Best of
Natural-History

1989

The Control of Nature


John McPhee - 1989
    Bilateral, symmetrical, it could with equal speed travel in opposite directions. For some years, he had been planning a book about places in the world where people have been engaged in all-out battles with nature, about (in the words of the book itself) "any struggle against natural forces--heroic or venal, rash or well advised--when human beings conscript themselves to fight against the earth, to take what is not given, to rout the destroying enemy, to surround the base of Mt. Olympus demanding and expecting the surrender of the gods." His interest had first been sparked when he went into the Atchafalaya--the largest river swamp in North America--and had learned that virtually all of its waters were metered and rationed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project called Old River Control.In the natural cycles of the Mississippi's deltaic plain, the time had come for the Mississippi to change course, to shift its mouth more than a hundred miles and go down the Atchafalaya, one of its distributary branches. The United States could not afford that--for New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and all the industries that lie between would be cut off from river commerce with the rest of the nation. At a place called Old River, the Corps therefore had built a great fortress--part dam, part valve--to restrain the flow of the Atchafalaya and compel the Mississippi to stay where it is.In Iceland, in 1973, an island split open without warning and huge volumes of lava began moving in the direction of a harbor scarcely half a mile away. It was not only Iceland's premier fishing port (accounting for a large percentage of Iceland's export economy) but it was also the only harbor along the nation's southern coast. As the lava threatened to fill the harbor and wipe it out, a physicist named Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson suggested a way to fight against the flowing red rock--initiating an all-out endeavor unique in human history. On the big island of Hawaii, one of the world's two must eruptive hot spots, people are not unmindful of the Icelandic example. McPhee went to Hawaii to talk with them and to walk beside the edges of a molten lake and incandescent rivers.Some of the more expensive real estate in Los Angeles is up against mountains that are rising and disintegrating as rapidly as any in the world. After a complex coincidence of natural events, boulders will flow out of these mountains like fish eggs, mixed with mud, sand, and smaller rocks in a cascading mass known as debris flow. Plucking up trees and cars, bursting through doors and windows, filling up houses to their eaves, debris flows threaten the lives of people living in and near Los Angeles' famous canyons. At extraordinary expense the city has built a hundred and fifty stadium-like basins in a daring effort to catch the debris.Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strategies and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking in his vivid depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those who would attempt to wrest control from her--stubborn, often ingenious, and always arresting characters.

Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide


Lawrence Newcomb - 1989
    Amateur and expert alike can quickly and accurately identify almost any wildflower using Lawrence Newcomb's system, which is based on natural structural features that are easily visible even to the untrained eye. Every time you see an unknown plant, ask yourself the same five questions (related to the type of plant and the structure of its petals and leaves), and you will be directed to the page on which the plant can be found. Beautiful illustrations make confirmation easy.

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History


Stephen Jay Gould - 1989
    It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.

Ravens in Winter


Bernd Heinrich - 1989
    16 pages of drawings.

RHS Encyclopedia of Plants Flowers


Christopher Brickell - 1989
    Packed with advice on over 8,000 plants with all you need to know on cultivation, pests, diseases and choosing the right plant for the right place. Now features a new section on choosing the best plants for year-round colour in your garden.

A Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics


John C. Kricher - 1989
    It is the most comprehensive one-volume guide to the Neotropics available today. Widely praised in its first edition, it remains a book of unparalleled value to tourists, students, and scientists alike. This second edition has been substantially revised and expanded to incorporate the abundance of new scientific information that has been produced since it was first published in 1989. Major additions have been made to every chapter, and new chapters have been added on Neotropical ecosystems, human ecology, and the effects of deforestation. Biodiversity and its preservation are discussed throughout the book, and Neotropical evolution is described in detail. This new edition offers all new drawings and photographs, many of them in color. As enthusiastic readers of the first edition will attest, this is a charming book. Wearing his learning lightly and writing with ease and humor, John Kricher presents the complexities of tropical ecology as accessible and nonintimidating. Kricher is so thoroughly knowledgeable and the book is so complete in its coverage that general readers and ecotourists will not need any other book to help them identify and understand the plants and animals, from birds to bugs, that they will encounter in their travels to the New World tropics. At the same time, it will fascinate armchair travelers and students who may get no closer to the Neotropics than this engagingly written book.

The Island Within


Richard K. Nelson - 1989
    This book revises our own relationship with nature, allowing us to observe it and also to participate in it with reverence and a sense of wonder.

Lily Pond: Four Years with a Family of Beavers


Hope Ryden - 1989
    Award-winning nature writer Hope Ryden brings readers not only a scientific look at animal behaviors but also a warm and engaging story of the adventures and family life of the beaver.

Mushrooms & Other Fungi of Great Britain & Europe


Roger Phillips - 1989
    Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe (A Pan original)

Mystery Cats of the World: From Blue Tigers to Exmoor Beasts


Karl Shuker - 1989
    Jacket Has A Little Wear To The Edges And Some Minor Scratch Marks To The Rear.

Ospreys: A Natural and Unnatural History


Alan F. Poole - 1989
    Special attention is devoted to the successful restoration of threatened osprey populations in Scotland and New England.

Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and North Western Europe


Francis Rose - 1989
    

The Practical Gardener: Mastering The Elements Of Good Growing


Roger B. Swain - 1989
    Roger B. Swain, host of PBS's popular series "The Victory Garden", combines his substantial experience as a gardener with his background as a biologist to tell us how to calculate the hours of sunlight a plot will get, how to keep raccoons out of sweet corn, and the best way to make up for a short rainfall, among other topics. Novice and experienced gardeners alike will welcome his book both as a practical tool and as an irrepressible appreciation of the craft.

Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest


Elliott A. Norse - 1989
    It shows how human tampering affects an ecosystem, and how the Pacific Northwest could become a model for sustainable forestry worldwide.

Winter Weed Finder: A Guide to Dry Plants in Winter


Dorcas S. Miller - 1989
    Includes common native and naturalized herbs and native ferns. Area covered is the upper Midwest and eastern U.S. north of South Carolina, and eastern Canada. Illustrated with line drawings.

Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees


Beatrix T. Gardner - 1989
    Here, the pioneers in this field review the unique procedures that they developed and the extensive body of evidence accumulated over the years. This close look at what the chimpanzees have actually done and said under rigorous laboratory conditions is the best answer to the heated controversies that have been generated by this line of research among ethologists, psychologists, anthropologists, linguists, and philosophers.

Vanishing Tracks: Four Years Among the Snow Leopards of Nepal


Darla Hillard - 1989
    It is also a story of love and high adventure that provides a fascinating, affecting profile of a people inhabiting one of the most isolated and inhospitable regions in the world—the Kanjiroba Himal of western Nepal.

Lizards Of The World


Christopher Mattison - 1989
    

The Atlas of the Living World


David Attenborough - 1989
    Here are the stories of moving continents and dying dinosaurs, epics of Ice Age transformations and how new islands have been formed and populated. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Once Upon a Windowsill: A History of Indoor Plants


Tovah Martin - 1989
    

Quake of Eighty-Nine


San Francisco Chronicle - 1989