Nature

How do we live with fire? From the creator of The California Field Atlas, a book of stewardship, resilience, and hope.

Fire is an essential part of California's ecology. Humans have been using it to shape the California landscape for thousands of years. But today many Californians' relationship to fire is one of fear. Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, now asks: How do we live with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State, and how do we benefit from its teachings? With the same solution-minded ethic as his much-admired The State of Water: Understanding California's Most Precious Resource, Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. He considers the long history of ecological burns, the varied ways fire behaves across the state, and the lessons we can learn from California's largest fires of recent decades.

Packed with Kaufmann's signature watercolor maps and paintings, The State of Fire confronts one of California's most pressing social and ecological challenges. From this maelstrom Kaufmann emerges to share a deepened love for the natural world—and a refreshingly hopeful vision of California's future.

An illustrated obsession, a guidebook, a kaleidoscope of life on the wing.

Liam O'Brien has spent three decades chasing, learning about, protecting, occasionally catching, and always loving butterflies. Here, he shares his capacious knowledge of California butterflies through a treasure trove of stories and 700 gorgeous, hand-drawn illustrations—featuring both adult forms and caterpillars—of the 135 species that live in the greater Bay Area. This sumptuous book also shares practical tips for finding and identifying all the butterflies who call the Bay Area home. Learn which plants nurture Silver-spotted Skippers, which trail to hike to see Swallowtails flitting creek-side, and why so many butterflies cluster on hilltops. Share in the joy that O'Brien brings to the study of butterflies, and join the community scientists contributing to our understanding of Monarchs, Metalmarks, and Marbles—and what they need to survive and thrive in our busy Bay Area.

A galvanizing road trip across California's immense public wilderness from a beloved adventurer.

"The Enduring Wild is a call to look beyond the surface, embrace the deep connections that tie us to our public lands, and commit to safeguarding them for future generations." —QT Luong, author of Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America's National Parks

It all began with a camping trip. Outdoor enthusiast Josh Jackson had never heard of "BLM land" before a casual recommendation from a friend led him to a free campsite in the desert—and the revelation that over 15 million acres of land in California are owned collectively by the people. In The Enduring Wild, he takes us on a road trip spanning thousands of miles, crisscrossing the Golden State to seek out every parcel of public wilderness therein belonging to the federal Bureau of Land Management, from the Pacific shores of the King Range down to the Mojave Desert. Over mountains, across prairies, and through sagebrush, Jackson unravels the stories of these lands. He tells of the Indigenous peoples who have called them home for millennia, of the extractivist threats that imperil them today, and of the grassroots organizers and political champions who have rallied to their common defense to uphold the radical mandate to protect these natural treasures for generations to come. For the adventurers, campers, explorers, map readers, road trippers, nature enthusiasts, and public lands lovers out there, The Enduring Wild is an indispensable invitation to know these places more deeply and to embrace our common inheritance. Illustrations by Rebekah Nolan.

How Silent Spring stands as a monument to a unique, loving relationship between Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, and how such love underpins a new environmental politics

After the success of her first bestseller, The Sea Around Us, Rachel Carson settled in Southport, Maine. The married couple Dorothy and Stanley Freeman had a cottage nearby, and the trio quickly became friends. Their extensive and evocative correspondence shows that Dorothy and Rachel did something more: they fell in love.

In this moving new book, Lida Maxwell explores their letters to reveal how Carson's masterpiece, Silent Spring, grew from the love these women shared for their wild surroundings and, vitally and increasingly, for each other. Carson had already demonstrated a profound environmental awareness by the time she purchased her home in Maine; Maxwell proposes that it took her love for Dorothy to open up a more powerful space for critique. As their love unsettled their heteronormative ideas of bourgeois life, it enabled Carson to develop an increasingly critical view of capitalism and its effects on nonhuman nature and human lives alike, and it was this evolution that made the advocacy of Silent Spring possible.

In Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer Love, Silent Spring's exposé of the dangerous and loveless exhaustion of nature for capitalism's ends is set in bold relief against the lovers' correspondence, in which we see the path toward a more loving use of nature and a transformative political desire that, Maxwell argues, should inform our approach to contemporary environmental crises.

“An antidote to the loneliness of our species.”—ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

“A master class in how to love the world.”—MARGARET RENKL

A thrilling book about the abounding queerness of the natural world that challenges our expectations of what is normal, beautiful, and possible.

Growing up, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian felt most at home in the swamps and culverts near her house in the Hudson Valley. A child who frequently felt out of place, too much of one thing or not enough of another, she found acceptance in these settings, among other amphibious beings. In snakes, snails, and, above all, fungi, she saw her own developing identities as a queer, neurodivergent person reflected back at her—and in them, too, she found a personal path to a life of science.

In Forest Euphoria, Kaishian shows us this making of a scientist and introduces readers to the queerness of all the life around us. Fungi, we learn, commonly have more than two biological sexes—and some as many as twenty-three thousand. Some intersex slugs mutually fire calcium carbonate “love darts” at each other during courtship. Glass eels are sexually undetermined until their last year of life, a mystery that stumped scientists once dubbed “the eel question.” Nature, Kaishian shows us, is filled with the unusual, the overlooked, and the marginalized—and they have lessons for us all.

Wide-ranging, richly observant, and full of surprise, Forest Euphoria will open your eyes and change how you look at the world around you.

Journey through the world of California native bees, one letter at a time.

National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman has spent a decade capturing exquisitely detailed photographs of native bees and making exciting discoveries about their behavior in the field. In her debut book of natural history, she offers an intimate look at the daily habits of rare and overlooked native bees in California: those cloaked in green or black or red, that live alone in the ground or sleep inside flowers, that invade nests and pillage resources like infinitesimal conquerors, or that, unlike more generalist honeybees, are devoted exclusively to the pollen of a single type of flower. A committed conservationist and community scientist who knows all too well how precarious the wellbeing of these insects is, Hickman shares her adventures in local native plant gardens and throughout the far reaches of California to bring the beauty of such diverse ecosystems into wondrous bee's-eye view. Meant for all curious readers, this collection of bee stories—one for each letter of the alphabet, matching the first letter of a bee's scientific name—will leave you both wowed and compelled to help save these fascinating beings and the lands they call home.

A sweeping, policy-oriented account of the private and public management of the world's essential natural resource.

Governments dominated water management throughout the twentieth century. Tasked with ensuring a public supply of clean, safe, reliable, and affordable water, governmental agencies controlled water administration in most of the world. They built the dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts that store water when available and move that water to areas with increasing populations and economies. Private businesses sometimes played a part in managing water, but typically in a supporting position as consultants or contractors. Today, given the global need for innovative new technologies, institutions, and financing to solve the freshwater crisis, private businesses and markets are playing a rapidly expanding role, bringing both new approaches and new challenges to a historically public field.

In Liquid Asset, Barton H. Thompson, Jr. examines the growing position of the private sector in the "business of water." Thompson seeks to understand the private sector's involvement in meeting the water needs of both humans and the environment, looks at the potential risks that growing private involvement poses to the public interest in water, and considers the obstacles that private organizations face in trying to participate in a traditionally governmental sector. Thompson provides a richly detailed analysis to foster both improved public policy and responsible business behavior. As the book demonstrates, the story of private businesses and water offers a window into the serious challenges facing freshwater today, and their potential solutions.

Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, turns his artful yet analytical attention to the Golden State's single most complex and controversial resource: water.

A charmingly illustrated nature guide to Ocean Beach and the coastal ecology of San Francisco.

Grab your beach blanket and your puffy jacket (this is San Francisco, after all) and get ready to see Ocean Beach like never before. Longtime local surfer and scientist Eddy Rubin celebrates this magical sandy stretch through stories of its animals and plants and the natural and human forces that have shaped this coastal environment. From sand dollars and seaweed to the snowy plovers in the dunes, and stretching out to the seals and whales offshore, Rubin profiles twenty-nine local flora and fauna with wonder and curiosity. To explain the why and how, he also teaches readers about the weather and geological forces that have created this unique sandy ecology. Lifetime lovers of Ocean Beach and new neighbors alike will delight in Rubin's guide, brought vividly to life by more than forty full-color artworks by illustrator Greg Wright. With this guide, Rubin invites readers to explore the place where ocean and land meet, to learn from surfers and fishermen about what's out in the waves, and to protect this shared expanse of sandy shoreline.

A richly illustrated birding guide to the wetlands and developed areas of the California Delta.

From Sacramento to Stockton, the Delta gathers the waters of inner California to create a lush estuary and a haven for birds. In Birds of the California Delta, lifelong birder and Delta local Aaron N. K. Haiman showcases the avian diversity found all around the shoals and sloughs where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet. Even though much of the Delta has been claimed for human use, Haiman rejoices in the abundance of resident birds and migratory visitors. Ibises and cranes wander through these pages, just as they stalk across the valley's farmland and the Suisun marsh. Kites hover over pastures, woodpeckers hammer towering trees, and grackles squeak and whistle in Fairfield parking lots. Experienced birdwatchers and new birders alike will appreciate Haiman's soulful descriptions, his introductory essay to the ecology of this region, and his understanding that birding can connect us not only with wildlife but with one another. Paired with vividly realized full-color portraits that offer detailed insights into identification marks and distinctive behavior, this useful and engaging guide to 25 Delta birds helps everyone get to know their avian neighbors a bit better.

A richly illustrated guide celebrates California’s coastal birds and the wonders of witnessing them.

"A compact treasury of natural history knowledge." —Burr Heneman, former executive director of Point Reyes Bird Observatory

"A meditation on beauty and survival." —Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

A birding paradise, Point Reyes National Seashore boasts a breathtaking coastline that attracts an array of winged beauties and their flightless fanciers year-round. Both a waystation for feathered vagrants and home to a wealth of native species, this coastal sanctuary is teeming with avian life, and in Birds of Point Reyes expert birder and ornithological illustrator Keith Hansen celebrates this airborne abundance. From the sparrows and cormorants to the hawks and ravens to the wild wanderers who sweep through in vast seasonal migrations, Hansen introduces readers to the wildlife that soar and swirl overhead through over 25 awe-filled portraits of Point Reyes’s birds. Both experienced birdwatchers and less-than-expert birders will delight in Hansen’s reflections, brought vividly to life by full-color artworks that reward the reader’s sustained attention and help to identify the many-splendored species of the region. With this guide Hansen invites readers to imagine the world’s fastest hunt through the eyes of a cliff-dwelling peregrine, to appreciate the evolutionary complexity of the shorebird beaks prodding the sands of Drakes Bay, and to attune to the serenade of birdsong. Grab your binoculars and get ready to see these birds like never before.

The first book on the birds of California's oaks, from our most lyrical and observant wanderer of the woods.

With charm and delight, The Birds in the Oaks introduces us to the birds who burrow, forage, and soar among California's keystone trees. The mighty oak hosts a multitude of avian denizens—from canopy hoppers to ground nesters to short-billed surface pluckers—who rely on the trees' well-stocked pantry of acorns, insects, and flowers for sustenance and shelter. Spunky kinglets, crimson-eyed towhees, cuddle-craving bushtits, intrepid nuthatches, and impudent wrens are among the many memorable cast members in this pageant of oak-allied birds.

Jack Gedney lyrically conveys the beautiful, comic, and endearing qualities of over fifteen bird species, each profile paired with an illustration by Angelina Gedney. His bird-filled tales of adaptation, ingenuity, and sheer persistence also bring to light the warp and weft of cross-species interdependence. The Birds in the Oaks reveals to us the utter joy of birds, the superabundant world of the oaks, and the innumerable interconnections these living beings create.

A book to help the ordinary birdwatcher appreciate the fascinating songs, stories, and science of common birds.

"Grounded in science but watered by the heart of a poet, this intimate and personal look at the lives of the birds we see every day invites us to slow down and look again." —John Muir Laws

Jack Gedney’s studies of birds provide resonant, affirming answers to the questions: Who is this bird? In what way is it beautiful? Why does it matter? Masterfully linking an abundance of poetic references with up-to-date biological science, Gedney shares his devotion to everyday Western birds in fifteen essays. Each essay illuminates the life of a single species and its relationship to humans, and how these species can help us understand birds in general. A dedicated birdwatcher and teacher, Gedney finds wonder not only in the speed and glistening beauty of the Anna’s hummingbird, but also in her nest building. He acclaims the turkey vulture’s and red-tailed hawk’s roles in our ecosystem, and he venerates the inimitable California scrub jay’s work planting acorns. Knowing that we hear birds much more often than we see them, Gedney offers his expert’s ear to help us not only identify bird songs and calls but also understand what the birds are saying. The crowd at the suet feeder will never look quite the same again. Join Gedney in the enchanted world of these not-so-ordinary birds, each enlivened by a hand-drawn portrait by artist Anna Kus Park.

Discover the stories behind Jane Goodall’s visionary approach to community-led conservation.

You know of Jane Goodall’s work with wild chimpanzees and her lifelong career advocating for environmental justice. But just as transformative is her work empowering local communities that live on the edge of human settlement to act to protect their natural resources—or to risk losing them forever.

Local Voices, Local Choices: The Tacare Approach to Community-Led Conservation is the story of the Jane Goodall Institute’s holistic approach to conservation, which puts the local people in charge of preserving their surrounding ecosystems. Rather than conservationists leading the effort and imposing their solutions, local communities that live in the affected regions make their own decisions. Working with science and technology and with the support of conservationists, these communities grow to understand their human impact on the environment. By choosing to adopt sustainable livelihoods, they decide their own path into the future, finding ways to balance their environmental impact with their communities’ needs.

Story by story, Local Voices, Local Choices brings readers into the diverse perspectives behind this approach to community-driven conservation—not only those of JGI staff and program partners but also, and equally, those of the local people who lead these initiatives.

Read about:

• The origins of the Tacare approach, originally designed as a 1994 reforestation project with an abbreviation pronounced “ta-CAR-reh”
• A retired village member keeping the knowledge of medicinal plants alive in his community
• Spiritual and cultural story-holders who are vital to the recording and preservation of their traditional ecological knowledge
• Local people participating as forest monitors, village health workers, beekeepers, small-business owners, and educators of the next generation
• Former poachers turned advocates for sustainable land management

Written for conservationists, fans of Jane Goodall, and readers interested in environmental issues, Local Voices, Local Choices is a vibrant expression of Jane Goodall’s vision and her hope that the Tacare approach will be understood and adopted wherever there is a need for genuine community-driven conservation.

Local voices matter, and their choices can make all the difference for generations to come.

• More than 1,000 maps, graphics, and photographs
• Contributions from more than 130 experts
• Detailed topographic maps of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
• Exploration of Yellowstone National Park’s influence over 150 years on conservation practice, park management, and American culture
• New, detailed visualizations of wildlife that take advantage of modern GPS technology to track individual animals and entire herds
• Place-name origins for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the surrounding region

“Outstanding photography! This book is a valuable contribution to the public’s understanding of our remarkable ‘near relatives.’” —Robert Bateman, wildlife painter and environmental icon

“Just Like Us is an entertaining and informative read that illustrates how one ordinary person can be a catalyst for positive change.” —Jane Goodall, primatologist and bestselling author

"Just Like Us will be a classic and is a must read. The book adds much to what we can learn about ourselves. A beautifully written adventure with great apes, with some of the most difficult and stunning photographs of the great apes ever made." —Thomas Mangelsen, award-winning nature and wildlife photographer and conservationist

A stirring account of hope and survival for the planet's endangered great ape species.

For most of his life, veterinarian Rick Quinn ignored a deep longing to meaningfully protect the endangered animals that fascinated him. Then one day, he read two magazine clippings about the great apes and knew it was time to set aside excuses and find the means to help. Armed with his camera and an insatiable curiosity, Dr. Quinn set off for the front lines of great ape conservation.

Just Like Us is a gorgeous tribute to our not-too-distant relatives as well as the courageous people who are risking their lives to protect them.

In this remarkable memoir, we follow Dr. Quinn’s seven-year journey across seven African countries and Indonesia, where he photographed each great ape species in its natural habitat. Using inspiring stories juxtaposed with stunning photographs, he illuminates the threats to great ape survival as well as the complexity of saving them. The result delivers an empathetic sense that these magnificent beings really are—strikingly so—just like us.

"A remarkable mixture of photos and writing. … An important work well done." —Fabien Cousteau

Marine algae are the supreme eco-engineers of life: they oxygenate the waters, create habitat for countless other organisms, and form the base of a food chain that keeps our planet unique in the universe as we know it. In this beautiful volume Josie Iselin explores both the artistic and the biological presence of sixteen seaweeds and kelps that live in the thin region where the Pacific Ocean converges with the North American continent—a place of incomparable richness. Each species receives a detailed description of its structure, ecological importance, and humans’ scientific inquiry into it, told in scientifically illuminating yet deeply reverent and inspired prose. Throughout the writings are historical botanical illustrations and Iselin’s signature, Marimekko-like portraits of each specimen that reveal their vibrant colors—whether rosy, "olivaceous," or grass-green—and whimsical shapes. Iselin posits that we can learn not only about the seaweeds but also from them: their resilience, their resourcefulness, their poetry and magic.

Winner of the 2023 Nautilus Book Award in the category of Animals & Nature

The surprising, fascinating, and remarkable ways that animals use creativity to thrive in their habitats

Most of us view animals through a very narrow lens, seeing only bits and pieces of beings that seem mostly peripheral to our lives. However, whether animals are building a shelter, seducing a mate, or inventing a new game, animals’ creative choices affect their social, cultural, and environmental worlds.

The Creative Lives of Animals offers readers intimate glimpses of creativity in the lives of animals, from elephants to alligators to ants. Drawing on a growing body of scientific research, Carol Gigliotti unpacks examples of creativity demonstrated by animals through the lens of the creative process, an important component of creative behavior, and offers new thinking on animal intelligence, emotion, and self-awareness. With examples of the elaborate dams built by beavers or the lavishly decorated bowers of bowerbirds, Gigliotti provides a new perspective on animals as agents in their own lives, as valuable contributors to their world and ours, and as guides in understanding how creativity may contribute to conserving the natural world. Presenting a powerful argument for the importance of recognizing animals as individuals and as creators of a healthy, biodiverse world, this book offers insights into both the established and emerging questions about the creativity of animals.

Marooned in Los Angeles by the pandemic, a marine biologist rediscovers the delights and wonders of the natural world in her own backyard.

"Stranded reminds us of what we all too easily forget: the sustaining delights of finding beauty and wonder all around us." —Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix and Heartbreak

Conservationist and marine biologist Maddalena Bearzi made her career studying the wild creatures of the deep, but when COVID-19 made landfall on the California coast this seafaring scientist found herself shuttered up ashore, her wide blue world constricted by pandemic lockdown. Never good at sitting idle, she despaired at the confines of her Los Angeles flat—until she began to find wonder in the wilderness of her own backyard.

Stranded charts Bearzi’s discovery of both rapture and resilience in the unsung wildlife of urban LA. With a green thumb and a canine sidekick named Genghis, she finds as much to marvel at in her garden’s singing blackbirds, night-blooming cacti, and industrious wasps as in the whales, dolphins, and sea lions at the center of her maritime adventures. Discovering in the quotidian an antidote to the grief occasioned by captivity and climate chaos, Bearzi reveals how each of us can take heart, find courage, and discover inspiration in the thrumming systems of life that surround us. With a scientist’s precision and a poet’s instinct, she invites us to look at, listen to, and revel in the everyday grandeur of the natural world—and to embrace, with urgency, our responsibility to sustain it.

This book is the most complete account in existence of a strange group of animals—the spadefoot toads. This small group of species, which, because of their secretive and burrowing habits, the author calls "gnomes of the night," have unusually numerous interesting facts in their life history. The purpose of the book is twofold: to give a factual picture of the lives of the spadefoots, drawing upon the technical literature as well as the author's wide experience with certain species; and to illustrate how a naturalist works, the mistakes he sometimes makes, his correction of them with time and further experience, and the necessity for him to accept and examine critically the comments on his work by others.

Gnomes of the Night should appeal to all zoologists, especially those whose interests are in the lives of animals in their natural habitat rather than in the laboratory. Illustrated with maps and photographs, it is a scholarly and fascinating account of little-known but prevalent animals.

The best of contemporary nature writing from the winners of the inaugural international Nature Chronicles Prize.

The Nature Chronicles Prize is a new biennial, international, English-language literary award founded to celebrate engaging, unique, essay-length nonfiction that responds to the time we are in and the world as it is. Conceived in 2020 to mark the global pandemic, the prize is also a memorial to Prudence Scott, a lifelong British nature diarist who died in 2019.

Contained within this volume are the outstanding nominated entries for the inaugural prize. These winning works express diverse responses to our planet and its life, and together embody the best of contemporary nature writing.

A richly illustrated birding guide to the nation’s first official wildlife refuge.

"Beautifully illustrated and written, this is a must-have for anyone who wants to better understand and appreciate our neighbors." —Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing

This charming full-color field guide introduces us to fifteen waterbirds easily found in the urban wildlife refuge of Lake Merritt. In his introduction, author-illustrator Alex Harris includes a history of the lake, providing context for a place that is alluring to humans and shorebirds alike. Each species profile of the lake’s feathered residents is accompanied by a beautiful, detailed watercolor that captures the bird’s distinctive coloring and sinuous physicality. The black-crowned night heron, Oakland’s official city bird, stares with its startling orange eyes, while the American coot flexes its fancy, flared feet. Along with straightforward notes on the identification of each bird, Harris features the voices of Oakland community members, sharing moments of delight from the birds’ most dedicated observers. A celebration of avian life and the human pleasure of witnessing it, Birds of Lake Merritt is an essential guide to the natural world in the heart of the city.

*THE STUNNING COMPANION TO REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK THE COMFORT OF CROWS*

A beautifully illustrated journal to guide your observations of nature wherever you find it—in gardens and yards, city parks and vacant lots, or the sky—enhanced by inspiring prompts and the wisdom of beloved and bestselling author Margaret Renkl.

In The Comfort of Crows, Renkl’s account of a year in her Nashville backyard, readers encountered birds and wildflowers, foxes and stately oaks, and all the surprises and joys to be found if only we pay attention to the world around us. This journal will help you engage—closely and thoughtfully—with nearby nature. Renkl illuminates the turning days, weeks, and seasons, and offers prompts to help you chronicle and care for the rich life surrounding you: What do the bare branches of winter allow you to see? How does summer’s abundance provide for different wild animals—and can you find the abundance in your own life? What changes have you noticed in the natural habitats near you, not just from month to month, but from year to year?

Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. 

Beautifully bound with a new cover featuring an engraving by Tony Drehfal, this edition includes a deckled edge and five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book—gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred—and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants. 

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

My First Summer in the Sierra is the incredible true story of John Muir’s iconic time spent working in the California mountain range of the Sierra Nevada’s. In this republished edition, read about his experience that shaped so much of environmental stewardship today.

In the summer of 1869, a young John Muir joined a crew of shepherds working in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Spending countless hours working with the group, Muir also worked tirelessly to advocate for the land’s protection. His efforts eventually transpired into the founding of Yosemite Valley as a national park, a landmark event in the history of United States environmentalism. A glimpse into Muir’s private journals, My First Summer in the Sierra is the remarkable retelling of his time there. Full of humorous anecdotes and insightful prose, John Muir personal narrative will likely inspire you to pack up your belongings and head for the mountains.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Social changes through urban gardening and farming

Gardens are often spaces of hope, expected to solve many problems in a city including food insecurity and climate resilience. In fact, there has been a historical trend of urban gardening gaining popularity during times of crisis. Gardens of Hope is the story of urban gardening in New Orleans in the decade after Hurricane Katrina. Yuki Kato highlights the impact urban gardens have on communities after disasters and the efforts of well-intended individuals envisioning alternative futures in the form of urban farming.

Drawing on repeated interviews with residents who began cultivation projects in New Orleans between 2005 and 2015, Kato explains how good intentions and grit were not enough to implement or sustain urban gardeners’ visions for the post-disaster city’s future. Coining the term “prefigurative urbanism,” Kato illustrates how individuals tried to realize alternative ways of living and working in the city through pragmatism and innovation. Gardens of Hope asks key questions about what inspires and enables individuals to pursue prefigurative urbanism and about the potential and limitations of this form of civic engagement to bring about short- and long-term changes in cities undergoing transformation, from gentrification, post-pandemic recovery, to climate change.

Explores the contours of Latinx Catholic environmentalism

Home-based conservationist measures such as cultivating backyard gardens, avoiding consumerism, and limiting waste are widespread among Spanish-speaking Catholics across the United States. Yet these home-based conservationist practices are seldom recognized as “environmental” because they are enacted by working-class immigrant communities and do not conform to the expectations of mainstream environmentalism.

In Falling in Love with Nature, Amanda J. Baugh tells the story of American environmentalism through a focus on Spanish-speaking Catholics, shedding light on environmental actors who have been hidden in plain sight. While dominant narratives about environmental activism include minorities, primarily in the realm of environmental racism and injustice, Baugh demonstrates that minority communities are not merely victims of environmental problems. They can be active agents who express love for nature based on inherited family traditions and close relationships with the land. Baugh shows that Spanish-speaking Catholics have values that have been overlooked in global discourses, grassroots movements, and the highest echelons of the US Catholic Church. By drawing attention to the environmental knowledge that is already abundant within Spanish-speaking Catholic communities, Falling in Love with Nature challenges readers to rethink their assumptions about who can be an environmental leader and what counts as environmentalism.

Why do poets write about animals? What can poetry do for animals and what can animals do for poetry? In some cases, poetry inscribes meaning on animals, turning them into symbols or caricatures and bringing them into the confines of human culture. It also reveals and revels in the complexity of animals. Poetry, through its great variety and its inherently experimental nature, has embraced the multifaceted nature of animals to cross, blur, and reimagine the boundaries between human and animal.

In Poetry and Animals, Onno Oerlemans explores a broad range of English-language poetry about animals from the Middle Ages to the contemporary world. He presents a taxonomy of kinds of animal poems, breaking down the categories and binary oppositions at the root of human thinking about animals. The book considers several different types of poetry: allegorical poems, poems about “the animal” broadly conceived, poems about species of animal, poems about individual animals or the animal as individual, and poems about hybrids and hybridity. Through careful readings of dozens of poems that reveal generous and often sympathetic approaches to recognizing and valuing animals’ difference and similarity, Oerlemans demonstrates how the forms and modes of poetry can sensitize us to the moral standing of animals and give us new ways to think through the problems of the human-animal divide.

Winner, 2025 New Mexico Book Award in the category of Nature / Environment / Animals / Pets

Did a red fox pass this way? Could that be a bobcat print there in the dirt? Do those tracks belong to a domestic dog or a coyote? Combining lyrical memoir with an introduction to wildlife tracking, What Walks This Way explores the joys of learning to recognize the traces of the creatures with whom we share our world.

The nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlife—mostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket mice—near her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. With wit and compassion, she guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marks left by browsing deer, predatory weasels, and inquisitive bears, skunks, and raccoons. Closely observing these traces, Russell also finds community, a sense of place, and a renewed connection with the nonhuman world. She explores the health of mammal populations in North America and questions common wildlife-management practices, calling for new approaches that better reflect current understandings of ecology. Above all, What Walks This Way is a celebration of all the wild animals secretly, stubbornly, and triumphantly roving through our cities, suburbs, and countryside.

Stories about people and dogs saving one another are everywhere in US culture—on TV, in Hollywood movies, on social media, and even on bumper stickers. Yet these seemingly heartwarming stories of mutual rescue revolve around redemption through suffering, a narrative profoundly interwoven with Christian beliefs, white racial anxieties, and US national myths.

Katharine Mershon examines the unacknowledged religious underpinnings of stories about dogs, revealing deeply rooted cultural assumptions about who can be saved and how redemption ought to occur. She identifies the “canine redemption narrative” as the defining cultural script for the stories people in the United States tell about dogs and, in turn, the nation. Exposing unexamined assumptions about the relationships between people and dogs, Mershon sheds light on the central place of animals and religion in defining racial boundaries.

Dogs Save considers examples including the Michael Vick dogfighting case; Samuel Fuller’s controversial B-movie White Dog; the TV show The Dog Whisperer, from the celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan; Laurie Anderson’s film Heart of a Dog; and Eileen Myles’s Afterglow (a dog memoir). Bringing together religious studies and animal studies, this book shows that redemption narratives shape who is allowed to survive and thrive in US society.

Mapping the past—and the future—of American trails.

In Trail Work, Dillon Osleger excavates the forgotten trails of the Western United States. He shows how one of the greatest infrastructure investments in the nation's history—paths through our public lands—has been rubbed away by time and deliberate neglect. Osleger unearths the wagon roads, water sources, trap lines, and Indigenous trading trails that once knitted the West together. He reveals centuries of path building, more than two-thirds of a nationwide network of trails and campgrounds, now erased from the map. Dwindling federal investment and privatized timber forests, ranches, and oil fields have blocked access to public lands, prompting to Osleger to ask: How can we better care for the places that are claimed for the American public, but are too often abandoned or sold? Osleger has trail eyes like no other from his years as a trail builder, geologist, professional mountain biker, and public lands advocate. Here he offers a land ethic born of joy in stewardship, attention to history and community, and living and cycling lightly. From the Central California Coast to the Sierra Nevada, out to Colorado and up to Washington, Osleger embarks on a wayfinder's journey, revealing an atlas of lost trails for everyone who loves the outdoors.

A mesmerizing tour of our underwater forests and what they can teach us.

Offshore and out of sight to most beachgoers on the North Pacific coast is a wondrous habitat: the bull kelp forest. Each year, tiny bull kelp saplings explode into sixty-foot "redwoods," until winter storms tear them loose and fling great tangles of wrack on the shore. While they flourish, these underwater forests harbor abalone, salmon, and rockfish, and they entreat cormorants and murrelets to hunt among their thrumming canopies. Meanwhile, fluffy-furred otters and pizza-sized sea stars gorge on spiny urchins who, if left to run rampant, will devour a kelp bed down to barren wasteland. In The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest, Josie Iselin profiles thirteen species—with stylish illustrations from Ellen Litwiller—to be our ambassadors to this undersung world. She explores how their interspecies dramas play out in eight coastal regions, from Alaska to central California, exploring instances of interdependent, compromised, and resilient coastal ecosystems. An array of sea creatures feature in these pages, as well as shorebirds that connect land and sea. Land-dwelling humans are also deeply implicated in this saga—by turns beneficiaries, agents of harm, and stewards of these subtidal sanctuaries.

• When a bird species learns a new technique, how do their innovations spread?
• Why is research on bird cognition being used to train AI models and even robots?
• What makes certain birds endlessly innovative while others stubbornly repeat the same behaviors?

A colorfully realized guide to the birds of Santa Cruz.

This charming, full-color guide to the birds of Santa Cruz is infused with California coastal soul and the quiet fierceness of love one can only derive from ardent attention. Author-illustrator Sophie Wood Brinker profiles 25 species you're likely to spot hopping the sands or soaring overhead in Surf City, and shares what we can learn not only about them but from them. From the collective organizing of the Brown Pelican, to the community protection of the California Quail, to the Band-Tailed Pigeon flock that Wood Brinker likens to a mutual aid cooperative, these birds have stories to tell. Vivid hand-painted portraits accompanied by identification and song notes help everyone get to know their avian neighbors, with descriptions of each species that invoke reflections from Diane di Prima, Mary Oliver, and dreamers of all stripes. A joy to read and pore over, Birds of Santa Cruz shimmers with poetic sensibility and a conservationist ethos. Wood Brinker's findings, gleaned from patient observation, will enchant readers far beyond the city limits.

Romanticism is often reduced to nostalgic pastoralism and solitary contemplation of the sublime. But a radical strand of Romantic writers and thinkers offered sweeping political, ecological, and religious critiques of capitalism, racism, settler colonialism, and environmental destruction. Interweaving canonical nineteenth-century authors with Black and Indigenous thinkers who transformed their work, this book is a bold new account of Romanticism for today’s deeply entrenched crises.

Mark S. Cladis examines the progressive democratic, religious, and environmental beliefs and practices that informed European Romantic literature and its sustained legacies in North America. His interpretation interweaves diverse voices such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Leslie Marmon Silko while also revealing the progressive visions of Romantic authors such as Rousseau, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. Forging connections among literary and philosophical traditions while closely reading a wide range of texts, Radical Romanticism shows how storytelling is central to the pursuit of justice and flourishing for the human and the more-than-human worlds. Bringing together environmental humanities, literary theory, political theory, and religious studies, this book makes the case for a renewed radical Romanticism, offering urgent resources for a world beset by catastrophe, uncertainty, and despair.

Since its establishment as a federally protected wilderness in 1964, the Boundary Waters has become one of our nation’s most valuable—and most frequently visited—natural treasures. When Amy and Dave Freeman learned of toxic mining proposed within the area’s watershed, they decided to take action—by spending a year in the wilderness, and sharing their experience through video, photos, and blogs with an audience of hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens.

This book tells the deeper story of their adventure in northern Minnesota: of loons whistling under a moonrise, of ice booming as it forms and cracks, of a moose and her calf swimming across a misty lake.

With the magic—and urgent—message that has rallied an international audience to the campaign to save the Boundary Waters, A Year in the Wilderness is a rousing cry of witness activism, and a stunning tribute to this singularly beautiful region.

Happy Bees: Welcome Guests in Our Yards and Gardens

From the humble bumblebee to the honeybee colonies that pollinate many of our food crops, bees are beginning to earn the respect and adoration they deserve. Now, the presence of a bee signifies a healthy environment, an earth-friendly space, a synergy with nature. Bring the beloved buzz of bees into your home with Our Love of Bees. Acclaimed entomologist Jaret C. Daniels shares spectacular images and expert insights as he presents the lives of these essential, beautiful insects. The hardcover book is perfectly sized for your end table and to give as a gift. Anyone who appreciates the wonders of nature will treasure this spectacular collection of photographs and natural history information.

Get the perfect coffee-table book for birders and nature lovers, pairing naturalist knowledge with beautiful watercolor paintings.

This is the bird book for people who love birds! Naturalist, watercolorist, and debut author Jenny deFouw Geuder combines her vast knowledge of birds, wildflowers, and nature with her artistic expertise to create a book like no other. Drawn to Birds presents more than 120 beautiful watercolor paintings, along with Jenny’s fascinating insights that add unique appeal to each page.

Drawn to Birds begins with an introduction to bird anatomy, as well as details about nests, eggs, and migration. From there, more than 50 different bird species are showcased, with the watercolors divided into groups like backyard birds, raptors, and wetland birds. As an added bonus, there’s a section dedicated to insects and wildflowers.

You’ll appreciate Jenny’s tips on how to welcome birds to your yard and how to become a naturalist. Being a naturalist is about more than simply stopping to smell the flowers. It’s about observation and making a record. Pause and notice the shapes, colors, and patterns around you. Jenny’s goal is to inspire you to try your own hand at being a naturalist! She also includes step-by-step guides for drawing, painting, and inking your own pictures. Anyone can be an artist. Be brave, try it out, and keep noticing the marvels around you. Extra pages for journaling and sketching make this book a keepsake to cherish forever.

If you enjoy birding, gardening, or the great outdoors, Drawn to Birds belongs in your book collection. Get one for yourself, and give one as a gift!

Begin Identifying and Collecting Seven Edible Mushrooms!

Since 1993, Start Mushrooming has been the trusted guide for beginners. This second edition introduces seven of the most common, edible wild mushrooms in North America. It features more photographs and expert tips from award-winning author and naturalist Stan Tekiela that make mushroom identification even easier. Start Mushrooming includes the information you need to start foraging with confidence.

The focused look at seven wild, edible mushrooms includes a unique checklist-based approach to help you confirm each mushroom’s identity. Plus, details on toxic species and advice from an author with extensive foraging skills help you learn what to watch out for and avoid. As an added bonus, the book includes a generous helping of tasty recipes.

Wild mushrooms are beautiful, bountiful, and delicious. This is the easy way to start mushrooming.

Your Definitive Guide to Petoskey Stone

Michigan’s state stone is prized for its beautiful patterning, which is said to resemble the rays of the rising sun. Take an in-depth look at the famous fossilized coral—including a summary of the fascinating natural history, which began 400 million years ago. Learn all about it, and then head out and search for your own.

Get expert advice from author Dan R. Lynch on how to identify and collect Petoskey stones. With tips on where to look and what to look for, along with information about Petoskey lookalikes and other fossils you might find, your rock-hounding trips will be better than ever! Suggestions on what to do with your finds and how much they’re worth add to the knowledge you’ll gain from Petoskey Stone.

From Lake Michigan beaches and Petoskey State Park to gravel pits and riverbeds, grab this book and begin your rock-hunting adventure!

A few minutes in the kitchen can become hours of bird watching fun. Take birding to another level by creating unique dishes especially for backyard birds. This creative cookbook turns bird food into a banana split, cupcake, pie, and even tree ornaments. Each dish is perfect to tackle alone or with the whole family.

Inside You’ll Find

• 26 recipes to attract the birds you want to see
• Ingredients that appeal to 70+ bird species, including “hard-to-get” birds
• Tips on selecting the right ingredients for the right birds
• A handy chart that shows which birds dine on each dish
• BONUS: Tips for cooking with kids, wildlife research projects, and a bird-identification section

See more birds and make birding even more interactive. Invite everybirdy to your yard with a banquet of nutritious, homemade foods.

We need bats to eat mosquitoes, pollinate plants, and more. Karen Krebbs has been studying the world’s only flying mammals for more than 35 years—and she’s sharing her expertise with you. Learn the bat basics, such as how they use echolocation, why they hibernate, and what they eat. Then use the field guide section to identify common and important species to know.

Inside You’ll Find

• Bat myths debunked—they won’t really fly in your hair or try to bite
• Identification guide to 32 North American species
• Instructions on how to bat-proof a house and what to do if you find a bat indoors
• Projects, activities, and tips to help bats

Get Bat Basics, and celebrate the amazing lives of bats!

Stunningly beautiful and very unique, loons have captured our hearts. We await their spring return and delight in hearing their calls across our northern lakes. Acclaimed naturalist and wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela shares his up-close-and-personal images as he recounts the season of the loons, from their arrival to raising their chicks to departing in the fall. Northland dwellers and visitors will treasure this celebration of the amazing loon.

True Tales of Encounters with Bears

Bear Encounters is a collection of stories about the run-ins everyday people have with bears. From the one about the black bear at the cabin that was chased away by the fifteen-pound family dog, to the bear that harmlessly wandered through a Boy Scout camp, these brief and often funny encounters capture the true nature of bears. More than 90 stories have been collected from fans of the North American Bear Center. They include a variety of tales, from routine encounters in backyards, on porches and driveways to sometimes funny and challenging experiences. The stories are grouped into sections around common myths and include anecdotes about how bear encounters have changed people’s views for the better. Read these stories, and you’ll never see bears the same way again.

Get to know the kingdom of Fungi like never before with this unique book that blends the science of mycology with lyrical prose and watercolor paintings.

Take an extraordinary expedition into the diverse and enchanting realm of fungi. The Wonder of Mushrooms is where science meets poetry, where ancient wisdom converges with modern discovery. Maya Jewell Zeller and Jenny deFouw Geuder guide you into the hidden world beneath our feet. With a blend of scientific insight and artistic appreciation, the authors portray the crucial role of mushrooms in our ecosystem and celebrate their profound cultural significance.

Learn about mushrooms’ history and lore. Appreciate their myriad colors, shapes, and forms, as well as their vital role as nature’s decomposers. Discover astonishing facts, such as how some bioluminescent species glow like fallen stars and where the extraordinary Humongous Fungus spans 2,385 acres. Perhaps most importantly, find out how fungi might prove to be humanity’s unexpected saviors, offering solutions for everything from environmental pollution to sustainable architecture. Maya’s lyrical prose pairs with Jenny’s bright watercolors, creating an unparalleled ode to these foraging favorites that feels like both a scientific textbook and a beautiful gift book.

Whether you're an artist, naturalist, or someone who’s simply curious about the natural world, this book presents a profound journey into the kingdom of Fungi, where beauty and science intertwine in unexpected ways.

Book Features:

• Lyrical prose that blends science with literary references and poetry
• Professional watercolors that help make complex scientific concepts accessible
• Wide range of topics, including anatomy, biology, and ecology
• Educational tribute that promotes wonder and curiosity

Incredible, Outrageous, Unbelievable Facts About Birds!

You love birds. They’re beautiful. They’re graceful. They’re a wonder to observe. Yet even seasoned bird watchers don’t know everything about our feathered friends. Acclaimed naturalist, author and award-winning wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela has taken a deep dive into the magnificent world of birds—and you won’t believe what he’s uncovered!

Why do some birds like to cover themselves with ants? Which birds can mimic the sounds of humans? Why don’t woodpeckers get concussions? In Bird Trivia, you’ll discover plenty of amazing tidbits you didn’t know that you wanted to know about birds. Paired with Stan’s famous bird photography, the information provides hours of enjoyment. You’re sure to impress your friends and family with all of the knowledge contained in this book!

Your Guide to Watching Clouds and Understanding the Weather

From the soothing sound of rain to the shrill whistle of a blizzard, from the house-shaking rumble of thunder to the violent fury of a hurricane, weather is a fascinating part of our lives. We watch it. We listen to it. We feel it. We try to predict it. But how well do we truly understand it?

Professional meteorologist Ryan Henning presents Field Guide to the Weather, a handy reference to meteorology and to the types of weather phenomena that one might encounter at home or in nature. It includes a simple introduction to the basics of meteorology—explaining the aspects of the atmosphere that dictate how weather works. From there, the field guide looks at a variety of individual weather topics: cloud formation (and cloud-type identification), various forms of precipitation, and much more. The author goes on to discuss government-issued watches and warnings, and weather safety. Plus, readers are sure to appreciate the book’s helpful guide to interpreting weather forecasts and available model information when planning an afternoon picnic or next week’s vacation.

Field Guide to the Weather is a perfect introduction to the science of weather. The information is captivating for kids and adults alike. The simple explanations are useful in easing the mind of a frightened child, and the in-depth details help adults learn to understand and prepare for the weather ahead.

Have Fun with These Wild and Wonderful Bird Words!

A murder of crows, a charm of goldfinches, a huddle of penguins—groupings of birds are more than just a “flock.” Collective nouns for specific types of birds range from fascinating to funny, and this adorable book is your guide to the best of them. Discover the surprising number of different terms, and learn their true meanings—as well as the history behind them. Did C.S. Lewis really coin the phrase, “a parliament of owls”? Find out in this colorfully designed conversation-starter. The spectacular full-color photography that accompanies each entertaining tidbit further enhances the collectability of An Asylum of Loons. You’re sure to impress your friends and family with all the knowledge in this book!

Discover John Stott's writings on creation care, brought together for the first time in this definitive collection for the global church. Compiled by R. J. Sam Berry and Laura Yoder, this brilliant anthology demonstrates both Stott's passion for the environment and its place in Christian discipleship.

Showcasing his unique way of explaining the Bible simply and clearly, John Stott on Creation Care traces Stott's own process of coming to embrace creation care as a vital part of the Christian life - and in turn shows us how it must have an integral place in our own discipleship.

Commentary by noted scientist R. J. (Sam) Berry connects Stott's writings together and illuminates how his wisdom still speaks to us today. Alongside reflections from others that Stott inspired and discipled, John Stott on Creation Care is the perfect resource for every Christian looking to understand biblical teaching on the environment and how creation care should form part of their discipleship. It is also an ideal biblical and theological resource for those involved in creation care ministry.

Published as part of the John Stott Centenary celebrations, proceeds from John Stott on Creation Care will go to A Rocha International, a charity that carries community-based conservation projects in response to biodiversity loss around the world.

John Stott viewed creation care as an inevitable implication of the biblical message, and as a grounding for Christian engagement in environmental commitments. This collection will give you a deeper, more thorough understanding of his writings and how his views developed, and will leave you motivated and inspired to look again at your discipleship and how you approach creation care.

Flatworms (Platyhelminthes) occupy a variety of environments, they live in the sea, in freshwater and some even on land. Many flatworms are parasites. This comprehensive book deals with the free-living taxa, parasites are treated with in a future volume. Many free-living flatworms are microscopically small and live in marine and freshwater sediments. They are almost unknown to amateurs, but diverse in morphology and in their reproductive biology. Better known are larger flatworms, either the freshwater planarians, the tropical land-planarians or the often colorful marine polyclads. Phylogenetically the free-living flatworms form the paraphyletic stock that leads to the derived parasitic Neodermata. This volume provides an in-depth insight into the free-living flatworms written by experts. It includes morphology, phylogeny and reproductive biology and contains more than 200 illustrations.