The Jersey Shore attracts millions of visitors each year, drawn to its sandy beaches. Yet New Jersey’s coastline contains a richer array of biodiverse habitats than most tourists realize, from seagrass meadows to salt marshes to cranberry bogs.Beaches, Bays, and Barrens introduces readers to the natural wonders of the Jersey Shore, revealing its unique ecology and fascinating history. The journey begins with the contributions and discoveries of early naturalists who visite...

From two veteran ecologists comes a new and sweeping exploration of the natural history of Texas in all its biological diversity and geological variation. Few states, if any, can match Texas for its myriad species, past and present, and its many distinctive landscapes, from prairie grasslands and hardwood forests to coastal lagoons and desert mountains.Beginning with the stories of how biologists and naturalists have over time defined the ecological areas of this very big state, th...

The roughly 24 million acres that make up the Edwards Plateau, commonly known as the Texas Hill Country, are characterized by rolling highlands, picturesque river canyons, and beautiful springtime wildflowers. Located in the heart of Texas, this region is home to hundreds of natural springs, thousands of limestone caves, and the famous Devil’s Sinkhole. Encompassing grasslands, savannas, and woodlands, the Edwards Plateau is a unique and diverse ecological haven.Beginning with the ...

The last frontier in Texas, the Trans-Pecos region is an immense and remote series of desert basins in the western-most part of the state. Columns of rock and stony debris dot the landscape, with various peaks, such as the notable El Capitan, rising from a long-forgotten sea floor. While the acidic and shallow desert soil only allows for scrubby vegetation in many places, what survives is rugged, colorful, and adaptable. Far from just an arid region, however, the Trans-Pecos is also home t...

Floating on air currents over rural countryside and open city spaces, the Mississippi Kite presents a familiar sight to many people across the southern United States, although this graceful hawk is not well known by name. This engaging natural history, illustrated with superb color photographs, provides all a bird watcher needs to become acquainted with the kite, its life cycle, and its fascinating history with humans. Under various folk names, including Blue Darter, Grasshopper Hawk, and Mos...

North America contains an incredibly diverse array of natural environments, each supporting unique systems of plant and animal life. These systems, the largest of which are biomes, form intricate webs of life that have taken millennia to evolve. This richly illustrated book introduces readers to this extraordinary array of natural communities and their subtle biological and geological interactions.Completely revised and updated throughout, the second edition of this successful text...

Americans are having an increasing impact on the rural landscape as development further encroaches in former wilderness areas. This disruptive land use is causing a decline in wildlife and wildlife habitats. Wildlife and Habitats in Managed Landscapes presents a new strategy for solving this problem by redefining habitats to include the concept of landscape. Employing this strategy, natural resource managers apply tools of planning, management, and design to entire landscapes to m...

Maclay School's Journal of Creative WritingOn our title: We take the title of this journal from a novella of the same name by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The novella is an existential piece, written before Dostoyevsky's greatest works and before Existentialism had really taken root in literature. The unnamed narrator is frequently named an anti-hero and is described by the note on the back of the Dover edition as a "profoundly alienated individual in whose brooding self-an...