America’s National Wildlife Refuges
Russell D. Butcher (Taylor Trade Publishing // $19.95)
Ever wonder where the wild things are? Find out in America’s National Wildlife Refuges: A Complete Guide. In this new edition, author Russell D. Butcher catalogs more than 530 sites in the national wildlife system, as well as hundreds of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish found there — including 170 species that are threatened or endangered. This user-friendly guide is arranged alphabetically by state, and information on each refuge’s accessibility and facilities makes it easy to plan an outing to a local refuge or an overnight trip to a more remote destination. The guide doesn’t include Cherry Valley, Pennsylvania — the newest National Wildlife Refuge to receive designation, with the help of The Nature Conservancy (see “Pennsylvania,” page 69), but you can check out other refuges the Conservancy helped establish, expand or restore, such as Hakalau Forest, Hawaii, and Alligator River, North Carolina. Consider this guide an invitation to explore the nation’s natural heritage.
— Jennifer Winger
Dead Pool
James Lawrence Powell (University of California // $27.50)
You don’t need to be a hydrologist to understand that water in the West is a precious commodity. But to appreciate the significance of James Lawrence Powell’s new book, Dead Pool, you may need a remedial lesson: “Dead pool” describes a reservoir whose water is at or below the minimum level at which it can function. At half full, Utah’s Lake Powell is a prime example, perilously close to dead. With the Colorado River already overextended by the demands of people and crops, there is no surplus to replenish what has been lost. And according to Powell, dam building is not the answer on Lake Powell or anywhere else: He describes it as a temporary solution at best and a dangerous storage system for silt at worst. In Lake Powell’s case, the die has been cast — the dams have been built and the resources strained; it only remains to be seen how society will respond to the global warming and drought that threaten what few resources remain.
— J. W.
Birdwatcher
Elizabeth J. Rosenthal (Lyons Press // $29.95)
In 1934, a 25-year-old natural history teacher in Brookline, Massachusetts, published Field Guide to the Birds, the first bird identification guide geared toward a lay audience. The first printing of 2,000 copies was sold out within a week, and suddenly bird-watching was no longer a boutique hobby of scientists and scholars — Roger Tory Peterson had brought birding to the masses. In Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson, author Elizabeth J. Rosenthal explores the life of this icon of ornithology — from his boyhood encounter with a sleeping woodpecker to the development of the patented Peterson Identification System. On the 75th anniversary of the publication of Peterson’s first field guide, his message of conservation and consideration for the natural world has never been more important
— J. W.
Read past reviews
Images: Photo © Mark Godfrey (Books)
Join The Nature Conservancy on