Best trees in biological sciences books according to redditors

I read an awesome book by Richard Preston that got me interested in Redwoods and the type of person that would risk their life by climbing them called The Wild Trees. There are whole stands of these giants that they discovered within Redwood National Park that dwarf the easily accessible famous examples such as General Sherman. Seeing as how you have to hike over and around their fallen comrades with trunk diameters of up to 30 feet it's nearly impossible to get to them. These guys would spend the night suspended high up in their crowns while all around them widowmakers would break off in the wind. Just thought I'd recommend this book to you guys if you find this stuff interesting.

Decades of suppression have led to the build-up of large amounts of forest debris. Additional problems include a massive increase in the density of trees per acre; from this paper:

>For example, more than 50 times more ponderosa pine trees currently occur in old-growth forests of the Gus Pearson Natural Area in northern Arizona than occurred in 1876 at the time of settlement (Mast et al. 1999).

This has several effects if you don't allow small ground fires to occur:

1. You don't kill off young trees. Too many survive; tree density increases.
   
   
2. Too many trees = not enough water. Without water to produce sap, bark beetles go nuts. Trees start dying- even more fuel.
   
   
3. Ground fuels build up. This leads to larger fires, and ladder fuels that bring fires into the canopy- remember, the trees are already dry to begin with, a function of drought, and of trees that are at too high a density for what little precipitation there is.
   
   
4. Once debris on the ground builds up to some critical level, tree roots start growing up and out of the mineral soil. Wildfires that moonscape the terrain, outright killing small trees, spare the large ones- but the old trees succumb to fire later on, as the ground fires kill the roots that have grown upward into the debris that is scorched off.
   
   Of course, the blame lies in decades of fire suppression- a function of "oh the poor wild animals" (which have adapted to routine, small ground fires in a spectacular fashion- but not the huge crown fires of much death that have resulted), and of industry and commerce protecting their interests (relatively high tree density).
   
   This book has interesting insights if you care for them. I would elaborate upon any of the points I've made or any questions you might have. It's a very complicated subject that isn't well suited to terse answers.

Yes, this is overlooked in the romanticized story of early American conservationism.

There was also a class-based dynamic at play in that you had to be of a certain privilege to "experience nature". To flee the city and enjoy the beautiful emptied lands.

I first read about the history of public lands, conservationism and conflicts surrounding dispossession by the Federal government in:

Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico, By Jake Kosek

Peterson will hook your shit up, son.

http://www.amazon.com/Plants-Pacific-Northwest-Coast-Pojar/dp/1551055309 for plants

If you want something that will actually be thorough and help you out, this one right here is what you want. It's a serious reference with a ton of great information and not a pretty little coffee table book about wild berries.

> https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Pocket-Guide-Britain-Northern/dp/0002198576/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=collins+pocket+guide+trees&qid=1570611961&sr=8-1

Thanks you is that one?

You, my friend, want to be a backpacker. Rules on backcountry camping vary by location. GrtScott linked to the rules at Cherokee National Forest! A lot of time local businesses (or you could also find online) will sale trail guides that someone writes and gives you all best information on the trails. These trail guides usually give more detailed information on finding a good campsite in the area. (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Cherokee-National-Forest-Outdoor-Tennessee/dp/157233374X)

I've read some books on medicinal plants, native herbology, and ethnobotany in the Pacific Northwest. There are references to a smoking mixture sometimes called kinnikinnik - but sometimes kinnikinnik refers to the bearberry plant.

A few books - (Amazon links):
Plants of the Pacific Northwest


Ethnobotany of Western Washington


Indian Herbology of North America


Some sources indicate the inner bark of the red dogwood tree is mixed with bearberry leaves - dried and crushed for smoking, smudging and ritual use. I have seen mullein and even devil's club mentioned in some references after a brief search.


I haven't looked specifically into smoking herbs or mixtures, but these are the books I'd start with.

Not useful at all. Identifying edibles and discerning them from indigestible or toxic plants requires a much more detailed plant guide. For my region I like this one

You found these in BC, Canada? I'm surprised- I didn't think Magnolias were found that far northwest and #3 looks just like a leaf from a tree that I didn't think ranged that far north, either.

I usually use a field manual from the the National Audobon Society to do this sort of thing. It will give you all the info you need to identify the type of magnolia. You might want to find a similar field manual for your region- your University library should have them.

For #3: If you find a guide like the one I mentioned, you'll want to look in the pictures section under "simple leaves, untoothed." Once you get a name, you can then go to that section and get all the details you'll need to confirm or determine the specific type.

Definitely depends on your location. Here in the PNW we love Pojar, and I'm betting there's a favored guide in your area :) For that matter I have an additional guidebook for the Olympics, so even relatively small areas can have a lot of diversity that can be difficult to fit into a single guide. What you'll need depends on where you roam.

Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia and the Inland Northwest

Mushrooms Demystified

Ought to get you started.

What state are they located in?

This my favorite gardening tool. It is always on my belt and used for digging, planting, and weeding. This particular one has a quality sheath and full tang blade.

https://www.amazon.com/Oakridge-Garden-Tools-Purpose-6-75-Inch/dp/B00RC7EOU6/ref=sr_1_11?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1479349898&sr=1-11&keywords=hori+hori+leather

This is a nice pocket guide if they live on the west coast. It's pretty small.

https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Coast-Tree-Finder-Identifying/dp/0912550279#reader_0912550279

This is what I use

*Edit:I have this one too, but I don't like it as much.

I love reading this stuff too. I’m a very outdoorsy person. So, if you want a nice non portable book about trees, there’s the david allen Sisley guide to trees. For portable, there are a lot more. The Audubon book is good, it just hasn’t been updated in a longtime. The Peterson guide is more recent and is good also. I’ll try to think of the books we have. My mom has a lot and has ones from her parents too. One that’s good is the national wildlife federation book on wildflowers. A new book that cool is one called wildflowers of the Appalachian trail. On trees, I really like an old edition of the golden guide to trees that we have. The Audubon guide to eastern us trees is good. I think Peterson is better than Audubon though. There is also a forestry department book on trees of around here that I have from middle school. Don’t worry, I’ll provide links to these books.

https://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Guide-Trees-David-Allen/dp/037541519X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481660&sr=1-1&keywords=Sibley+trees

https://www.amazon.com/GOLDEN-GUIDE-Herbert-Alexander-Martin/dp/B000KIITZK/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481704&sr=1-3&keywords=Golden+guide+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Eastern-Trees-Including/dp/0395904552/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481730&sr=1-1&keywords=Peterson+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Society-Field-Guide-American/dp/0394507606/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481747&sr=1-1&keywords=Audubon+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Wildflowers-Shenandoah-Valley-Ridge-Mountains/dp/0813908140/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481845&sr=1-3&keywords=Blue+ridge+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Wildflowers/dp/0375402322/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481845&sr=1-10&keywords=Blue+ridge+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/National-Wildlife-Federation-Wildflowers-America/dp/1402741545/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481922&sr=1-2&keywords=national+wildlife+federation+field+guide

https://www.amazon.com/Peterson-Field-Guide-Wildflowers-North-central/dp/0395911729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481968&sr=1-1&keywords=Peterson+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/Wildflowers-Appalachian-Trail-Leonard-Adkins/dp/1634040902/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481991&sr=1-1&keywords=Wildflowers+of+the+Appalachian+trail

http://www.shopdgif.com/product.cfm?uid=2051408&context=&showInactive=N

I’m going to post again once I go look at our bookshelf. This was just off the top of my head. Oh and it’s not a field guide, but you should read a walk in the woods by bill bryson.

This the best guide that I've found:

https://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Society-Field-Guide-American/dp/0394507606

I'm on the West coast so I use the Western version, but I keep a copy of that in my glove box. After a while you get to where you can identify 95% of all the normal species in your area.

Hawthorns are a mess of a genus. Even the authoritative book on the genus within the US admits that many of the species are poorly defined, seeming to slowly blend from one to another across their range.

You should check this book out. Kinda fun to take on a winter walk in the woods in New England.

https://www.amazon.com/Bark-Field-Guide-Trees-Northeast/dp/1584658525

Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests: Intown and Out https://www.amazon.com/dp/1889596299/

(also available at your local library)

Here is an excellent field tree ID book for the Eastern US by leaves. Here is another tree ID book for the Pacific Coast. Here is a tree ID book for the Eastern US during winter.

Get this cool little pocket book and your troubles are solved.

This book is awesome. It's local hikes not overnight trips. It provides directions by public transport where possible. You'd be surprised how many forests there are right in the city.

HERE is a better one for the Pacific Northwest. Comes recommended from many people I've encountered out on trails.

Also, use smile.amazon.com and they'll donate a portion of your purchase to a non-profit :)

This is a bit weird, but there's a fun book about edible plants in the Pacific NW: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1551055309/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_CuGiybADGAT2P

Required Reading: Conifers of the Pacific Slope: A field guide to the conifers of California, Oregon, and Washington

Required Reading: Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope

Pick & Choose: New-to-Seattle reading list, 25 essential nature books

Nice to have: Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest

Nice to have: Conifer Country: A natural history and hiking guide to 35 conifers of the Klamath Mountain region

Nice to have: Timberline Mountain and Arctic Forest Frontiers

This deserves a place on every Cascadian's bookshelf right next to the Cascadian classic Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
http://www.amazon.com/Plants-The-Pacific-Northwest-Coast/dp/1551055309

I find that science history and biography gives a good understanding of scientific methods, and when written for the lay-person, doesn't get so bogged down in technical jargon.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
  
• Chaos: Making a New Science - James Gleick
  (Also check out his biographies of Isaac Newton and Richard Feynman)
  
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
  
  And here are a few on my to read list:
  
  
• Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society - Bill Bryson
  
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
  
• The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine - Lindsey Fitzharris
  
• Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus - Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy
  
• The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring - Richard Preston
  
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science - Richard Holmes
  
• The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution - David Wootton
  
  I hope that helps.

The wild trees

This book really drew me in and now I have this nagging yen to see the redwoods.

https://www.amazon.ca/Trees-Canada-John-Laird-Farrar/dp/1550411993

Trees in Canada is pretty much the standard reference for any forest professionals in Ontario. Covers all your native and naturalized species. You may need another source for non-native ornamentals and landscape species, if you commonly encounter them.

Illustrated Book of Trees by William Carey Grimm. It's only for eastern North America (works for me), but in addition to identification guides for leaves, bark, twigs, etc and excellent drawings, has explanations of growing habitats, uses of the wood, rot resistance, workability, etc. And it's big enough that the leaves I find from interesting trees I can press into the pages of the book. I'm a dork.

That app sounds so cool! You might also like the app iNaturalist, it's helpful for learning what something is if you're not sure. Pojar is the absolute BEST guide if you want to learn more about PNW coastal plants before you explore! Also, sword fern spores are useful for soothing the pain if you accidentally walk into some stinging nettle. :)

https://www.amazon.ca/Plants-Pacific-Northwest-Coast-Washington/dp/1551055309

i keep this book in my cruiser vest. Trees are relatively easy to identify once you get into the swing of things.

I think that being familiar with its counterparts (shrubs, herbs, etc) are VERY important to understanding forest dynamics and as it follows, they're a little bit trickier to identify than our trees.

If you're interested in the actual workings of modern firefighting, from the Incident Command Team down to the firefighter on the ground, I suggest Fire Line: Summer Battles of the West!

It's more of a coffee table book, but great (though somewhat outdated) photos and a great overall view of the workings of the fire fighting machine at work!

Photo of your computer screen lacks the image quality, link the original image.


This is a good book that will help you get information your looking for.
https://www.amazon.ca/Trees-Canada-John-Laird-Farrar/dp/1550411993

You can also find a vast amount of information online either via government websites or ngo
Such as:
https://www.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/tree-atlas

http://ontariotrees.com/groups/44/pinequickguide.php

Or you could always splurge and buy Michael A. Dirrs manual of woody landscape plants.

A Californian's Guide to the Trees among Us https://www.amazon.com/dp/159714147X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_sFHACbRWA2R33

Where in BC are you moving to? Plants of Coastal BC (that others have recommended already) is great for many parts of the province, but if you are in the interior/north you may want to get Plants of Southern Interior BC and the Inland Northwest (https://www.amazon.ca/Southern-Interior-British-Columbia-Northwest/dp/1551052199).

[This is the best field guide I've found so far.] (http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Field-American/dp/0394507606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347048616&sr=8-1&keywords=field+guide+trees) There's one for the east and another for the west in North America. I do occasionally come across things that aren't in the book. I personally know of several species tree in my area that are in this book so the internet is always a great place to look too. This book covers a lot and is a great resource. It doesn't cost a lot either.

Also: bio books
Ernst Haeckel: Art Forms in Nature Coloring Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/0764974718/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KJQcBbKBS180V
Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel https://www.amazon.com/dp/3791319906/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_vLQcBb6P811G0
The Anatomy Coloring Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321832019/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VMQcBb9XJGXX9
Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394507606/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7OQcBb7QBN95M
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders: North America (National Audubon Society Field Guides (Paperback)) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394507630/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5PQcBb0PZQYNW

Preserved specimen: Real Bat Specimens Science Classroom Specimen for Science Education https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072BCCTL1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZSQcBbE7HYPN2
Real Snake Skeleton Specimen in Acrylic Block Paperweights Science Classroom Specimens for Science Education https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078581LLZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OTQcBbN1W3JWE

Models:
Wellden Medical Anatomical Human Skull Model, 3-part, Numbered, Life Size https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EKC5SHS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_YZQcBbCF8D61B

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1584658525?keywords=bark%20tre%20identification&qid=1452911049&ref_=sr_1_sc_1&sr=8-1-spell

That one? Looks very nice!

I like this book for closer mostly ITP hikes https://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Atlantas-Hidden-Forests-Intown/dp/1889596299

The Flora of the Pacific Northwest is the book you want. It has full keys. Picture guides specifically related to the northwest (like this and this) can be used to supplement this, but FPN is the best authority for most of that region.

"Wildflowers of North America" and Newcomb's Guide and things like that are not going to help you at all. They mostly cover Eastern species and there is rather little botanical overlap between there and the Pacific Northwest.

Check out a field guide for your area. I'm an entomologist and we recommend the same thing for bugs.

The one I use. Other people may like different ones
http://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Society-Field-Guide-American/dp/0394507606

This book has been on my list for awhile.

Thanks for your reply and the link. Since I wrote the above, I found and ordered this: Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. Have not received it yet, but I bet it will be pretty good.

> Coast redwood: a natural and cultural history by cachuma press

https://www.amazon.com/Coast-Redwood-Natural-Cultural-History/dp/096285056X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Coast+redwood%3A+a+natural+and+cultural+history+by+cachuma+press&qid=1566451069&s=gateway&sr=8-1