I use this book constantly to identify Pacific Northwest plants and get information about the conditions under which they grow in the wild. The pictures are especially helpful. Ethnobotanical information is interesting, too.

This is one book that travels with us wherever we drive; it is filled with bookmarks & scribbled observations whenever we've seen something new to add to Messrs. Pojar & MacKinnon's awesome efforts. Naturally they alone did not compile this book & it is an impressive & accurate effort of a large collection of dedicated people.An easy-to-use field guide featuring close to 800 species of flora commonly found from Oregon to Alaska, including trees, shrubs, wildflowers, aquatics, grasses, ferns, mosses & lichens. From shoreline to alpine, including the Olympics & the western Cascades. The perfect gift for anyone who wanders the land!..............

I have about thirty field guides on geology, fungi, plants, and wildlife generally focusing on the Northwest. I consider this to be best field guide of all - the standard by which other field guides should be measured. It is fairly comprehensive. It is concise and user-friendly. The color photographs are generally guide good. It even has occasional bits of interesting trivia to help you get familiar with the plant in question. I have heard from a biology student that there were a couple minor inaccuracies in the taxonomic classification, but unless you are a professional whose career depends on total precision, this book is your best bet. Buy it and get out and get to know your land a little better. Have fun but stay on the trails!

This book is written as a journal of a sailing voyage. Although the authors had previously visited the remarkable areas they photograph and describe six times before, the seventh visit is chronicled in these pages. Thus there is a great depth of knowledge and experience inherent to this work which transforms a simple if elegant journal into a powerful, somewhat doleful, environmental monograph.

This is a beautifully done book with many fascinating photographs of rainforest topography and the diverse life forms which abide therein. The accompanying text is well-written and consistently informative and interesting. But the overarching theme here is that pristine environments which are critical to the survival of untold species of flora and fauna are in jeopardy. Grave jeopardy. Moreover, the McAllisters take great pains to point out that the small islands of preserved and protected ecosystem created in compromise between commercial interests and environmentalists are insufficent to protect wildlife (bears, for example) that depend upon an interlinked vastness of unspoiled terrain in which to flourish.

So this book is as much an alarm and a plea for action as it is a wondrous presentation of its picturesque subject matter. As such, it is urgent reading for those of us concerned about the ravages unleashed when a society values short-term economic advantage (as when untouched river valleys are clear-cut by logging companies) over the work nature takes eons to complete.

This is a wonderful book for both nature and bear lovers alike. It is packed with beautiful color photos. Many interesting facts about the wildlife & plants of the area are detailed in the captions.

The landscape photos feature vibrant wildflowers, ancient forests, & mountains. There are also many remarkable pictures of several bear types. I loved the close-up shot of a bear eating a fish & another of a sprit bear on a log.

Stunning photos of some other animals include a puffin close-up, a bald eagle mother with baby, & an elephant seal gathering. If you can tear yourself away from the pictures, the text is equally impressive.

The authors tell of their experiences while exploring the rainforest. They also discusses the environmental concerns of the area. Journal entries from the trip are scatted throughout the book.

A powerful book on this special place. But, now she's discovered

I've been carrying around a now-dog-eared copy of this book for about 25 years. It is an essential guide for those of us who want to know what we are looking at, but aren't out enough to memorize all those trees. Bravo!

The Pacifc Coast Tree Finder is an excellent way to tune in to those stately giants and miniture cousins of the forests surrounding us. Easy questions about the unknown start in the front. Simple choices (needles or scales vs. ordinary leaves?) lead logically from one choice to another. Quickly, one confidently identifies the tree they are quizical about. I always feel more at one with Nature when I am able to know what is around me. This book has been a great companion for many years. An excellent choice for those seeking quickness and simplicity without having to "wade" through thicker, complicated nature identifer books.

I first used the original "Tree Finder" as a Scout almost 30 years ago, and was delighted to find this Pacific Coast version on a recent trip to Big Sur. Like the original, it seems to be an absolutely foolproof means of identifying trees. I found it especially useful since I wasn't familiar with any of the trees of Big Sur, none of which grow here in the Midwest. Coastal California has some magnificent species -- such as the Pacific Madrone, the California Laurel, and above all the Redwood -- and any visitor to the region who spends time outdoors will find this little book helpful.

Bayou Farewell by Mike Tidwell is a first-rate book and highly recommended. This book is about the loss of land along coastal Louisiana. At a rate of about 25 sqaure miles (or more) per year, Louisiana is losing the shallow water estuary that both supports a very productive fishing industry and offers storm surge protection during hurricanes. The reasons for the loss of land are presented in the book. With the sense of a road-trip adventurer, Mike Tidwell researched this issue by hitch-hiking his way up and down the bayous so that he could talk to and gather information from residents, fishermen, and scientists. The result is a report that combines scientific facts with cultural insight into what makes this region of the US a national treasure. Every American should read this book because this is a national issue that rarely gets reported in the media. If you like seafood, enjoy Cajun culture or like to visit New Orleans, then you should read this book. I particularly appreciated Mike Tidwell's ability to weave scientific discussions (e.g., river geomorphology) with cultural information such as the annual blessing of the fleet. This is an engaging and enlightening book. Read it soon before the story comes to a tragic ending.

I would never proclaim a book "great", as I am not experienced enough in this area with regard to form/prose/etc...However, I do believe in labeling a book as "entertaining", as this is much more subjective (what are reviews for, right?) Tidwell's book is one of the most enjoyable and entertaining I can remember reading. I have lived in Louisiana for over ten years, and was able to recall many of Tidwell's descriptions as he recounted visits with most of the "players" in the Lower Louisiana coastal area, as well as with the bureaucratic brick-walls standing in the way (locally and nationally). An intricate pattern is woven by Tidwell, demonstrating how one industry/community/culture can have a domino effect on many others. READ THIS BOOK and TAKE ANY ACTION POSSIBLE!

I was born and raised in New Orleans. In the 60's we built a fishing camp southeast of N.O. out of the town of Empire, La. A 15 minute boat ride, we were deep in the Gulf Salt Marsh and about 3 miles from the actual Gulf. We set power poles in the thick muck to build our 30' by 30' camp. The mosquitoes and racoons were everywhere--and the redfish, speckled trout, oysters and shrimp were bountiful. Over the next 25 years we watched the marsh slowly "drown" and disappear--eventually having our camp sitting in open water. Our knowledge of where the "edges" of the bayou used to be is the only way we can get back to the camp--now, without the marsh grass to use as a guide. Mike Tidwell has done a marvelous job of describing a real ecological/sociological disaster in the making--while much of Louisiana and the nation snoozes on. I have been to most of the places he describes. Spent many an hour fishing in the oil pipeline canals never realizing the damage they were quietly creating. I have trawlled for shrimp in some of those places he mentions, and Tidwell does an excellent job of creating a real picture for the reader through his word choices. I can't imagine how someone would not enjoy reading this. I fear that it might be too late--but Tidwell does an admirable job of bringing the problem to focus from a variety of viewpoints.

I bought this book during a trip to the Gulf of Maine, and found it to be an extremely useful guide to the invertebrates, vertebrates, and algae of the NE coast of North America.

Photos in the field guide are composed well and show detail needed to figure out what you are looking at. Each photo in the book is accompanied by a brief summary of identifying characteristics of the organism itself, a description of habitats where they are likely to be seen, the geographic range for the organism, and brief comments that will help you look in the right kinds of places to see things.

Though not a comprehensive guide to marine life of the region, this book provides a great introduction to marine biota. The author even provides room in the book for you to write down where and when you saw each entry. There is also room for brief comments.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you are planning a trip to New England or the Maritime Provinces.

Good stuff!

This book has many outstanding pictures. This book is a great picture identification guide with a lot of clear descriptions of subjects and their habitat. It has a place beside each picture to keep track of when and where you saw each subject making you want to find more and more of the featured subjects. It covers from seaweeds to sharks and everything in between. It shows all the ocean life you are likely to find as a diver, snorkeler or beach comber.

This book is a great picture identification guide with a lot of clear descriptions of subjects and their habitat. It has a place beside each picture to keep track of when and where you saw each subject making you want to find more and more of the featured subjects. It covers from seaweeds to sharks and everything in between. It shows all the ocean life you are likely to find as a diver, snorkeler or beach comber.

I really wish more scientist and environmentalist were in politics. Maybe then there wouldn't be a need for books such as this.

Mowat is a wonderful writer. He uses his writing talent to tell a horrifying tale, sadly, about the overkilling of sea life and the pollution of the oceans. It's a real wake-up call.

Since reading Mowat's "Sea of Slaughter," I can't get a certain picture out of my mind. It is of a sandy ocean beach, miles and miles long, where tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of morse came to socialize every summer until the middle of last century. The morse, or northern walrus, was a stupendous animal, of impressive bearing: a veritable lion of the sea. Yet it comes no more to those grounds, once the largest colony of its kind, out on Canada's Magdalene Islands, off the coast of Québec.

To think that the morse were just a side-show to it all. To think that eventually, with the same energy and relentless mechanical force, we would come to decimate the northern fishery more or less entirely, leaving thousands of perplexed fisher folk stranded in coastal villages, wondering perhaps, just where that many fish could possibly have gone.

On land, as in the water, nature's bounty was scarcely less prolific, the European's first reaction, scarcely less horrendous. Could this be the true, unknown history of North America, lying behind and directly concerning those early pilots and navigators like Cabot and Columbus. 400 or more years of unbelievably short-sighted culling of mighty herds, whether they were whales or bison or a hundred other species of birds and mammals known to have been hunted to the last. This is Mowat's sad chronicle. This is his portrait of what one day perhaps, will generally be known and accepted as history. And the only thing that may stop us is that we find we really don't want to ever learn this sort of truth.

Besides being a remarkable contribution to the literature of ecology and environment, this is also one of Mowat's finest personal efforts. You can see by the very nature of the material that it took a being of remarkable strength just to tackle a project like this, let alone bring it to a conclusion. It's probably true that one can prepare all one's life for just one event. In Mowat's case, without negating any other part of his remarkable œuvre, this may just be it.

Mowat wanted to write about life, humanity, and extinction. Obviously the topic was too broad, so he narrowed himself down to just discussing the North Atlantic and parts of the New World. I finished this book and was stunned by how much life there USED to be around here. Polar bears in Massachusetts? 12-foot sturgeon in the Chesapeake? Birds flocking in the millions that I had never even heard of? WE NEED MORE BOOKS LIKE THIS AND WE ALL NEED TO READ THEM!

This book will help anybody on the Eastern Seaboard find shelling spots from Maine to Florida. It is especially helpful with local customs and laws.

Now in an expanded second edition, Chuck and Debbie Robinson's The Art Of Shelling continues to be the definitive guide to finding shells and other beach collectibles at shelling locations ranging the American coastline from Maine to Florida. This compendium of information about the seashore and seashells has expanded to include new shelling locations, information on additional seashells and sea creatures, more illustrations, and an enhanced travel reference section. Superbly written and organized for the non-specialist general reader, The Art Of Shelling is a perfect guide for the hobbyist and collector, as well as the simple vacationer seeking unique mementos of their seaside visits.

When I first got the book in 1999, I read it cover to cover immediately, and learned much about the various beach finds I have been curious about for many years. It answered many of my basic questions and I still use it as a reference. Interesting and valuable information.

Althought the cover looks simplistic, it belies an excellent book for those interested in coastal and estuarine life forms and habitats in the Northeast US. Much more scientific than I expected. A great reference book!

This is book contains the best bird photographs I have seen. The photographer has some of the most unusual shots of birds. The pictures capture the birds in there normal activities. The text was well written especially keeping the order by seasons. Great job I hope to see more books by these authors.

A remarkable clear and concise description of Southern coastal birds by seasons of the year. This unique classification will allow even the novice to identify and enjoy migratory birds. Fontenot and Miller's work will enable the entire community of bird watchers to share appreciation of this National treasure. Two species that come to mind are the common blue bird and the rare sand hill crane which we enjoy in the Northern Summer.

The photography is a tour de Force in the Audubon tradition and the bird and habitat description could have only been done by a seasoned birder with years of on site experience. As a bonus Birds of the Gulf Coast is a coffee table quality book. epa

We are trying to get an "island" feel for our home and this book was the perfect reference. Not only are the pictures of the homes (inside and out) breathtaking, but there is enough detail about the decorating itself to be useful for our purpose. The only downside is that it makes you want to sell your current house and just travel the world staying in these amazing homes! Especially tempting is the contact information at the very end in case you actually want to rent one of them on vacation...

I found this to be a wonderful book - it has some amazing pictures. It affords you the opportunity to view some beautiful private houses that you are unlikely to be able to visit. Unlike some other books that focus primarily on houses in South East Asia, this one also features some great houses in Mexico and Jamaica.

Tropical Houses takes you around the globe to find some of the most interestingly designed homes in the world. The photographs are at once detailed and lush. If you are going to buy one book on tropical interiors, this should be the one.