kids ask me why there is a forest in the dunes I will be able to tell them and I will be much better able to appreciate the beauty of the place.

I picked this book up during a recent week's stay on Topsail Island (one of the southernmost of the Outer Banks). Having never read a book on natural history or the ecology, I was prepared for the paper-pulp equivalent of Sominex.

Never have I been more wrong in my preconceptions about a book. Ribbon of Sand captures PERFECTLY the true mystique of North Carolina's Outer Banks -- how a half-mile wide band of barrier islands survive both because of nature . . . and in spite of it. Each segment of the book ties together both human and natural history. How the wind the shapes the wonderfully high dunes near Kill Devil provided the Wright Brothers with the means to test their gliders and to develop the first airplane. How shifting tides and currents that continue to shape the Outer Banks both abetted . . . and spelled doom for Blackbeard the Pirate.

In short, Ribbon of Sand captured my imagination and instilled in me a greater appreciation for the fragile balance of nature and man on the Outer Banks. I very highly reccomend this book!

Sublime and enchanting is how John Hay has the reader feeling. It is truly a superb book, well written and thoughtful as well as thought provoking.

I first read this book in the early 1970s when I was conducting my Ph.D. thesis research, which dealt with the migratory behavior of a fish called the alewife, also known as river herring. Alewife are like small, silvery salmon. About 10 inches long, they migrate into small streams and rivers along the East Coast in the spring to spawn, and the juveniles then migrate to the ocean in the fall, where they live for four or five years before returning to their home stream to spawn. John Hay captures the mystery and delight of an alewife run. Unlike salmon runs that occur in large rivers where the fish can't be seen, alwife migrate into many very small streams, many of which pass through towns and under old mills, such that the fish are readily visible to people. To see thousands of fish stacked up at the base of a dam, knowning that they had traveled thousands of miles in the Atlantic for years before finding their way back to the location where their life began as an egg, is almost incredible. John Hay describes the essence of the alewife in a very informative but tremendously readable style. This is a must read for anyon who enjoys fine writing and has an interest in the natural world.

This is an excellent collection of essays that anyone could enjoy. Authors ranging from Mark Twain to Henry David Thoreau, from Barry Lopez to Charles Darwin, share their experiences about the seacoast. These essays touch any subject of interest (such as surfing, the Hawaiian Coast, whales and coral reefs) and would be a great gift to anyone interested in the ocean/coast. I had to read most of the essays for my college english class and I have never enjoyed reading these passages as much as any other textbook assigned to me. This is definately a book I will want to reread again and again. I will be eager to find the rest of the series (subjects include mountains, rivers, endangered species, deserts, forests, etc) as soon as they are published. This book is truly refreshing and opens the senses to the coastal environment around you!!!

A collection of essays, rather than short stories, this is a very entertaining read. Different views, different shores, all centered on the sea. Notable: Mark Twain's account of a Hawaiian trip; Barry Lopez's essay on beached whales and Jan DeBlieu's story of a Cape Hatteras storm. Well edited, ideal beach reading. A wide-ranging assortment making this a great gift for everyone on your list.

I've been amazed at the amount of information packed into this small book. In addition to the handy lists of information, such as the list of flowers that will produce seed for birds, there are also amusing and inspiring anectdotes sprinkled throughout the book. Definitely worth having in your library!

John Terres provides fascinating insight into the life of songbirds and how to attract them to your home and garden. Beyond mere identification, the descriptions of individual bird behavior greatly enhance the birdlover's understanding of their feathered friends. Included are easy-to-follow suggestions for making your own bird feeders, houses, baths and other sundries, and references to other intriguing books on living with birds. I would highly recommend this book, more for the depth of information than it's ease of use as an identification tool.

... because I keep taking it out to look at again. The photographs are stunning. And Graves's prose is just lovely, as it always is. The reason the essays are all too brief (as the previous reviewer noted) is that they originally appeared in "Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine," which set strict limits on length. I read each piece in the series as it came out, but it's lovely to see them all in one place, with more - and very well printed - illustrations.

Meinzer's photography was great but John Graves seemed at a loss for words, i.e. his essays were far too short. Graves takes time to get into his subject ("Goodbye to a River" and "Hardscrabble"). Even though I wanted more, what he wrote is first rate. He understands the magic and individuality of each river, even my Llano.

If it wasn't for John, I may never have learned to take entomology both as seriously and as lightly as I take it now! This is the field guide you've been waiting for, combining great photos and drawings with distribution data and colourful anecdotes. Quite possibly the ultimate tiger beetle book! P.S., that's me with the tattoos!

John Acorn's "Tiger Beetles of Alberta" is a model of the kind of book that serves the needs of amateur naturalists and professional biologists wanting to identify the plants and animals they encounter. Since most of the literature is either arcane or (more often) unavailable, books like Acorn's fulfill a real need. The text will not only allow the reader to identify the beetle species, but it also provides information about the beetle's ecology, behavior, and related topics. Range maps also help the reader identify the species. The photographs and drawings are spectacular. Yet two "quirky" features distinguish this book: first, the haiku Acorn has composed for each species; second, the anecdotes he provides about tiger beetle people. The book is not only informative; it is entertaining. Additional features include a discussion of tiger beetle conservation. maintaining tiger beetles in captivity, observing tiger beetles, and a useful bibliography.

This is the best book available regarding the little-known and mysterious transient orcas. In addition to having a detail catolgue of each transient whale in B.C waters, the book analysis and discuss the distinct behaviour and hunting styles of the transients, which are completely different from the salmon-eating resident killer whales.

Futhermore, there are numerous rare and spectacualr photos showing transients launching into the air and attacking their preys. This shows why Killer Whales are called "killers". For while these whales do not attack or eat man, they are highly efficient predators, no marine mammal is safe from transient whales. Read this book and you will understand why.

This is the definitive source for information on the transient or mammal hunting race of killer whales of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. If you are serious about learning what there is to know about these fascinating superpredators-this is THE book to buy. I am a naturalist on a whale watch boat in the San Juan Islands and we use this book constantly to inform our guests about the "alter egos" of our salmon eating Resident Orcas. Fabulous pictures and incredible stories.

John Lanes details into his daily life and his experiences are very well written in this novel. His collection of essays are interesting and enjoyable to read. The book was a pleasure to read, and I can not wait to pick up another copy hopefully very soon.

A loving and passionate collection of essays that leave the reader with intimate knowledge of a man who lives his life with intentionality and purose. Read slowly and thoughtfully, Waste Deep in Black Water reveals the many rewards of living with deep respect for community, landscape, ecosystems, people, and all living things. With generosity of spirit, John Lane leads readers to see that how he goes about his work, travels, and everyday activities is what enriches and brings meaning to life.

This is a great book for those of us interested more in the weather and less in stuffy meteorology. I now have an understanding of "relative humidity" and why a "dry heat" is more comfortable than humid heat. I now know where some weather proverbs come from, such as "Red sky at night, sailor's delight." (There's actually factual basis for this proverb.)

This book makes a nice coffee table book, and it lends itself to casual reading. But if you're serious about the weather, you can get a lot from this book as well. There's a chapter on setting up your own weather instruments at home and keeping a weather diary. And the appendix lists a number of websites where you can learn even more about the weather. No more glib answers from me when someone says, "How about this weather?"

Very good book on the topic. It gives a great description and count on how weather forms for example hurricanes like el nino. I am glad that dummies finally put out a book on weather. Nice job John D. Cox. It's good to see a new writer in this field!!