When I first saw the flyer advertising Richard Vetter’s forthcoming book The Brown Recluse Spider on the Cornell University Press table at the 2014 Entomology Society of America convention I thought “Well it’s about time!” After all, I can think of no spider in North America about which there is more misunderstanding and misidentification than the Brown Recluse.
When I was a boy growing up in the small Pacific coast fishing and logging town of Astoria, the federal and state agencies responsible for overseeing the rivers, wildlife, and trees were a part of daily life. The agents and rangers were part of our community; not a day went by that you didn’t bump […]
When I first heard about the new book Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask; Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings by Mary Siisip Geniusz, Wendy Makoons Geniusz, and Annmarie Geniusz, my mind immediately left back to a previous ethnobotanical book I read a few years ago: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Gathering Moss; A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses – a book I found both fascinating and profound.
Recently I’ve become dissatisfied with my knowledge of trees. I’m not entirely certain what has caused these feelings at this point in my life – I just find myself looking at a tree and becoming irritated with myself if I can’t identify it.
Therefore I’ve begun a course of study in the trees in my local area; an activity made much easier than it otherwise would be thanks to the superb book Trees to Know in Oregon by Ed Jensen as published by Oregon State University Press Extension Service.