From river otters and minks to bobcats, pikas, and flying squirrels, California boasts a diverse and intriguing fauna. But many of these animals can be secretive, shy, and nocturnal and observing them in the wild can be difficult. During the past tw…
This key reference is a primer on energy in a state that continues to lead the world in finding sustainable solutions to one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century. While much public debate has focused on fossil fuels, this clearly…
The characteristic look of California Chaparral - a soft bluish-green blanket of vegetation gently covering the hills - is known to millions who have seen it as the backdrop in movies and television productions. This complex ecological community of…
Anyone who travels California's byways sees the many faces of agriculture. A huge entwined business, farming and ranching are the state's dominant land use. Yet few Californians understand what animals and crops are raised or how agriculture reflect…
What is air? Why is the sky blue? Why do people react favorably to mountain or sea air? How does desert air differ from the air of California's Central Valley? How is air pollution affecting plants and animals? This book is a unique guide to the air…
From sunny beaches where thousands escape the summer's heat to wild and isolated rocky cliffs, California boasts one of the most spectacular and diverse shorelines in the world. Accompanied by numerous color photographs, diagrams, and maps, this gui…
Raptors--the charismatic group of birds that includes hawks, eagles, and falcons--evoke power, swiftness, and grace. Raptors, or birds of prey, gaze calmly about while at rest, exuding confidence and nobility, and, while soaring aloft, they are abso…
Each year millions of people visit the area of rugged California coastline and wild mountains known as Big Sur. Finally here is a book that is both a natural history of this beautiful region and an excellent guide to its extensive public lands. The…
This guide is the only complete reference to the sharks, rays, and chimaeras found in California's waters - from the intertidal zone to 500 miles offshore. Species accounts give information on habitat and range, natural history, interactions with hu…
The story of the California Condor--an awe-inspiring symbol of wilderness--is one of the most dramatic and contentious in conservation biology. Huge scavengers with wingspans reaching more than nine feet, Condors declined by 1985 to just nine indivi…
The mild Mediterranean climate of the San Francisco Bay Region nurtures an enormous variety of trees: majestic oaks and coast redwoods, lovely flowering dogwood and western redbud, graceful bigleaf maple, and many others. This guidebook, with its ea…
The diverse coastal habitats of the spectacular Pacific Coast include sandy beaches and dunes, salt- and freshwater marshes, coastal prairies and bluffs, riparian woodlands, and coniferous forests. This guide, first published nearly forty years ago,…
With over 40,000 described species, spiders have adapted to nearly every terrestrial environment across the globe. Over half of the world's spider families live within the three contiguous Pacific Coast states--not surprising considering the wide va…
Writing with verve and clarity, Mary Hill tells the story of the magnificent Sierra Nevada - the longest, highest, and most spectacular mountain range in the contiguous United States. Hill takes us from the time before the land which would be Califo…
Field guides often provide little ecological information, or context, for understanding the plants they identify. This book, with its engaging text and attractive illustrations, for the first time provides an ecological framework for the plants and…
This engaging and easy-to-use natural history guidebook provides a thorough overview of native and honey bee biology and offers tools for identifying the most common bees of California and the Western United States. Full-color illustrations introduc…
Capturing the vitality of California's unique indigenous cultures, this major new introduction incorporates the extensive research of the past thirty years into an illuminating, comprehensive synthesis for a wide audience. Based in part on new archa…
This user-friendly guide is the only complete resource that identifies and describes all the amphibians and reptiles - salamanders, frogs and toads, lizards, snakes, and tortoises and turtles - that live in California. The species are described in r…
Award-winning author, naturalist, and conservationist Tim Palmer presents the world of California rivers in this practical and inspiring field guide. Loaded with tips on where to hike, fish, canoe, kayak, and raft, it offers an interpretive approach…
Why does a bit of ocean floor lie on top of Mt. Diablo? Why is Red Rock, that small, knobby island in San Francisco Bay, red? Why is Loma Prieta high? This book is for San Francisco Bay Area residents and visitors who want to explore the geologic wo…
This title features detailed species accounts; gives information on horned lizard biology, ecology, and evolution; and describes the role of these fascinating reptiles in mythology, culture, and art. It covers the United States, Mexico, and Canada,…
In almost every location and every season, California is a birdwatchers' paradise. One can search Sierra meadows for a Great Gray Owl, the autumn estuary for a Black-bellied Plover, or spring willow thickets for the effervescent song of the Yellow W…
Most owls are almost perfectly adapted to life in the dark. Their vaguely humanoid faces reflect the spectacular evolution of their hearing and vision, which has made flight, romance, and predation possible in the near absence of light. This accessi…
Grasses and grasslands are of increasing interest to conservationists, biologists, and gardeners. There are more than 300 species of native California grasses and they are found in almost every climate--from cool, wet forests to hot, dry deserts. Na…
From gray whales giving birth in the lagoons of Baja California to sea otters nestled in kelp beds off California to killer whales living around Vancouver Island - this spectacular stretch of the Pacific Coast boasts one of the most abundant populat…
California's varied landscape is characterized by a spectacular abundance of plant life, including a magnificent variety of trees and shrubs. This is the first book to combine the trees and shrubs of California in one accessible field guide. Trees a…
Jules Evens weaves history, science, and personal anecdote into an absorbing chronicle of one of the most biologically diverse places in North America. His account of this enchanted 'island in time', separated by tectonics from the rest of the conti…
With its varied topography of coast, mountains, and desert, the San Diego region, considered one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, boasts a rich variety of amphibians and reptiles - from the arboreal salamander to the green sea turtle to the sec…
This complete primer on San Francisco Bay is a multifaceted exploration of an extraordinary, and remarkably resilient, body of water. Bustling with oil tankers, laced with pollutants, and crowded with forty-six cities, the bay is still home to healt…
In the spring, California's rolling hills, green valleys, and coastal slopes are colored with wildflowers treasured by both residents and visitors to the state. First published more than forty years ago, this popular guidebook has helped thousands o…
The Exclamation Damsel, Bison Snaketail, Powdered Dancer, Black Meadowhawk, and Sedge Sprite are just a few of the dragonflies and damselflies identified in this complete guide to California's abundant Odonates. o Species accounts discuss identifica…
Glaciers in sunny California? Many people will be surprised to learn that there are several hundred in this state, ranging in size from the impressive Whitney Glacier on Mt. Shasta and the Palisade Glacier in the Sierra Nevada to tiny glacierets. Wh…
California and the Western States are rich in abundant and diverse species of mushrooms. Amateur mushroom collectors and mycologists alike will find over 300 species of the region's most common, distinctive, and ecologically important mushrooms prof…
What is fire? How are wildfires ignited? How do California's weather and topography influence fire? How did the California Indians use fire? In the spirit of his highly acclaimed "Introduction to Air in California" and "Introduction to Water in Cali…
Grasses have been extremely important in California, with its rolling grass-covered hills and the green-to-gold seasonal cycle of many native grasses. This convenient pocket guide surveys the range and provides identification keys for the common int…
Carnivorous pitcher plants, pygmy conifers, and the Tiburon jewel flower, restricted to a small patch of serpentine soil on Tiburon Peninsula in Marin County, are just a few of California's many amazing endemic plants - species that are unique to pa…
Many landscapes in California's mountains are still relatively untouched by human activity and provide excellent opportunities for viewing wildflowers. This guidebook describes and illustrates the wildflowers that grow from the yellow pine belt up i…
The magnificent and much-loved Sierra Nevada, called the 'Range of Light' by John Muir, is the dominant feature on the California landscape. First published forty years ago, this handbook has become an enduring natural history classic, used by thous…
The northern California coast, from Monterey County to the Oregon border, is home to some of the richest avian habitats on the North America continent. Field Guide to Birds of the Northern California Coast provides a comprehensive ecological overvie…
Spotting an animal's fresh footprints in the wild can conjure a world for the hiker: Why did the deer tracks disappear? Where did the cougar turn off the trail? What does it mean when two sets of footprints seem to coincide? This beautifully illustr…
Some of the most spectacular and famous spring wildflower displays in California occur in the state's deserts. In fact, California's deserts support a surprisingly rich diversity of plants and animals year-round, making them a rewarding destination…
The California Tortoiseshell, West Coast Lady, Red Admiral, and Golden Oak Hairstreak are just a few of the many butterfly species found in the floristically rich San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley regions. This guide, written for both beginnin…
