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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Plant life: general
Born in the timber colony of New Brunswick, Maine, in 1848, Andrew Benoni Hammond got off to an inauspicious start as a teenage lumberjack. By his death in 1934, Hammond had built an empire of wood that stretched from Puget Sound to Arizona-and in the process had reshaped the American West and the nation's way of doing business. When Money Grew on Trees follows Hammond from the rough-and-tumble world of mid-nineteenth-century New Brunswick to frontier Montana and the forests of Northern California-from lowly lumberjack to unrivaled timber baron. Although he began his career as a pioneer entrepreneur, Hammond, unlike many of his associates, successfully negotiated the transition to corporate businessman. Against the backdrop of western expansion and nation-building, his life dramatically demonstrates how individuals-more than the impersonal forces of political economy-shaped capitalism in this country, and in doing so, transformed the forests of the West from functioning natural ecosystems into industrial landscapes. In revealing Hammond's instrumental role in converting the nation's public domain into private wealth, historian Greg Gordon also shows how the struggle over natural resources gave rise to the two most pervasive forces in modern American life: the federal government and the modern corporation. Combining environmental, labor, and business history with biography, When Money Grew on Trees challenges the conventional view that the development and exploitation of the western United States was dictated from the East Coast. The West, Gordon suggests, was perfectly capable of exploiting itself, and in his book we see how Hammond and other regional entrepreneurs dammed rivers, logged forests, and leveled mountains in just a few decades. Hammond and his like also built cities, towns, and a vast transportation network of steamships and railroads to export natural resources and import manufactured goods. In short, they established much of the modern American state and economy.
What is a tree? Why are they so important to life on Earth? How do they eat, breathe, grow, communicate, and regenerate themselves? How many different kinds of tree are there and where do they live? In this beautiful little book, illustrated with rare old engravings and specially commisioned drawings, internationally renowned Finnish tree boffin Professor Olavi Huikari takes us on an unforgettable journey deep into the secrets of these hugest and most majestic of life forms. WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.
A top priority in climate research is obtaining broad-extent and long-term data to support analyses of historical patterns and trends, and for model development and evaluation. Along with directly measured climate data from the present and recent past, it is important to obtain estimates of long past climate variations spanning multiple centuries and millennia. Dendroclimatic Studies at the North American Tree Line presents an overview of the current state of dendroclimatology, its contributions over the past few decades, and its future potential. The material included is not useful not only to those who generate tree-ring records of past climate-dendroclimatologists, but also to users of their results-climatologists, hydrologists, ecologists and archeologists. In summary, this book: Sheds light on recent and future climate trends by assessing long term past climatic variations from tree rings Is a timely coverage of a crucial topic in climate science portraying recent warming trends which are of serious concern today Features well-reputed scientists highlighting new advanced methodologies to reconstruct past climate change Models the tree growth environmental response
AS FEATURED ON 'BBC RADIO 4 'GOOD READS'. Woodlands Awards 2019: Woodland Books of the Year 'The oak is the wooden tie between heaven and earth. It is the lynch pin of the British landscape.' The oak is our most beloved and most common tree. It has roots that stretch back to all the old European cultures but Britain has more ancient oaks than all the other European countries put together. More than half the ancient oaks in the world are in Britain. Many of our ancestors - the Angles, the Saxons, the Norse - came to the British Isles in longships made of oak. For centuries the oak touched every part of a Briton's life - from cradle to coffin It was oak that made the 'wooden walls' of Nelson's navy, and the navy that allowed Britain to rule the world. Even in the digital Apple age, the real oak has resonance - the word speaks of fortitude, antiquity, pastoralism. The Glorious Life of the Oak explores our long relationship with this iconic tree; it considers the life-cycle of the oak, the flora and fauna that depend on the oak, the oak as medicine, food and drink, where Britain's mightiest oaks can be found, and it tells of oak stories from folklore, myth and legend.
Ripe, sensuous, irresistible: the cherry tree and its stunning blossoms conjure up many literal, metaphorical and visceral sensations. We enjoy cherry-picking, a cherry on top, and even, on occasion, to lose one's cherry. Cherries have been consumed since prehistoric times, reaching great popularity among the ancient Romans. They have come to symbolize such divergent concepts as fertility, innocence and seductiveness, inspiring Dutch still-life paintings, Freudian theory, contemporary pop artists, and one of the first food emojis. In Japan and other Asian cultures, the short-lived but beautiful cherry blossoms are important elements throughout art and literature. In this intriguing natural and cultural history, Mary Newman and Constance L. Kirker recount the origins, legends, celebrations, production and health benefits of this beloved tree.
The Z133 Safety Standard was developed for the arboriculture industry under the procedures of the American National Standards Institute. The 2017 revision provides the most current criteria in the United States for arborists and other workers engaged in arboricultural operations: General safety. Electrical hazard. Use of vehicles and mobile equipment. Portable power hand tools. Hand tools and ladders. Climbing *Work procedures. This publication provides an essential guide for federal, state, and municipal authorities in the USA in drafting regulations.
From one of the region's foremost mushroom hunters-Walter E. Sturgeon-comes a long-overdue field guide to finding and identifying the mushrooms and fleshy fungi found in the Appalachian mountains from Canada to Georgia. Edibility and toxicity, habitat, ecology, and detailed diagnostic features of the disparate forms they take throughout their life cycles are all included, enabling the reader to identify species without the use of a microscope or chemicals. Appalachian Mushrooms is unparalleled in its accuracy and currency, from its detailed photographs to descriptions based on the most advanced classification information available, including recent DNA studies that have upended some mushrooms' previously accepted taxonomies. Sturgeon celebrates more than 400 species in all their diversity, beauty, and scientific interest, going beyond the expected specimens to include uncommon ones and those that are indigenous to the Appalachian region. This guide is destined to be an indispensable authority on the subject for everyone from beginning hobbyists to trained experts, throughout Appalachia and beyond.
The largest edible fruit native to the United States tastes like a cross between a banana and a mango. It grows wild in twenty-six states, gracing Eastern forests each fall with sweet-smelling, tropical-flavored abundance. Historically, it fed and sustained Native Americans and European explorers, presidents, and enslaved African Americans, inspiring folk songs, poetry, and scores of place names from Georgia to Illinois. Its trees are an organic grower's dream, requiring no pesticides or herbicides to thrive, and containing compounds that are among the most potent anticancer agents yet discovered. So why have so few people heard of the pawpaw, much less tasted one? In Pawpaw-a 2016 James Beard Foundation Award nominee in the Writing & Literature category-author Andrew Moore explores the past, present, and future of this unique fruit, traveling from the Ozarks to Monticello; canoeing the lower Mississippi in search of wild fruit; drinking pawpaw beer in Durham, North Carolina; tracking down lost cultivars in Appalachian hollers; and helping out during harvest season in a Maryland orchard. Along the way, he gathers pawpaw lore and knowledge not only from the plant breeders and horticulturists working to bring pawpaws into the mainstream (including Neal Peterson, known in pawpaw circles as the fruit's own "Johnny Pawpawseed"), but also regular folks who remember eating them in the woods as kids, but haven't had one in over fifty years. As much as Pawpaw is a compendium of pawpaw knowledge, it also plumbs deeper questions about American foodways-how economic, biologic, and cultural forces combine, leading us to eat what we eat, and sometimes to ignore the incredible, delicious food growing all around us. If you haven't yet eaten a pawpaw, this book won't let you rest until you do.
Southern Spain has a particularly rich and varied flora. This photographic field guide describes a representative selection of the most frequent and characteristic flowering plants to be found in this part of south-east Spain, many of which can also be seen anywhere in southern Spain or further afield. The area covered spans 2000 m in altitude and takes in a variety of largely Mediterranean vegetation types, of which those dominated by the aromatic thymes and colourful brooms are amongst the most spectacular. Wild Flowers of Eastern Andalucia describes 625 species, with 575 illustrated by colour photographs. It will appeal to local residents or holidaymakers, visiting botanists or anyone with an interest in wild flowers who is planning to visit the region. There is an introductory account for each plant family and each species account also includes the English and local Spanish names where known and a summary of cultural and medicinal uses.
Through a meticulous labor of love, Dr. Hershoff has produced a virtual musculoskeletal textbook for chiropractors and physicians who are pursuing a course of natural health care for their patients. The heart of his book, the first of its kind, addresses the homeopathic solutions for musculoskeletal complaints commonly seen in our offices and commonly experienced by many people in the course of their lives. As he focuses our attention on the musculoskeletal keynotes and affinities of the homeopathic materia medica, easy to read illustrations and charts help us reach the homeopathic cure, (or similimum) for many acute and chronic conditions. This book has the potential to relieve much human suffering.
American Ginseng has a strange and perilous history. It has one of the longest germination periods of any known species, and only two environments in the world have offered the ideal growing conditions for wild ginseng. The first was the forests of northern China, which disappeared over a millennium ago, and the sole remaining habitat is the Appalachian Mountain region of eastern North America, an area now threatened by logging and mining. Chinese legend says that ginseng is the child of lightning. The two elemental forces of water and fire fight in an eternal struggle, pouring down rain and snow and blasting the earth with lightning. If that lightning happens to strike a spring of water, the water disappears and in its place grows a ginseng plant -- the fusion of yin and yang, water and fire, darkness and light, and the life force that moves the universe. American ginseng has become perhaps the most treasured of all herbal medicines, promising good health and longevity to those who consume it. Fortunes have been made and lost on the plant, which was America's first export to China -- before our nation even existed. The strange, twisted, man-shaped root today commands as much as two thousand dollars a pound in the hot, noisy ginseng markets of Hong Kong, and a wealthy collector might pay as much as $10,000 for a single, perfect specimen. Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America's Most Valuable Plant unfolds ginseng's past and its future through the stories of seven people whose lives have become inextricably bound to it: a huckster, a field researcher, a farmer, a ginseng "missionary," a criminal investigator, a broker, and a cancer researcher. Each of these individuals brings a different perspective to the elusive root -- and each is consumed by a different dream. Kristin Johannsen threads her way though remote woodlands in the Appalachians to observe the fragile plants slowly putting out leaves as part of a three-year growing cycle, during which time the ginseng is vulnerable to both poachers and growing suburban sprawl. She contrasts this with the huge commercial growing fields of Marathon County, Wisconsin, where among potato fields and paper mills, ninety percent of the country's ginseng is produced. Johannsen explores the brisk black market trade in the panacean root and the efforts to save the wild species and its native habitat, and she ends her story in the laboratory, where researchers are investigating ginseng's anti-cancer properties. An absorbing journey into the many worlds of this mysterious and potent plant, Ginseng Dreams tells the extraordinary story of America's little-known natural treasure and the spell it casts on those who seek it.
ISA has developed a series of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for the purpose of interpreting tree care standards and providing guidelines of practice for arborists, tree workers, and the people who employ their services. This BMP is intended to serve as a guide for arborists to assess tree risk as accurately and consistently as possible, to evaluate that risk, and to recommend measures that achieve an acceptable level of risk. It also serves as a companion publication for the American National Standard for Tree Care Operations-Tree, Shrub and Other Woody Plant Management-Standard Practices (Tree Risk Assessment a. Tree Failure). Chapters in this BMP include: Risk Assessment Basics. Levels and Scope of Tree Risk Assessment. Assessing Targets, Sites, and Trees. Tree Risk Categorization. Risk Mitigation: Preventive and Remedial Actions. Risk Reporting. Tree Related Conflicts That Can Be a Source of Risk. Loads on Trees. Structural Defects and Conditions That Affect Likelihood of Failure. Response Growth. Description of Selected Types of Advanced Tree Risk Assessments.
An intimate look at one majestic hundred-year-old oak tree through four seasons--and the reality of global climate change it reveals. In the life of this one grand oak, we can see for ourselves the results of one hundred years of rapid environmental change. It's leafing out earlier, and dropping its leaves later as the climate warms. Even the inner workings of individual leaves have changed to accommodate more CO2 in our atmosphere. Climate science can seem dense, remote, and abstract. But through the lens of this one tree, it becomes immediate and intimate. In Witness Tree, environmental reporter Lynda V. Mapes takes us through her year living with one red oak at the Harvard Forest. We learn about carbon cycles and leaf physiology, but also experience the seasons as people have for centuries, watching for each new bud, and listening for each new bird and frog call in spring. We savor the cadence of falling autumn leaves, and glory of snow and starry winter nights. Lynda takes us along as she climbs high into the oak's swaying boughs, and scientists core deep into the oak's heartwood, dig into its roots and probe the teeming life of the soil. She brings us eye-level with garter snakes and newts, and alongside the squirrels and jays devouring the oak's acorns. Season by season she reveals the secrets of trees, how they work, and sustain a vast community of lives, including our own. The oak is a living timeline and witness to climate change. While stark in its implications, Witness Tree is a beautiful and lyrical read, rich in detail, sweeps of weather, history, people, and animals. It is a story rooted in hope, beauty, wonder, and the possibility of renewal in people's connection to nature.
Foraged food is surprising in its flavour, unusual texture, fresh colour and nutritional value. As more people become familiar with the idea of finding food in the woods, lakeside, or on their favorite hiking trail, they begin to notice the world around them in a new way. Now it's time to discover the many surprisingly edible plants found in backyards, lawns and parks. Foraging doesn't have to be hard or scary. Backyard Foraging brings foraging home to the neighbourhood. There's the lawn full of sheep sorrel, chickweed, dandelion and pineapple weed. Vacant lots host edibles like sumac, purslane, or Japanese knotweed. And even urban parks may offer up garlic mustard, milkweed, gingko nuts, daylilies and elderberries.
Unleash your inner geek and let this irreverent romp through the wonders of the garden yield practical results. Curious why caressing your cucumber plants will help them bear more fruit? Or why you should grow oranges from seed even if the fruit is inedible? Or why trees need to sleep and how to help them? Join acclaimed gardener, scientist, and author Lee Reich on a journey through the delights of your garden in this laugh-out-loud treatise on the scientific wonders of plants and soil. Offering eye-opening insight and practical guidance, coverage includes: How to maximize both flavor and nutrition in your garden bounty Helping plants thrive during drought Outwitting weeds by understanding their nature Making the best use of compost Tips on pruning and orchard care Why the dead language of Latin can make you a better gardener. The Ever Curious Gardener is an irreverent romp through the natural science of plants and soil, ideal for newer gardeners moving beyond back-of-the-seed-pack planting to experienced gardeners whose curiosity at the wonders of cultivation grows deeper and stronger with each season.
Marfa Garden is a full-color celebration of more than sixty flowering plants of the Chihuahuan Desert and neighboring regions. Marfa, the internationally acclaimed arts and cultural mecca in Far West Texas, sits squarely in the Chihuahuan Desert-North America's second largest at 140,000 square miles spanning northern Mexico, West Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Arizona. The desert is a surprising showcase for colorful plant diversity. Presented in a style reminiscent of naturalist Karl Blossfeldt's Art Forms in Nature, the book includes an array of vines, grasses, trees, herbs, shrubs, cacti, and succulents ranging from the little known to the popular to the iconic. Photographs show the plants in year-round cycles, with buds, complex foliage, unfolding blooms, seed pods, and winter texture and color. Also included is a discussion of each plant's common and scientific names, historical information, garden use, USDA classification, and other helpful details. A visual appendix of detailed botanical and gardening information consists of illustrations relating close-up botanical details. Everyday gardeners, naturalists, landscape designers, architects, and anyone interested in dry gardens or the Southwest will find great value and joy in Marfa Garden.
A Modern Library Paperback Original |
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