Nature

A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California
Laura Cunningham

Vernal pools, protected lagoons, grassy hills rich in bunchgrasses and, where the San Francisco Bay is today, ancient bison and mammoths roaming a vast grassland. Through the use of historical ecology, Laura Cunningham walks through these forgotten landscapes to uncover...

A Coast to Explore: Coastal Geology and Ecology of Central California
Miles O. Hayes and Jacqueline Michel; Illustrated by Joseph M. Holmes

From wave-cut rock cliffs and sea caves to gravel beaches and coastal dunes, California's coastline provides visitors with unparalleled topographical variety and great intellectual challenge. What forces shaped such an extraordinary landscape? Miles O. Hayes and Jacqueline Michel have been...

The Laws Pocket Guide: On grassy hills and in fields
Text and Illustrations by John Muir Laws

The Bay Area is known for its beautiful golden hills, which are covered with the combination of grasses, tangled shrubs, and other low-growing vegetation known as chaparral. Resident mammals are magnificent—look for the tracks and droppings of coyotes and other...

The Laws Pocket Guides: Among the oaks and pines
Text and Illustrations by John Muir Laws

With an ideal climate for some of the most majestic trees in the world, the Bay Area is an arboreal playland. Take a trek through Muir Woods to see the amazing Coast Redwood. This fog-loving tree provides shelter for the...

The Laws Pocket Guide: At the beach and on the bay
Text and Illustrations by John Muir Laws

Graced by the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Area teems with aquatic life. A major migratory stop for ducks and other shorebirds, Bay Area shorelines offer tremendous opportunities to enjoy waterfowl as they flock to the...

The Laws Pocket Guide: Near creeks, rivers, and ponds
Text and Illustrations by John Muir Laws

The Bay Area is a great place to explore the life that is sustained by marshes, streams, and ponds. Muddy banks make for great animal tracking, so keep your eyes downward in search of tracks and other clues, and listen...

There's a Hummingbird in My Backyard
Gary Bogue; Illustrated by Chuck Todd

The Bakers are spending time in their backyard when they notice two hummingbirds zooming around. Before long, they are surprised to learn that the female hummer has built a nest and is raising her new family in their yard. Kelly,...

Backyard Birds of the Inland Empire
Sheila N. Kee

Traditional field guides classify animals by a scientifically established taxonomy, but for the average "non-birder," these field guides can be frustrating to use and hard to navigate. Backyard Birds of the Inland Empire is sorted primarily by the bird's color...

A California Bestiary
Rebecca Solnit and Mona Caron

Inspired by medieval bestiaries, in which animals were presented in a fashion that favored the fanciful over the factual, Solnit and Caron have partnered to create their own book of magical beasts—one in which the truth is stranger than fiction....

Rivers of California: Nature's Lifelines in the Golden State
Photographs and text by Tim Palmer

The classic images of California are those of sunny beaches, redwoods, and the Sierra Nevada. Yet California is also a land of rivers--about ninety of them with thousands of forks, branches, and creeks. Totaling 194,000 miles, they cover more area...

A Rare Botanical Legacy: The Contributions of Ruby and Arthur Van Deventer in Northwestern California
Edited by Rick Bennett and Susan Calla; With an essay by David Rains Wallace

Del Norte County is one of the most botanically diverse regions of California. In 1936, when Ruby Van Deventer, at the time an unschooled enthusiast, met California's lead field botanist, Professor Willis Linn Jepson, he was enthusiastic. "I am glad...

The Laws Pocket Guide Set: San Francisco Bay Area
John Muir Laws

Created by the author and illustrator of the popular Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada, this set of habitat guides makes plant and animal identification fun and easy. The box set contains four user-friendly foldout guides and is small...

Granite, Water, and Light: The Waterfalls of Yosemite Valley
Photographs and text by Mike Osborne

Cascading recklessly down towering cliffs, Yosemite Valley's waterfalls bring inspiration and delight to millions of visitors each year. The Valley's waterfalls are renowned throughout the world not only for their height and number but for their astonishing variety—from "ephemerals" that...

Flowering Shrubs of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada
Shirley Spencer; Foreword by Malcolm Margolin

While the trees of Yosemite thrill visitors and the wildflowers often steal the show, every year the blue elderberry, the snowberry, the American dogwood, and dozens of other shrubs bloom in a glory all their own. This lovely volume, with...

The Complete Guide to Yosemite National Park, 6th Edition
Steven P. Medley

With over 100,000 copies of the original in print, this revised and expanded edition of a Yosemite classic has become a standard reference for park visitors. This guidebook features things to see and do, provides reservation information, lists hiking trails...

Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California
Photographs and text by Tim Palmer

Born of an intimate relationship with nature, Luminous Mountains is a spirited journey of discovery up the high peaks and down the wild rivers of the great Sierra Nevada. With 137 stunning photographs and the engaging text of a seasoned...

The Wild Muir: Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures
Selected and introduced by Lee Stetson; 
Illustrated by Fiona King

Here is an entertaining collection of John Muir's most exciting adventures, representing some of his finest writing. From the famous avalanche ride off the rim of Yosemite Valley to his night spent weathering a windstorm at the top of a...

Above All: Mount Whitney and California's Highest Peaks
Photographs by David Stark Wilson with text by Steve Roper; Foreword by Ken Brower

California's "Fourteeners"—Mount Whitney, Mount Shasta, and the loftiest peaks of the High Sierra—have long teased the imaginations and challenged the fortitude of mountaineers. Photographer and mountaineer David Stark Wilson captures the treacherous beauty of these summits and the surrounding panorama,...

Geological Ramblings in Yosemite
N. King Huber; Foreword by Jim Snyder

Written for a non-technical audience interested in geology, Geological Ramblings in Yosemite is a collection of essays by N. King Huber, a geologist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey who has extensive field experience in Yosemite National Park. Huber tells...

Yosemite: The Promise of Wildness
Photographs by William Neill; Essays by Tim Palmer

This fine gift book is an exploration of Yosemite's meaning and prospect for humankind through the insightful essays of Tim Palmer and the renowned photographic talents of William Neill. This collection of over seventy images includes monumental portraits of Yosemite's...

The Yosemite
John Muir; Photographs by Galen Rowell

Here is the complete text of John Muir's classic work about Yosemite, presented with 101 images from the work of renowned photographer Galen Rowell. Muir's writings, supplemented by modern annotations, capture the history and essence of Yosemite. A powerful evocation...

Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy
Bonnie J. Gisel with images by Stephen J. Joseph; Foreword by David Rains Wallace

Stunned into awe by the orchid Calypso borealis, John Muir wrote: "I never before saw a plant so full of life, so perfectly spiritual, it seemed pure enough for the throne of its Creator." Muir was blessed throughout his life...

The Trees of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco
Elizabeth McClintock; Edited and arranged by Richard G. Turner, Jr.

The Trees of Golden Gate Park is based on the writings of botanist Elizabeth McClintock, whose column on the trees of Golden Gate Park was a feature of Pacific Horticulture magazine for twenty-five years; it presents the reader with the...

Treasures of the Conservatory of Flowers
Nina Sazevich; Photography by Kevin J. Frest

Treasures of the Conservatory of Flowers is the first book to capture in great breadth and detailed attention the verdant richness of the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco. Housed in the oldest surviving municipal wood and glass greenhouse in...

There's an Opossum in My Backyard
Gary Bogue; Illustrated by Chuck Todd

A baby opossum falls off her mother's back and finds herself in a strange new world—a suburban backyard. As the Green family and the opossum become acquainted with each other, the adventurous creature learns to sneak food from the dog...

Sierra Birds: A Hiker's Guide
John Muir Laws

As a naturalist managing the field studies program at the California Academy of Sciences, John Muir Laws noticed that novice birders often distinguish birds by color and size rather than species. This inspired him to create Sierra Birds: A Hiker's...

The Raccoon Next Door: Getting Along with Urban Wildlife
Gary Bogue; Illustrations by Chuck Todd

Raccoon Next Door is a guide to help us identify and get along with the neighborhood raccoon and all our other wild neighbors. Author Gary Bogue presents stories, anecdotes, and sound advice for coexisting with the common creatures you might...

One Day on Beetle Rock
Sally Carrighar; Foreword by David Rains Wallace; llustrations by Carl Dennis Buell

An elegant and lively depiction of nine animals spending a spring day on Beetle Rock, a large expanse of granite in Sequoia National Park, One Day on Beetle Rock is a classic of American nature writing. Drawing on seven years...

Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America
Charles Melville Scammon; Foreword by Dick Russell

This volume—reprinted with a new foreword by whale expert Dick Russell—has long been a highly regarded classic of natural history writing. Until this book's publication in 1872, whales, dolphins, and other sea mammals were among the least known of the...

Magpies and Mayflies:
An Introduction to Plants and Animals of the Central Valley and Sierra Foothills
Derek Madden, Ken Charters, and Cathy Snyder

Follow biologist Derek Madden as he explores some of California's most diverse ecosystems. Most often associated with rich farmland, bountiful orchards, spreading cities, irrigation channels, and well-traveled highways, California's Great Central Valley and nearby Sierra Nevada Foothills have long hosted...

The Life of an Oak: An Intimate Portrait
Glenn Keator; Illustrations by Susan Bazell

Presenting the most inviting and revealing exploration of the majestic oak ever published. Beautifully printed in full-color, The Life of an Oak: An Intimate Portrait takes a close look at all aspects of the genus Quercus, from a microscopic examination...

The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada
Written and Illustrated by John Muir Laws

In this groundbreaking and meticulously field-tested guide, the rich variety of Sierra life—trees, wildflowers, ferns, fungi, lichens, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, and insects—comes alive. Easy-to-use features include: • Intuitive organization, color tabs, and simple keys • Similar-looking species side...

Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs With References to World Botany
Oscar F. Clarke, Danielle Svehla, Greg Ballmer, and Arlee Montalvo

The Santa Ana River is the largest watercourse in the heavily populated coastal plain of southern California. Despite the encroachment of urban development, the river and its environs are home to nearly 1,400 plant species. In this seminal guide to...

Discovering Nature's Alphabet
Krystina Castella and Brian Boyl

If you stand in just the right place, at just the right time, you are going to see some pretty amazing things. Like the three tall branches leaning against one another, creating the letter A. Or the spines of a...

Califauna: A Literary Field Guide
Edited by Terry Beers and Emily Elrod

From Native American tales and explorers' accounts to fiction and poetry by established and emerging writers, this new anthology is a playful exploration of how animals excite our imagination and compassion. Each piece in the anthology is a snapshot of...

Dawson's Avian Kingdom: Selected Writings by William Leon Dawson
Edited by Anna Neher

A literary feast for any bird lover, this selection of writings from William Leon Dawson's legendary book The Birds of California is an illumination and a joy. From predators to songsters, birds swooping over ocean cliffs, and birds nesting in...

Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People of Southern California
Jan Timbrook, with botanical watercolors by Chris Chapman

The Chumash people have lived in coastal California from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara for thousands of years. Their homeland is an area of uncommon biological richness and diversity, featuring over 1,500 species of plants. Their traditional foods, medicine,...

A Guide to the Sequoia Groves of California
Dwight Willard

This comprehensive guide is the first to focus on all the giant sequoia groves in the state of California, not just those that are well-known. The author has identified sixty-seven different groups of these forest giants, and has organized them...

The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park
N. King Huber

An authoritative and up-to-date study of Yosemite's geology this is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject written in terms that the lay person can understand. Multiple maps, diagrams and full-color photographs help to describe Yosemite's rocks and their origins....

Easy Day Hikes in Yosemite: Twenty Enjoyable Trails
Deborah J. Durkee

This best-selling guide, intended for those who are looking for moderately easy hikes in Yosemite is now in a much smaller and compact size. It describes twenty different trips and provides information on distance, route, time required, and sights to...

Discovering Sierra Reptiles & Amphibians
Harold E. Basey

Designed to answer practically any question about the reptiles and amphibians of the Sierra region from newts to toads, to lizards, to snakes, there is complete coverage of these often little-known species. For each reptile or amphibian it offers a...

Sierra Nevada Tree Identifier
Jim Paruk; Illustrated by Elizabeth Morales

This handy book is designed to allow users to quickly identify the trees they encounter in the Sierra Nevada. Unlike other tree identification manuals, it limits its scope. A total of 38 of the most common species are included, along...

An Illustrated Flora of Yosemite National Park
Stephen J. Botti; Illustrated by Walter Sydoriak

A landmark volume, nearly twenty years in the making, this book offers an unprecedented comprehensive treatment of every vascular plant species known to occur in Yosemite. Exquisitely illustrated with over 1,100 watercolor paintings of flowering species, and pen-and-ink drawings for...