A wonderful book on Los Cabos by a woman who obviously loves the place. It's well written, it has elegant drawings by the author and excellent photos by her husband, Herman H. Zwinger. In fact it's by far the best book in English on Los Cabos, with coverage of the plants and animals, fish and birds, ocean and desert, mountains and arroyos. A lot of the area's history is woven in and out of the book and in the appendix is a great chronology of Baja (including the capture in 1587 of the Spanish galleon Santa Ana by Thomas Cavendish at Cabo San Lucas), and painstaking lists of the plants, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians of the Cape Region.

If you have any interest in alpine tundra this is a must read book! If you have even a general interest in natural science and ecology this book is a classic. I was amazed at how the authors were able to integrate a crisp scientific exposition with an almost poetic writing style that left me with such vivid mental images. Even if you are not going to visit the tundra, this book is an experience. If you are hiking these areas it will expand the experience. Read this book!!!

From his beginning book, A Book About Gliders, to his Pulitzer Prize Winning American seasons series, Edwin Way Teale takes his readers on another trip, this time through his own backyard. Teale first recounts his desire to leave his suburban home on Long Island in quest of the perfect naturalist's home. After a balloon ride over a picture perfect farm-house and 130 acres in Hampton, Connecticut, Mr. Teale finally discovers what he has been looking for: "Trail Wood". Relax and enjoy the incredible descriptive writing style of Edwin Way Teale through the woods and wildlife of his home in Connecticut. Now an Audubon Society Sanctuary open to the public, you'll be amazed your not already there.

I am blessed to own some woodland in New England, and my forester recommended this book.

The author writes with the same love for the land that I have, but with much more knowledge. He really enjoys the wonderful details that exist in a forest, and he illuminates them with clear explanations of how the landscape has evolved. The general tone of the book is one of guided investigation for the curious, so there is a great deal of warmth in it.

I don't know how well it works for those who do not have a basic knowledge of trees. If you are not already familiar with the different kinds of tree, you may want a tree identification book too.

I can't give this book five stars because the illustrations were not as helpful as I would have liked. I wanted color and a better sense of the textures. Illustrations of indicator plants would have been a big bonus in the appendix, and I wish they had been provided.

For a more technical book, see Working with Your Woodland by Mollie Beattie. It contains more information and is geared to the landowner, but it doesn't have nearly as much soul. For example, Wessels' book describes stumps with a keen loving eye. They barely get a mention in Beattie's book, and their significance is lost.

Reading the Forested Landscape, A Natural History of New England, reminded me that many general biology students will wander through woodlands and prairie perhaps aware of molecular happenings and yet oblivious to what the landscape is saying. This book can add delight to an ordinary stroll through an overgrown pasture or a drive through what at first glance appears to be monotonous countryside. Deducing the past history of a landscape invites more detailed observations than casual hiking even if the landscape is far from New England. This thin volume contains original high quality etchings of different landscapes. Each etching is accompanied by a detailed interpretation of the history of the forest. Human additions to the landscapes are included as a natural and important part of the history. The strength of the book lies in the insights into the reasoning behind conclusions. This reasoning has allowed me to make some transitions to the semiarid portions of Texas where I spend most of my time. The history of New England is naturally and liberally integrated into the stories of the landscape. This is not a forced history/science link but a very natural and intriguing story that unfolds with each new etching. A glimpse into the future is provided in the last chapter, rounding out a wonderful view of landscapes.

This book is a guide to understanding clues that explain the varied forest patterns of Central New England.

Each chapter focuses on a single form of disturbance - either man made or natural - that impacts the region's forests. The chapters focus on logging, pasture abandonment, fire, beaver activity, blow downs, forest blights, topography and substrate and their impact on the plants located near these disturbances.

Each chapter discusses the disturbance and then in a section entitled "A Look Back" the disturbance is related to the site's natural history. This new way of seeing a forest and its history adds to my walks in the woods. I feel a connection, a reverence, an enhancement and an inclusion that was not part of my previous walks. Although most of my hikes are in the Green Mountains of Vermont, I am convinced this process of reading the forest can be applied to any woodland in North America.

Rachel Carson, a scientist by trade, writes beautifully about the ocean in this book; it was worthy of the National Book Award, which it won in 1951. Carson takes the time to describe generally what was known about the sea at the time of her writing, and is prophetic in her comments about human impact to the world's oceans. While providing the reader with a general scientific discussion of the sea, she also gives us some magical moments: questions about the lost continent of Atlantis, mysteries about the nature of the deepest ocean bottoms, descriptions of lumninescent creatures surfacing in the remotest areas of open ocean. This book is simultaneously great science and great literature, and is essential reading for anyone interested in marine biology or geology, even decades since its original publication.

Wow!!! It is amazing that this book is over 50 years old. As a high school student, I had to read this book for Ecology. Rachel Carson's book is an eye-opener. It was some 50 years ago. And, it still is. "The Sea Around Us" is truly a classic. Carson gives us all an insight on what would happen if we mistreat the natural environment -- especially the oceans around us. Sadly, today, some of these prophecies are becoming a reality. I agree with a fellow reviewer. This book should be mandatory reading for all students. Maybe if more people read this book, we would all respect nature just a little better.

It is difficult to believe that this book is over 50 years old. The recommendations are still valid and elusive today. Only when the general public accepts the need to protect the environment will things change. That is why this book should be required reading for all students.

This is truly one of the most boring books I have ever read! The entire book is written in plural "We", referring to he and his wife. They travel the Southwest and Texas and do not even enter snow country until the last few chapters. The author uses words like "hence" and "thus" and goes into elaborate and boring detail about every food they eat, and bird they see. The only redeeming aspect was that I learned about Bentley's amazing research and photography of snow flakes.

The naturalist Edwin Way Teale wrote four books about his and his wife's 100,000-mile journey that crisscrossed America and its seasons: "North With the Spring" (1951); "Autumn Across America" (1956); "Journey into Summer" (1960); and "Wandering Through Winter" (1965). In nearly 1400 pages this quartet of books takes the reader off the beaten paths and onto a grand tour of the natural history of this country. The only other books I know of that are remotely similar to these are John McPhee's geological grand tour of the 40th Parallel, "Annals of the Former World" (formerly published as a four-volume set).

If Annie Dillard had abandoned Tinker's Creek and taken a pilgrimage across America, she might have written books comparable to Teale's opus magnus.

The author and his wife, Nellie are the grandparents everyone should have, pottering about the country, writing reams of lucid prose about their adventures. Teale's warmth and breadth of interests sustain our attention through the migration of a pod of gray whales, the discovery of hibernating poorwills in the lower Colorado desert, giant beavers on the Missouri, or a night in the 'sugarbushes' of New Hampshire. The pace might seem a bit stately to some readers, but Nature is stately. This is a trait that ought to belong to naturalists. It is the antithesis of the TV generation's notoriously short attention span.

Here then are the subjects in one chapter of the Teales' leisurely journey, "The Diamond Farm:" 'Plowing for diamonds'--'Two shining pebbles'--'A crop of precious stones'--'The volcanic matrix'--'Kimberlite rock'--'A quiet interlude'--'Diamond in the mud'--'The elegant searcher'--'Doodlebugs'--'A rare example of credulity'--'A turtle-carrying spaniel'--'Law of the White Queen'--'Sorghum molasses'--'Edge of the Ozarks'--'"Ridge runners"'--'Contracted names'--'The brown, historic river.'

Teale's black-and-white photographs form a meticulous record of their journey through an American winter, including one of Nellie in her hat, long coat, and stout walking-shoes amid wind-formed gypsum dunes. It is easy to fall in love with these books, and the couple who lived each chapter.