View topic - Your favorite natural science books?

Anyone spending time in the outdoors is brought into contact with.....life itself, life's substrates and life's major influences.

I have a couple dozen interpretive books on my bookshelf and am always on the lookout for more.

If you have good books to recommend, whether about soil biology, wetland plants or identifying hawks in flight etc. etc., be it a Peterson field guide or a university level text I'd love to find out about it.

Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Central North America by Lee Allen Peterson (a Peterson Field Guide)

Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Bradford Angier

NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terence Dickinson

Hope this helps,
- Martin

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Lone Pine publishing is the go to in the west. They also have some guides as far east as Ontario and Michigan.
http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/cat/nature/plants
These are excellent guides used by professionals and laypersons alike.

Here's what will probably be considered an odd choice: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Great for a long evening by the lake.

Kinguq

I read it twice, once 35 years ago when it was fairly new and then again last fall! Gets a bit tedious at times. Dawkins tends to make sure his point gets across! (I've read 5 or 6 of his books and always find them fascinating).

Reading this book on a trip in deep woods, near a swamp or a bog, one would be surrounded by billions of gene replication machines.

The book is pertinent because all around one, the results are everywhere, frozen, according to our own time scale, in evolutionary time.

That's a good one but an even better one is The Panda's Thumb by Stephen Jay Gould.

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"Biotic Forest Communities of Ontario", 4th edition, 2009
Norman and Norma Martin

Written for Ontario forest communities, probably applies to Quebec since community types extend past the province boundaries. Much of the book covers forest succession, how forests change with time from first-growth poplar and birch following fire and wind disturbance, to old growth communities from boreal to southern deciduous forests.

There's additional info on the most common plants and animals (esp birds) inhabiting the various forest types, determined by the authors doing field research and taking data from published papers. This book tends towards the scientific so might seem a bit dry since tables and numbers are included from the actual surveys. But there's plenty of interesting text as well... the fourth edition is worth getting since it includes new findings not found in previous editions. Findings from several hundred references are included in the text.

Norman Martin was an Algonquin Park scientist working at the forest research center there and some of the info applies to APP. Somewhere I have his address in Belleville and email to order if there's any difficulty finding the most recent book ($10 IIRC).

PS... agree with the above posts, this is another one of those books that influences what one sees all around in the landscape (although maybe not as far-reaching as Dawkins and Gould).

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Wolf Country by John Theberge. His research along with his grad students is responsible for the protection of wolves around Algonquin.

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I have paleogeology books by three different authors. Each traces not just geological history, but the history of life in the oceans and on the planet's surface.

We may never see reports about visits to distant planets, by humans or robots, but our own earth has been a series of time-distant planets, and much has been inferred about them. Paddlers probably encounter more features reflecting earth's history than most other people, and we see the processes that cause the planet to evolve.

At least one of my books is out of print. If interested, just google paleogeology or history of the earth, and see what is offered.

are there any books that explain how there are the same species of fish across Canada and in the US? Was everything connected at one time?

Sylvain, the bible on Canadian freshwater fish, Scott and Crossman's Freshwater Fishes of Canada, has distribution maps for each species. You'll see that some like yellow perch, have a widespread distribution, while others are much more localized. There may be notes in the text explaining distribution.

Glaciation in the north is one reason why some coldwater fish like lake trout are widely distributed. There were no fish under the sheets of ice, but during recession the meltwater filling lakes and rivers allowed lake trout to recolonize along the retreating ice front.

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alright thanks, I looked it up and it's a bit pricey. I'll check out my local library to see if they would have it.

I really like David Carpenter's Fishing in Western Canada. It is humourous as well as informative, and is filled with David's not-too-serious and interesting writing style. http://www.dccarpenter.com/fishing_in_w ... canada.htm



I still suck at fishing, though.

David Carpenter is one of my favourite authors, I love his book Courting Saskatchewan and his various works of fiction.

I own a variety of the Lone Pine books, they really are great for those of us in the west. The one that comes most frequently on my trips is Plants of the Western Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland by Derek Johnson, Linda Kershaw and Andy MacKinnon. http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/cat/9781551050584



The one I don't love is the Lone Pine Saskatchewan Birds since it's not sufficiently comprehensive for my preference. It covers all the major birds found here, but excludes some that are a bit less common. That of course is a plus for some folks since it produces a more simple, smaller guide. http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/cat/9781551053042

I used to have a bird guide that I loved, but I loaned it to someone and never got it back (it migrated from person to person and beyond my practical reach). I prefer bird guides with drawings rather than photos - photos are great but a well drawn image can really show the salient points so well.

I look forward to seeing other's suggestions! It's been a long time since I've read that Selfish Gene book, probably just after finishing my undergrad in biology.

Cheers,
Bryan

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I should add that David Carpenter's fishing book, unlike some others that I have, DOES NOT assume that you own a big motorboat. Hey, it even has a canoe on the cover. Carpenter revels in finding and celebrating the hidden gems of the fishing world, accessed by belly boat, canoe, or other minimally intrusive method.

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Can't seem to find a confirmed source online, but I found that:
At least as of 2009. I suspect these prices have risen in 5 years if it is available at all. The address is in an apartment building, hopefully a long-term tenant.

It's also available at the University of Guelph for lend.

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