In Creatures of Change, Carolyn V. Platt examines two hundred years of wildlife in Ohio. Over a hundred color photos by Gary Meszaros complement the text. Written in an accessible style, the book will appeal to anyone with an interest in Ohio’s wildlife, but it will also be a valuable reference for specialists.
While Ohio has lost much of its presettlement landscape, many nearly pristine habitats remain. These relics are populated by a fascinating array of flora and fauna. Wild Ohio singles out the best of Ohio’s natural lands and documents their importance in words and photographs. Because the state has lost over 90 percent of its wetlands and over 99 percent of its original prairie, Wild Ohio focuses especially on rare and declining animals and plants with the intention of inspiring a love of nature and an interest in conservation.
Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them, first published by Charles Scriber’s Sons in 1900, was warmly received at a time when America was rapidly urbanizing and public interest in conservation and the establishment of parks was growing. In her preface, Keeler explained that “the trees described . . . are those indigenous to the region ex-tending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the northern boundaries of the southern states; together with a few well-known and naturalized foreign trees.” Profusely illustrated and with a biographical introduction by Carol Poh Miller that illuminates Keeler’s life and accomplishments, this edition of Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them will aid a new generation eager to identify and thus better appreciate what they observe outdoors.
Moods of the Ohio Moons is the product of this subjective method of observation, balanced with scientific knowledge and intended to encourage readers to explore their own individual appreciation and understanding of nature. Twelve essays, one for each month, relate incidents and events—weather, diagnostic events, vegetation and wildlife, agriculture, trends of land use, and the wild harvest—that contribute to the mood of the time. As Gilfillan demonstrates, each month has its mood established primarily by nature and only secondarily by humans.
