Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award
A natural history primer packed with travel ideas, this tour of 26 old-growth forests—one in each state east of the Mississippi River and all open to the public—aims to dispel the misconception that these forests are located only on the west coast. With intelligence and lyricism, the book highlights the adventure in getting to each forest and what visitors will find when they arrive. From giant hemlock groves in Pennsylvania to a lonely stand of pines in Wisconsin, each journey provides face-to-face experiences with forests containing majestic trees and a rich diversity of life. As an impassioned plea to preserve and support the few untouched stretches of forest that remain, the discussion touches upon the perseverance of these locations despite modern development, as well as the vital link between old-growth forests and humanity’s own survival.

Among the Ancients: Adventures in the Eastern Old-Growth Forests

Science & Math

Maloof, Joan

Nature & Ecology

Ruka Press

Taking the reader from the mountains of Appalachia to a coffee plantation near Bogotá, Colombia, this investigation into the plight of the cerulean warbler—a tiny migratory songbird—describes its struggle to survive in ever-shrinking bands of suitable habitat. This elusive creature—a favorite among bird watchers and the fastest-declining warbler species in the United States—has lost three percent of its total population each year since 1966. This precipitous decline means that today there are 80 percent fewer ceruleans than 40 years ago, and their numbers continue to drop because of threats including deforestation, global warming, and mountaintop-removal coal mining. With scientific rigor and a sense of wonder, Fallon charts their path across more than 2000 miles and shows how the fate of a creature weighing less than an ounce is vitally linked to that of our own.

Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird

Fallon, Katie

Traveling from the Delaware Bay to the Florida Panhandle, this examination is a quest through the natural history and science behind one of nature’s oldest and oddest survivors—the horseshoe crab. With ten eyes, five pairs of walking legs, a heart half the length of their bodies, and blood that can save a person’s life, horseshoe crabs have been on this planet for 445 million years—since long before the dinosaurs arrived. This book explores their unique biology and sex life, explains their importance to medical science and migratory shorebirds, and introduces readers to the people who are working to study and protect them.

Horseshoe Crab: Biography of a Survivor

Fredericks, Anthony D.

This thoroughly researched and wholly engaging book investigates the economic, ecological, political, and psychological issues behind the Keystone XL pipeline—a project so controversial it has inspired the largest expression of civil disobedience since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. With enough carbon trapped in the Canadian tar sands to plunge the Earth into irreversible climate change, it is the Keystone XL pipeline that will set that carbon free. The debate rages on over whether this 2,100-mile long steel pipeline is a vital piece America’s energy future or the conduit for global climate disaster. From the enormous tar sands mines in Alberta to a tree-top blockade in Texas, this book introduces the people and explores the competing interests that power the environmental issue of the current generation.

The Pipeline and the Paradigm: Keystone XL, Tar Sands, and the Battle to Defuse the Carbon Bomb

Avery, Samuel

Earth Sciences

Featuring down-to-earth advice on finding, buying, growing, and preparing great food from local sources, this important resource shows readers how to bring what’s on their plates in line with what’s in their hearts. For anyone concerned about animal welfare, economic fair play, family cohesion, community wellbeing, or the impact of human activity on the environment, the book is a compendium of practical know-how, showcasing another whole food system that has been quietly producing delicious foods in ways that don't wreck any ecosystems but actually improve some of them. These are the foods lovingly produced by small-scale farmers and family-run cottage businesses, not corporations. They’re made in small quantities close to the community by people who cherish their land and work hard to keep it healthy. Millions more Americans would love to eat this bounty, but many worry that eating fresh, local food is too difficult or expensive. Here, readers will discover how to: buy a tomato that actually tastes like a tomato instead of insipid mush; navigate CSAs, farmer’s markets, buyer’s clubs, co-ops, and more; fit cooking into a jam-packed modern lifestyle; get kids to eat their vegetables—and love them; and do it all for even less than they’re paying now for industrial food. The results will help them derive more pleasure from meals, enjoy better health, experience a deeper connection with nature, nurture a robust local economy, and support a fairer world—simply by sitting down to a deliberately chosen, lovingly prepared meal.

Eat Local for Less: The Ultimate Guide to Opting Out of Our Broken Industrial Food System

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Castillo, Julie

Cooking Education & Reference