Anders Halverson provides an exhaustively researched and grippingly rendered account of the rainbow trout and why it has become the most commonly stocked and controversial freshwater fish in the United States. Discovered in the remote waters of northern California, rainbow trout have been artificially propagated and distributed for more than 130 years by government officials eager to present Americans with an opportunity to get back to nature by going fishing. Proudly dubbed "an entirely s...

**Winner of the 2023 Rachel Carson Environment Book AwardWinner of the 2023 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History LiteratureShortlisted for the 2023 Phi Beta Kappa Society Ralph Waldo Emerson AwardA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2022A deep-time history of animals and humans in North America, by the best-selling and award-winning author of Coyote America.**In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the rem...

**Winner of the Sierra Club's 2021 Rachel Carson AwardOne of Chicago Tribune's Ten Best Books of 2021Named a Top Ten Best Science Book of 2021 by Booklist and Smithsonian Magazine"At once thoughtful and thought-provoking,” Beloved Beasts tells the story of the modern conservation movement through the lives and ideas of the people who built it, making “a crucial addition to the literature of our troubled time" (Elizabeth Kolbert, aut...

"This is one of the most important books of the decade, and it should be required reading for all who love the outdoors." —Kenn Kaufman, author of Kaufman Field GuidesIn 1953, birding guru Roger Tory Peterson and noted British naturalist James Fisher set out on what became a legendary journey—a one-hundred-day trek over 30,000 miles around North America. They traveled from Newfoundland to Florida, deep into the heart of Mexico, through the Southwest, the Pacific No...

Beyond Audubon: A quirky, "lively and illuminating" account of bird-watching's history, including "rivalries, controversies, [and] bad behavior" ( The Washington Post Book World).From the moment Europeans arrived in North America, they were awestruck by a continent awash with birds—great flocks of wild pigeons, prairies teeming with grouse, woodlands alive with brilliantly colored songbirds. Of a Feather traces the colorful origins of American bird...

"A definitive history of bird conservation in America.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred)From the time the country was founded, early Americans assumed that the land’s natural resources were infinite, including its birds, which were zealously hunted for food, game, and fashion. With the rapid extinction of the passenger pigeon—a bird once so numerous that its flocks darkened the sky in flight—many realized actions needed to be taken if other birds...

Intelligent investigative writing meets experiential journalism in this important look at one of North America’s most voraciously invasive speciesPoliticians, ecologists, and government wildlife officials are fighting a desperate rearguard action to halt the onward reach of Asian Carp, four troublesome fish now within a handful of miles from entering Lake Michigan. From aquaculture farms in Arkansas to the bayous of Louisiana; from marshlands in Indiana to labs in ...

The American Bird Conservancy Guide to the 500 Most Important Bird Areas in the United States offers both bird enthusiasts and conservationists specialized information never before compiled in a single comprehensive volume.This expert resource organizes the United States into 36 ornithologically distinct bird regions, then identifies and describes the 500 sites within these regions. Each site entry includes ornithological highlights, ownership information,...

An intimate biography of place and an urgent call to conservationNot far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and it...

A captivating drama from the frontlines of the race to save birds set against the devastating loss of one third of the avian population.Three years ago, headlines delivered shocking news: nearly three billion birds in North America have vanished over the past fifty years. No species has been spared, from the most delicate jeweled hummingbirds to scrappy black crows, from a rainbow of warblers to common birds such as owls and sparrows.In a desperate race aga...

"A book devoted to the beauty of [Hawaiian] birds . . . is a welcome event. [It] will be both an elegy and an important record of what has been lost to us all." —W. S. Merwin, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, The Shadow of SiriusA lively, rich natural history of Hawaiian birds that challenges existing ideas about what constitutes biocultural nativeness and belongingThis natural history takes readers on a thousand-year journey as it explores the Hawaiian ...

A naturist and historian for the National Parks Service offers a lively history of the giant sequoias of California and the love of nature they inspired.Former park ranger William C. Tweed takes readers on a tour of some of the world's largest and oldest trees in a narrative that travels deep into the Sierra Nevada mountains, across the American West, and all the way to New Zealand. Along the way, he explores the American public's evolving relationship with sequoia...