Forests & Forestry Books

Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rain Forests of Central and South America

Adrian Forsyth, Ken Miyata

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

for everyone 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Still in print and selling well 23 years after its first publication, this is a classic book about the beauty and importance of rain forests and their many inhabitants, both plant and animal. I read this book for an undergraduate class that included a trip to Costa Rica. It's an interesting blend of history, organismal biology, and plea for conservation. It also contains practical information about how to hike around in a rain forest. Overall, a very pleasant read told in a conversational manner. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

Essential reading 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I first read this book when I was on a jungle trek in Ecuador - it was available in our lodge. This book perfectly reflected our experience of life and death of the rain forest. It's an essential first read for someone who wants to truly understand the basic concepts of the rain forest. I happily read it over again whenever I return to the rain forest whether it's in Borneo, Peru or Costa Rica.

Great way to learn more than you wanted to know about tropical nature! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It's much more readable than a textbook but still provides a lot of detail. It's probably an excellent way to actually gain some understanding of tropical nature, and the many types of inter-relationships. I'm a biologist by training, but knowing nothing about tropical nature I wanted to learn about it before going on a tour in Panama & Costa Rica. It's easy to read a chapter at a time. I recommend it if you're really interested in nature or if you're going there or been there.

American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree

Susan Freinkel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The American chestnut was one of America's most common, valued, and beloved trees--a "perfect tree" that ruled the forests from Georgia to Maine. But in the early twentieth century, an exotic plague swept through the chestnut forests with the force of a wildfire. Within forty years, the blight had killed close to four billion trees and left the species teetering on the brink of extinction. It was one of the worst ecological blows to North America since the Ice Age--and one most experts considered beyond repair. In American Chestnut, Susan Freinkel tells the dramatic story of the stubborn optimists who refused to let this cultural icon go. In a compelling weave of history, science, and personal observation, she relates their quest to save the tree through methods that ranged from classical plant breeding to cutting-edge gene technology. But the heart of her story is the cast of unconventional characters who have fought for the tree for a century, undeterred by setbacks or skeptics, and fueled by their dreams of restored forests and their powerful affinity for a fellow species.

The Woodlot Management Handbook: Making the Most of Your Wooded Property For Conservation, Income or Both

Stewart Hilts, Peter Mitchell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Perfect for City Slickers. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I found this book to be an incredibly valuable asset in the managing of my newly acquired 10 acres of woods. I had no previous experience and didn't read this text until I had owned it for several months. Unfortunately, I had learned the hard way many of the common sense facts the authors share in these pages. It is a well-written and well-documented work that is perfect for those of us who wish to conserve and preserve deciduous woodlands. I have opened mine up as a guide and reference several times after finishing it.

Good introduction for the new woodlands owner 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book offers a solid introduction to woodlot ownership. The book covers conservation, measurement, and some legal/inheritance issues. The book takes you step-by-step through the basic process of each of these areas. I found the chapter on measurement to be a good quick-and-dirty guide to measuring your timber. Other reviewers have faulted the book for being too simplistic or referring woodlot owners to professional forresters, but I found it to be a good starting point for a complicated subject.

Each chapter and many special sections contain references to other sources of information. I found this particularly helpful in the measurement section. I have a couple of other books that are very detailed in the area of measurement. This book summarized the process in one chapter and provided numerous other sources for more detail in the form of state forestry articles that would have otherwise been dificult to locate.

The book is simple on some levels but it is clear that the authors love forestry (particulary stewardship) and want to convey both the knowlege and the joy of woodland ownership. A GREAT book for beginning your journey into this complex subject.

Editorial Review:

The Woodlot Management Handbook will show you how to get the most out of your land; whether you are interested in growing trees for timber, generating income from selling firewood, or sheltering wildlife.

Chain Saw Service Manual

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

better than nothing... 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Unfortunately I seem to have missed the part about this book only covering chainsaws made through 1998(!!) If you have a chainsaw made in the last 10 years this book isn't for you.

Book received badly damaged!! 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Very unhappy with book. Book was reveived in well wrapped box and packaging, although when opened it was badly bent in the middle. It was NOT damaged in shipping since the box was not damaged. It therefore was shipped like that from the warehouse. This is extremely unprofessional since I paid for a new book. Buyers beware, do not buy from this seller!!!

Wrong Item 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I can not provide a comment for this evaluation. I mistakenly thought the book was about how to pull maintenance on chain saws. Not a parts manual.Although the manual does seem to be a handy item to have for a repair shop. Oh well.

Solid and concise infirmation 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Reliable, solid information on the subject. The general information is valuable but perhaps too concise. The data on the various makes and models is detailed and very helpful. A truly valuable book for what it covers.

Chain Manual 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Book has good info on lot Chainsaws. I would like more details on each saw.

Chainsaws: A History

David Lee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Winner of the 2007 Award for Best Non-Fiction Book from Arts Hamilton
Winner of US Magazine Independent Publisher's IPPY Award for Best Western Canadian Regional Title"
"It rips, and cuts, it makes a horrible racket--a chainsaw is a frightening thing. I write not to glorify its terrible power but to acknowledge its place in the most sweeping revolution that technology has wrought in the 20th century--the revolution of individual empowerment."
So begins author David Lee in this first-ever book on the worldwide history of the chainsaw, an invention that transformed the forest industry and eventually became the indispensable companion of every red-blooded country dweller. Chainsaws, it turns out, have a curious history and since the 19th century they have taken on many forms. From 600-pound steam-powered behemoths to gas chainsaws mounted on wheeled carriages to diesel chainsaws and electric chainsaws with portable generators, this book musters a curious collection of contraptions and inventors the like of which we haven't seen since "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines," Carefully tracing the evolutionary threads of countless short-lived pioneer devices, author Lee, working together with a worldwide network of chainsaw buffs, traces the roaring, woodchip-and-oil-sprayed progress of what is now a lightweight modern machine that holds a place of honour in the world's woodsheds.
"Chainsaws" is a handsome gift book full of wonderful old and new photos along with priceless chainsaw ephemera that will warm the heart of anyone who's ever held a power tool. From Andreas Stihl's Black Forest experiments to Vancouver's booming WWII chainsaw industry, to the postwar raceto develop one-man saws, the rise and fall of Canada's proud Pioneer brand, and the late entry into the field of the centuries-old arms manufacturer Husqvarna, it examines why the chainsaw is no good for massacres (in Texas or elsewhere), and why it is unlikely to replaced by any new high-tech inventions such as lasers.

Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire

John N. Maclean

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Colorado
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Colorado and its neighboring states battle thousands of wildfires every year, scrub and sagebrush blazes often ignited by lightning strikes in the dry, hot days of summer. A vast, intertwined firefighting infrastructure combining local resources with agencies like the Forest Service and the BLM, reacts to these flare-ups as if going to war--and in theory, the coordination and communication ensures that fires are fought in the most efficient and safe manner possible. But while most wildfires in Colorado end up costing just over $60,000 on average with no loss of life, the catastrophic South Canyon fire of 1994 burned for 10 days, at the ultimate cost of $4.5 million and the lives of 14 firefighters. OSHA would later describe the coordinated action flatly as a "management failure," and concurrent investigations would reveal a tangled web of jealous rivalries, bureaucratic bungling, and severe morale problems. (One of the early on-scene supervisors would later tell investigators, "Leadership in this state sucks.")

John Maclean (son of Norman Maclean, who wrote both A River Runs Through It and an award-winning account of Montana's deadly 1949 Mann Gulch fire) skillfully unfolds that summer's foreboding blow-by-blow. Fire on the Mountain weaves together a tense narrative of almost cinematic action, starring ballsy cowboy smokejumpers, frustrated federal middle managers, seasoned "hotshots" flown in like commandos, pissed-off tanker pilots, and well-intentioned but spin-wary politicians. Maclean's well-sketched personalities bring the action on the ground convincingly to life--and knowing up front that many of his main characters won't survive South Canyon makes this tragic tale that much more compelling. --Paul Hughes

A Field Guide to Eastern Forests: North America (Peterson Field Guides (R))

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Introducing the Eastern Forest 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

The purpose of this guide is not to assist one in identifying species of flora and fauna found in the Eastern Forest--such a tome would be monumental in size--but rather to instill in the reader an understanding of the forest's general dynamics. The book is divided into eight sections; they are:

1) How to use this book
2) Forest field marks
3) Eastern forest communities
4) Disturbance and pioneer plants
5) Adaptation
6) Paterns of spring
7) Nature in summer
8) Autumn and winter

This book is an excellent beginning point for those who want to develope a better understanding of forest ecology. I highly recommend it.

How things really work 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Though this guide and its companion Western forest edition have been in print for over a decade, I only stumbled on it last year. It concisely provides the missing links between other field guides to plants, fungi, insects, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, tracks, fossils ... you get the drift. As a hiker, bird-watcher or -feeder, observer, photographer or amateur naturalist, the first step is usually simple identification of species. (With summer warblers, of course, the first step is actually seeing the bird in question.) In the same way that traditional field guides provide portable I.D. info, the ECOLOGY version helps you understand the change you see as you hike down out of a Beech-Maple forest into an Oak-Hickory stand, or the subtle differences when a Northern Riverine Forest segues into a Northern Swamp. By no means comprehensive (remember this fits in your pocket), this book, like the science of ecology itself, is composed of seemingly endless delightful digressions. Where do galls come from? How do dragonflies mate? Have you ever bothered to learn frog calls? What can the vegetation in an old field tell you about history? This volume (and by my inference the Western companion) are an excellent and fascinating addition to any field guide collection.

Editorial Review:

This field guide includes all the flora and fauna you're most likely to see in the forests of eastern North America. With 53 full-color plates and 80 color photos illustrating trees, birds, mammals, wildflowers, mushrooms, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, moths, beetles, and other insects.

This Was Logging

Ralph W. Andrews

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

I think I read it many years ago. Question: see below-- 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 12 people found this review helpful.

I thought this was a photography book on log-ing in Northwest Washington. My grand- father was in one of the photo's. I can't re- member the photographer's name. Lost book, sadly, and would love to replace it. John Oftebro

Editorial Review:

"Someday" Big Fred Hewett used to say in his Humboldt Saloon in Aberdeen, Washington, "these pictures will show how the boys used to do it." He knew the day would come when the Pacific Northwest's "Big Woods" would be only a fog-blurred memory and the cry "Logs! More Logs!" would no longer be heard ringing up and down the skidroads. With the superb views of timber photographer Darius Kinsey, comprising more than 200 pictures made from wet plate celluloid negatives, 11" x 14", and processed by his pioneer wife, Tabitha, author Andrews dramatically presents a panorama of lumbering's great days in these woods from 1890 to 1925. Shown in sharp detail are the first axes, 12-foot crosscut saws, the first oxen and horses, the first donkey engines and "lokeys". Then the story continues into the "highball" days, the high production period with the steel tower skidders and miles of steel rigging.

Diseases of Trees and Shrubs, Second Edition (Comstock Book)

Wayne Sinclair, Howard H. Lyon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Praise for the First Edition--

Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Division Award Winner (Life Sciences)

"One of the ten best horticultural books of the century."--The Washington Post

"Diseases of Trees and Shrubs is by far the best book currently available for the horticulturist, arborist, or forester who wishes to identify disorders of forest and shade trees and woody ornamentals."--The Public Garden

"It may be used by anyone with knowledge of general biology as well as by someone with specialized plant knowledge for diagnosing plant disease problems. Highly recommended."--Library Journal

"This book is a remarkable contribution to the literature on tree pathology, providing a valuable source of reference on tree disease for all with an interest in the subject. It must surely be almost obligatory reading for the specialist tree pathologist, and will prove of great value to all tree care professionals. . . . It will fascinate any tree lovers who wish to find out more about the diseases and disorders that may afflict trees."--Arboricultural Journal

"It is well written and it is illustrated with photographs of such high quality that in this respect it could be described as a `coffee table' book of forest pathology."--Forestry

First published in 1987, Diseases of Trees and Shrubs has become a standard reference for plant health specialists, plant diagnosticians, horticulturists, arborists, foresters, and their students. Now thoroughly revised, fully updated, and illustrated with more than 2200 digitally optimized color images in 261 full-color plates and more than 350 black-and-white photographs and drawings, the second edition is an unrivalled survey of the diseases of forest and shade trees and woody ornamental plants in the United States and Canada. The book is both an authoritative reference book and a powerful diagnostic tool. Organized according to type of disease-inducing agent, the second edition is also designed to be helpful in classroom and field instruction. Symptoms, signs, and cycles of hundreds of diseases are described and microscopic features of many pathogens are depicted in photos and line drawings. A searchable CD-ROM included with the book contains bibliographic entries for more than 4500 works that readers can consult for additional information or images. This remarkable scholarly work--praised as one of the best horticultural books of the twentieth century--lays claim to the same accolade for the twenty-first century.

Common Sense Forestry (Books for Wiser Living from Mother Earth News)

Hans W. Morsbach

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Trees are the ultimate sunlight-harvesting machines. The care and nurturing of trees has been a recurring theme in Chelsea Green's publishing program, from The Man Who Planted Trees to Julia Alvarez's A Cafecito Story. Here is a book that foregoes romance in favor of straightforward, practical knowledge. Twenty-five years ago, when Hans Morsbach became interested in cultivating trees and managing small woodlands, he searched for a good how-to manual. He never found one, so he decided to write his own someday. Based on his subsequent experience, combining deep research into the academic literature on forestry with his successes and failures as a small-scale commercial tree farmer, the result is Common Sense Forestry, an indispensable reference for anyone who owns or wants to own wooded property. Morsbach is an unabashed nature lover as well as a businessman, and well understands the essential importance of a long-term approach to sustainable forest management. In this highly readable and entertaining text, the author offers a comprehensive look at managing existing woodlands by creating, and later maintaining, forests that promote biodiversity while providing an income stream. This comprehensive examination of sustainable forestry includes everything from choosing land to beginning a forest through seeding and transplanting, from pruning and thinning to harvesting trees, from debates over herbicides and clearcutting to working with professional foresters, from business strategies to tax planning. While Morsbach's personal experience is in the Midwest, the information in this book is applicable to a wide range of trees and is relevant to all regions of North America.