NEW LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS FOR MEMBERS' LENDING
MARCH -- 2000

California Academy of Sciences Library

BOOKS

Pub. QL681 .C72 1995
Birdfinder: A Birder's Guide to Planning North American Trips / by Jerry A. Cooper. Colorado Springs: American Birding Association, c1995.
This book from the American Birding Association is spiral bound for easy field use. It is a working journal of birding trips, arranged by season in chronological order. The trips can be taken separately, or they can all be done in one year as an intensive bird-watchers tour of North America. Each section is dedicated to a particular trip in a well-known birding location. Information on developing a trip plan is provided, along with birding ethics, the season and number of days meant for each trip, maps, an itinerary, key species, and likely expenses.
A very valuable portion of the book is Birdfinder Chart on pages 308-363. The chart is divided by species, location, and month to provide you with easy access to the number and types of birds you've seen on your journeys.

Pub. GF504 .C2 C53 1996
California Fault: Searching for the Spirit of State Along the San Andreas/ Thurston Clarke. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1996.
The author, a non-Californian, attempts the determine why Californians live with their earthquakes and the culture it creates by traveling the length of the San Andreas Fault and observing the lives and communities that have developed. Starting at the northern and of the fault line, the author travels to places like Mendocino, Ukiah, and Boonville, observing what locals call "yuppification" and the erupting politics and economics of logging. In San Francisco he meets with survivors of the 1906 and 1989 quakes, and speaks with a growing group of people convinced they have evidence of a massive cover-up of the reality and death-toll surrounding the 1906 earthquake. In Palmdale, the author notices unusually large front yards along a particular street. Further research leads to a mandate from the city: The fault runs down the center of the road.

Biodiv. HF5415.33 .U6 B76 1999
The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists/ Michael Brower and Warren Leon. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, c1999.
Sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists, this book attempts to give individuals information on how the choices they make affect the environment. The book sets itself up to help the reader prioritize, stop worrying about insignificant things, and use the extensive research and analysis provided to determine how their household effects the environment.
Extensive notes are divided by chapter and an index is also provided. Two appendices are included: Research methods and results, including charts and graphs, and resources for environmentally concerned citizens.

Pub. GN281.4 .A53 1996
Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World / Walter Truett Anderson. New York: W.H. Freeman, c1996.
The author of this interesting work believes that the world is in the midst of a profound evolutionary transition. In his book, he attempts to determine where this transition is likely to take the world, and he comes up with four answers: Eugenics in the form of genetic engineering, rethinking ecology by embracing the biotechnology industry, the greening of industry through the use of biotechnology and biomaterials to replace inorganic machines, and moving into a bio-information society.
Body politics, including who owns the body and controls its reproduction, and micro and macro-bionics are included in the book as sections. Notes by chapter and an index are also provided.

Pub. QC981.8.G56 S55 1997
Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate / S. Fred Singer. Oakland: Independent Institute, c1997.
This book provides a scientific case against global warming pessimism and policies based on faulty scientific theory. The author believes, and attempts to offer proof, that there has been little human effect on global warming. He believes that warming trends seen today are actually a natural climate change, and that climate fluctuates on its own without the help of the human race. Using previously published and quoted scientific publications, charts, and graphs, the author attempts to show how misquoting and misunderstanding have led to government policy coming from fear and pseudo-science.
References and an index are provided.

Biodiv. QL496 .W34 1996
Insects Through the Seasons / Gilbert Waldbauer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.
This book, by a Professor Emeritus of Entomology at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, follows insects, especially the crecopia moth, though the seasons. Starting in spring, the book is divided in sections such as courtship and mating, offspring, predator defense, recognition of food, and how to catch it.
By the time the book reaches its end in winter, a great deal of information has been passed along to the reader. Selected readings have been provided for each section of the book, and the list of illustrations at the front of the book is supplemented by bold-type page numbers in the index.

Pub. BF353 .S39 1998
Invisible Walls: Why We Ignore the Damage we Inflict on the Planet -- and Ourselves / Peter Seidel. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1998.
The author, an environmental architect and planner, talks about the exploitation of our natural surroundings. He believes that lack of recognition of the damage that we do, and a failure to make changes to what we do recognize, lead to invisible walls that block the way to constructive goals and actions that could help the environment.
For more information, the book includes notes by chapter, a bibliography, and an index.

Biodiv. QH77.T34 M56 1999
Mkomazi: The Ecology, Biodiversity, and Conservation of a Tanzanian Savanna / edited by Malcolm Coe et al. London: Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers, 1999, c1998.
The book is a series of individual stand-alone articles, each with its own separate set of references. Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania is composed two species-rich biogeographic zones. One is a belt of semi-arid savanna, the other is the mountains on its southern border. The mountains are also highly diverse, with regionally specific flora and fauna. Most of the articles in this book are from the Mkomazi Ecological Research Programme, which was started with an invitation to the Royal Geographical Society in London to conduct an ecological inventory of the park to help in conservation and utilization of park resources.
The articles are placed in sections, the largest of which is Ecology and Biodiversity. That section contains articles about climate, flora and its regional context, invertebrate biodiversity, spiders, ants, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and large mammals. Other sections include Human Aspects and Management. Many of the articles contain charts, graphs, and maps, and the book features some color photographs. Along with the references for each article is author contact information.

Pub QE506 .P735 1998
Night Comes to the Cretaceous: Dinosaur Extinction and the Transformation of Modern Geology / James Lawrence Powell. New York NY: W.H. Freeman, c1998.
James Lawrence Powell is the president and director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. He has written a comprehensive account of how the theory of a meteor causing the extinction of the dinosaur changed science and caused bitter battles among noted scientists. It is a scientific detective story of how the theory was developed, the changes it caused to the science of geology, and it takes a little time to examine whether or not it could all happen again.
The book contains charts, photos, graphs, extensive references by chapter, and an index.

Pub. HD1694.C2 H23 2000
Rivers of Gold: Designing Markets to Allocate Water in California / Brent M. Haddad. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, c2000.
This volume is all about water reallocation in California. Included with some maps and charts are an introduction to water markets, including the buying and selling of water rights, the controversial nature of the markets, and how water markets became a stated policy goal in the state of California. The book also provides an overview of the California water supply challenge and examination of the theory and specifics of water markets and design recommendations for workable water markets.
Along with an extended notes section, the author also provides source materials and an index.

Pub. E98.F58 .W44 1997
Touching the Fire: Buffalo Dancers, the Sky Bundle, and Other Tales / Roger Welsch. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
The author of this volume is a folklorist and essayist for CBS's Sunday Morning and is also an adopted member of the Omaha Indian tribe. The book itself is a collection of seven related stories about the fictional Nehawka Indians. The first story takes place in 2001 and they go progressively further back in time until the story "Beginnings."

Pub. GE197 .F55 1998
Tracking the Charlatans: An Environmental Columnist's Refutational Handbook for the Propaganda Wars / Edward Flattau. Washington, D.C.: Global Horizons Press, c1998.
The author is an environmental advocacy journalist, so right from the start you know who the charlatans, or "bashers" as the author calls them, are. Two of the major sections in the book are Distortion and Misrepresentation and Propaganda Techniques. In those sections the author examines what he believes to be the absurd propositions of the anti-environmental lobby, including that nature is a worse polluter than man or factory. He also describes the ways in which character assassination has been used to target the environmentally active, including the use of selective quotes and misinformation.
Each chapter has its own notes section and an index is also provided.

Pub. F897.P9 R65 1998
Watertrail: The Hidden Path Through Puget Sound / Joel Rogers. Seattle: Sasquatch Books, c1998.
The book chronicles the authro's travels over 400 nautical miles by kayak through Puget Sound on the Cascadia Marine Trail. The book includes many color photographs and special focus items. A bibliography is included, as well as a "Contact Guide to the Marine Trails of North America."

Pub. QK98.18 .K73 1996
Women of Flowers: A Tribute to Victorian Women Illustrators/ by Jack Kramer. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1996.
This is a beautiful volume dedicated to female botanical illustrators who worked between the early 1700s and the early 1900s. An extended introduction prefaces the book and, among other things, discusses the ways in which the work of these remarkable women went unrecognized for years. The author also touches on the need that many of these women felt to publish their work anonymously rather than to be vilified by their peers and critics.
The main focus of the book is the biographical information provided about the female artists, along with their work. Included among the profiled women is Susan Fenimore Cooper, the daughter of James Fenimore Cooper, who published several works during her life, including a diary of her life in the country which she illustrated with gorgeously detailed color drawings. Also included is Jane Webb Loudon, who also published under her own name, but made sure to tailor her work to women. She helped her husband, a landscape gardener and author, by becoming his secretary, copyist, researcher, and note-taker as well as taking on her own projects and producing the illustrations included in Women of Flowers.
The volume also contains a bibliography, a list of catalogs of botanical art, a bibliography of books dealing the Language of Flowers, and biography credits. The index includes scientific and common flower names as well as a guide to the people mentioned throughout the book.

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CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Pub Juv SF302 .C52 1999
Classic Horse & Pony Stories: The World's Best Horse and Pony Stories in their Real-Life Settings / selected by Diana Pullein-Thompson. New York, NY: DK Pub., 1999.
The book contains not full stories, but chapters from classic works about horses. Authors and titles included are Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, Walter Farley's The Black Stallion and the Girl, and Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass.
The book contains many illustrations, plus additional non-story horse-related information, including basic riding technique, draft horses, and breaking in a horse.

Pub Juv QL737.C23 H655 1997
How it was with Dooms: A True Story from Africa / text and illustrations by Xan Hopcraft and Carol Cawthra Hopcraft. New York NY: Margaret K. McElderry Books, c1997.
Dooms the cheetah was already a part of the Hopcraft family when Xan, the author, was born. Seven years later, Dooms passed away from an illness, and to console Xan, his mother suggested that they make a scrapbook about Dooms. That project turned into this book, dictated and hand-illustrated by Xan, with color photographs taken by his family and friends, all about Dooms's life.

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MULTIMEDIA/AUDIO VISUAL

NONE FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH

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CURRICULUM

Biodiv. QH541.5.F7 A66 1999
Aquatic Habitat Assessment: Common Methods / edited by Mark B. Bain and Nathalie J. Stevenson. Bethesda, MD: American Fisheries Society, c1999.
This manual is intended to provide fisheries biologists with a limited set of techniques for obtaining aquatic habitat data. It also includes information on the range of data collected and used in agency habitat analysis. Charts, maps, and graphs are featured, and the sections include approaches to habitat analysis, water body identification, macrohabitat identification, cover and refuge, and many others.

Biodiv. GE80 .B67 1999
Learning Through Environmental Action: The Community Action Model of Environmental Service Learning: A Guide for Educators / by Heather Bossert, with Joan Heckscher. Washington, DC: Community Alliance for Youth Action, 1999.
This is an educator's guide that reinforces life and academic skills for students and encourages them to work for social change. The Community Alliance for Youth Action calls this Community Action Learning, or CAL. The booklet provides twelve hands-on environmental activities, each with a level or subject designation, learning goals, activity, reflection for students, and application. Also provided in the booklet are samples of planning worksheets at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.

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All of the materials above are available for check-out to Academy members.

March 2000