Download or read book The Seattle Street Smart Naturalist written by David B. Williams and published by Graphic Arts Books. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Back to the city, or back to nature? Seattle author David Williams shows us how we can get the best of both. Botany and bugs, geology and geese, and creeks and crows; living in a major city doesn't have to separate us from the natural world. Stepping away from a guidebook format, Williams presents the reader with a series of essays and maps that weave personal musings, bits of humor, natural history observations, and scientific data into a multi-textured perspective of life in the city--descriptions of his journeys as a naturalist in an urban landscape. Williams addresses questions that an observant person asks in an urban environment. What did Seattle look like before Europeans got here? How does the area's geologic past affect us? Why have some animals thrived and other languished? How are we affected by the species with whom we share the urban environment and how do we affect them? This book captures all of the distinctive flavors of the Emerald City, urban and natural.
Download or read book Seattle Walks written by David B. Williams and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2017-03-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seattle is often listed as one of the most walkable cities in the United States. With its beautiful scenery, miles of non-motorized trails, and year-round access, Seattle is an ideal place to explore on foot. In Seattle Walks, David B. Williams weaves together the history, natural history, and architecture of Seattle to paint a complex, nuanced, and fascinating story. He shows us Seattle in a new light and gives us an appreciation of how the city has changed over time, how the past has influenced the present, and how nature is all around us—even in our urban landscape. These walks vary in length and topography and cover both well-known and surprising parts of the city. While most are loops, there are a few one-way adventures with an easy return via public transportation. Ranging along trails and sidewalks, the walks lead to panoramic views, intimate hideaways, architectural gems, and beautiful greenways. With Williams as your knowledgeable and entertaining guide, encounter a new way to experience Seattle. A Michael J. Repass Book
Download or read book The Street smart Naturalist written by David B. Williams and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Homewaters written by David B. Williams and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2021-04-24 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region’s ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today’s ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound’s ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change. Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home. A Michael J. Repass Book
Download or read book Stories in Stone written by David B. Williams and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2019-08-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people do not think to observe geology from the sidewalks of a major city, but all David B. Williams has to do is look at building stone in any urban center to find a range of rocks equal to any assembled by plate tectonics. In Stories in Stone, he takes you on explorations to find 3.5-billion-year-old rock that looks like swirled pink-and-black taffy, a gas station made of petrified wood, and a Florida fort that has withstood three hundred years of attacks and hurricanes, despite being made of a stone that has the consistency of a granola bar. Williams also weaves in the cultural history of stone, explaining why a white fossil-rich limestone from Indiana became the only building stone used in all fifty states; how in 1825, the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument led to America’s first commercial railroad; and why when the same kind of marble used by Michelangelo clad a Chicago skyscraper it warped so much after nineteen years that all 44,000 panels of it had to be replaced. This love letter to building stone brings to life the geology you can see in the structures of every city.
Download or read book Cairns written by David B. Williams and published by Mountaineers Books. This book was released on 2012-08-27 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Download the first section from Cairns now. (Provide us with a little information and we'll send the free section directly to your inbox!) Praise for author David B. Williams: “Makes stones sing” --Kirkus Reviews “Williams’s lively mixture of hard science and piquant lore is sure to fire the readers’ curiosity” --Publisher’s Weekly *Part history, part folklore, part geology * Features charming black-and-white illustrations From meadow trails to airy mountaintops and wide open desert, cairns -- those seemingly random stacks of rocks -- are surprisingly rich in stories and meaning. For thousands of years cairns have been used by people to connect to the landscape and communicate with others, and are often an essential guide to travelers. Cairns, manmade rock piles can indicate a trail, mark a grave, serve as an altar or shrine, reveal property boundaries or sacred hunting grounds, and even predict astronomical activity. The Inuit have more than two dozen terms to describe cairns and their uses! In Cairns: Messengers in Stone, geologist and acclaimed nature writer David B. Williams (Stories in Stone: Travels through Urban Geology) explores the history of cairns from the moors of Scotland to the peaks of the Himalaya -- where they come from, what they mean, why they’re used, how to make cairns, and more. Cairns are so much more than a random pile of rocks, knowing how to make cairns can drastically alter the meaning of the formation. Hikers, climbers, travelers, gardeners, and nature buffs alike will delight in this quirky, captivating collection of stories about cairns.
Download or read book Waterway written by David B. Williams and published by Historylink. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does a city surrounded by water need another waterway? Find out what drove Seattle's civic leaders to pursue the dream of a Lake Washington Ship Canal for more than sixty years and what role it has played in the region's development over the past century. Historians Jennifer Ott and David B. Williams, author of Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle's Topography, explore how industry, transportation, and the very character of the city and surrounding region developed in response to the economic and environmental changes brought by Seattle's canal and locks.
Download or read book Nature Obscura written by Kelly Brenner and published by Mountaineers Books. This book was released on 2020-02-26 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With wonder and a sense of humor, Nature Obscura author Kelly Brenner aims to help us rediscover our connection to the natural world that is just outside our front door--we just need to know where to look. Through explorations of a rich and varied urban landscape, Brenner reveals the complex micro-habitats and surprising nature found in the middle of a city. In her hometown of Seattle, which has plowed down hills, cut through the land to connect fresh- and saltwater, and paved over much of the rest, she exposes a diverse range of strange and unknown creatures. From shore to wetland, forest to neighborhood park, and graveyard to backyard, Brenner uncovers how our land alterations have impacted nature, for good and bad, through the wildlife and plants that live alongside us, often unseen. These stories meld together, in the same way our ecosystems, species, and human history are interconnected across the urban environment.
Download or read book Nature Noir written by Jordan Fisher Smith and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2006-05-03 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A nature book unlike any other…peppered with gritty, anti-romantic, all-too-real tales of cops ’n’ bad guys in the great outdoors.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune Jordan Fisher Smith’s startling account of fourteen years as a park ranger thoroughly dispels our idealized visions of life in the great outdoors. Instead of scout troops and placid birdwatchers, Smith's beat—a stretch of land that has been officially condemned to be flooded—brings him into contact with drug users tweaked out to the point of violence, obsessed miners, and other dangerous creatures. In unflinchingly honest prose, he both portrays the breathtaking natural world around him and reveals the unexpectedly dark underbelly of patrolling and protecting public lands. “Gloriously unlike anything I’ve ever read before…gives entree into a strange, dark, and mesmerizing outdoor world that's absolutely unforgettable.”—The Boston Globe “By turns funny, poignant and surprising…an intimate memoir of the career of a state-park ranger. Not just any ranger, but one with a wicked pen, patrolling a doomed landscape.”—Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer “Compelling…refreshingly unsentimental.”—Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams “Smith offers a fresh perspective on our threatened environment…Nature Noir reflects the spirit of an era as did Desert Solitaire.”—Charlotte Observer
Download or read book Rambunctious Garden written by Emma Marris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Some of the material in this book appeared previously, in a different form, in the journal Nature"--T.p. verso.
Download or read book Pugetopolis written by Knute Berger and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knute Skip Berger is one of the most recognized commentators on politics, culture, business, and life in the Pacific Northwest. He's the Mike Royko/Jimmy Breslin of this part of the country. As Timothy Egan describes him in the Foreword to Pugetopolis, he is the region's crank with a conscience...a contrarian thinker who calls out the f...
Download or read book Field Guide to the Street Trees of New York City written by Leslie Day and published by Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A handbook for naturalists, sidewalk denizens, apartment dwellers, dog-walkers, and bicycle riders . . . No New Yorker should be without this book.” —Wayne Cahilly, New York Botanical Garden New York City is an urban oasis with hundreds of thousands of trees, and this guide acquaints residents and visitors alike with fifty species commonly found in the neighborhoods where people live, work, and travel. Beautiful, original drawings of leaves and stunning photographs of bark, fruit, flower, and twig accompany informative descriptions of each species. Detailed maps of the five boroughs identify all of the city’s neighborhoods, and specific addresses pinpoint where to find a good example of each tree species. Trees provide invaluable benefits to the Big Apple: they reduce the rate of respiratory disease, increase property values, cool homes and sidewalks in the summer, block the harsh winds of winter, clean the air, absorb storm water runoff, and provide habitat and food for the city’s wildlife. Bald cypress, swamp oak, silver linden, and all of New York’s most common trees are just a page turn away. Your evening walk will never be the same once you come to know the quiet giants that line the city’s streets.
Download or read book Seattle Walks written by David B. Williams and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seattle Walks is an idiosyncratic walking guide to Seattle combining natural history, human history, and David Williams's unique store of knowledge as a life-long and very curious resident of Seattle. The walks offer surprises for those who think they know Seattle well and will be very appealing to Seattle newcomers and tourists seeking an active way to get to know the city.
Download or read book The Humane Gardener written by Nancy Lawson and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.
Download or read book A Naturalist s Guide to Canyon Country 2nd written by David B. Williams and published by FalconGuides. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in cooperation with Canyonlands Natural History Association, this comprehensive and beautifully illustrated trailside reference describes more than 270 plants and animals plus geology of an area that includes nine national parks and monuments in the Southwest. A Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country is the essential tool for exploring the northern Colorado Plateau, that vast province that encompasses eastern Utah, far western Colorado, and sections of northern Arizona and New Mexico. With this fully updated and revised guide in hand, you will gain a sympathetic understanding of the desert ecosystems that make up the region.
Download or read book Crow Planet written by Lyanda Lynn Haupt and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2009-07-27 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are more crows now than ever. Their abundance is both an indicator of ecological imbalance and a generous opportunity to connect with the animal world. Crow Planet reminds us that we do not need to head to faraway places to encounter "nature." Rather, even in the suburbs and cities where we live we are surrounded by wild life such as crows, and through observing them we can enhance our appreciation of the world's natural order. Crow Planet richly weaves Haupt's own "crow stories" as well as scientific and scholarly research and the history and mythology of crows, culminating in a book that is sure to make readers see the world around them in a very different way.
Download or read book Nature Play Learning Places written by Robin C. Moore and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
