Our National Parks


Book Description

First published in 1901, “Our National Parks” is a fantastic guide to the wild mountain forest reservations and national parks of the United States, exploring their beauty and usefulness in an attempt to encourage contemporary readers to go out and enjoy the natural wonders of North America. John Muir (1838–1914) was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, author, and glaciologist who famously fought to preserve wilderness in the United States of America. Muir's work describing his adventures in nature have been read by millions the world over and his activism has helped to conserve such important places of natural beauty as the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park in America. Contents include: “The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West”, “The Yellowstone National Park”, “The Yosemite National Park”, “The Forests of the Yosemite Park”, “The Wild Gardens of the Yosemite Park”, “Among the Animals of the Yosemite”, “Among the Birds of the Yosemite”, “The Fountains and Streams of the Yosemite National Park”, etc. Other notable works by this author include: “My First Summer in the Sierra” (1911), “Steep Trails” (1918), and “The Story of My Boyhood and Youth” (1913). A Thousand Fields is republishing this classic book now complete with a biographical sketch of the author.




Muir Woods


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Dusk Before the Dawn


Book Description

Combining nanotechnology, martial arts and a struggle for world domination, Dusk Before the Dawn follows people struggling to not only survive in a new world order, but to shape it.




The Mountains of California


Book Description

Famed naturalist John Muir (1838-1914) came to Wisconsin as a boy and studied at the University of Wisconsin. He first came to California in 1868 and devoted six years to the study of the Yosemite Valley. After work in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, he returned to California in 1880 and made the state his home. One of the heroes of America's conservation movement, Muir deserves much of the credit for making the Yosemite Valley a protected national park and for alerting Americans to the need to protect this and other natural wonders. The mountains of California (1894) is his book length tribute to the beauties of the Sierras. He recounts not only his own journeys by foot through the mountains, glaciers, forests, and valleys, but also the geological and natural history of the region, ranging from the history of glaciers, the patterns of tree growth, and the daily life of animals and insects. While Yosemite naturally receives great attention, Muir also expounds on less well known beauty spots.




Trees, Woods and Forests


Book Description

Forests—and the trees within them—have always been a central resource for the development of technology, culture, and the expansion of humans as a species. Examining and challenging our historical and modern attitudes toward wooded environments, this engaging book explores how our understanding of forests has transformed in recent years and how it fits in our continuing anxiety about our impact on the natural world. Drawing on the most recent work of historians, ecologist geographers, botanists, and forestry professionals, Charles Watkins reveals how established ideas about trees—such as the spread of continuous dense forests across the whole of Europe after the Ice Age—have been questioned and even overturned by archaeological and historical research. He shows how concern over woodland loss in Europe is not well founded—especially while tropical forests elsewhere continue to be cleared—and he unpicks the variety of values and meanings different societies have ascribed to the arboreal. Altogether, he provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of humankind’s interaction with this abused but valuable resource.







The Truth Beyond the Sky


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See America


Book Description

In homage to America’s National Parks and their iconic art posters, this volume features new artwork for seventy-five parks and monuments across all fifty states. “In this sepia-tinged homage” to the iconic National Parks posters “modern artists contribute dazzling new graphics” (Entertainment Weekly). From 1935 to 1943, the WPA’s Federal Art Project hired American artist to create posters celebrating the National Parks Service. The icon See America posters inspired Americans to fall in love with the country’s landmarks and wild spaces from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Gateway Arch and from the Grand Canyon to the Great Smokey Mountains. Originally published to coincide with the centennial anniversary of the National Parks Service, the Creative Action Network has partnered with the National Parks Conservation Association to revive and reimagine the legacy of WPA travel posters. Artists from all over the world participated in the creation of this new, crowdsourced collection of See America posters for a modern era.




Our National Monuments


Book Description

From the north woods of Maine to the cactus-filled deserts of Arizona, America's national monuments include vast lands rivaling the national parks in beauty, diversity, and historical heritage. These critically important landscapes, mostly under the Bureau of Land Management supervision, are often under the radar with limited visitor information available yet offer considerable opportunities for solitude and adventure compared to bustling national parks. The Antiquities Act of 1906 gave Presidents the authority to proclaim national monuments as an expedited way to protect areas of natural or cultural significance. Since then, 16 Presidents have used the Antiquities Act to preserve some of America's most treasured public lands and waters. In 2017, an unprecedented Executive Order was issued questioning these designations by calling for the review of 27 national monuments across 11 states and two oceans, opening the threat of development to vulnerable and irreplaceable natural resources. Our National Monuments introduces these spectacular and unique landscapes, in the first book of its kind. Accompanying the collection of scenic photographs is an invaluable guide including maps of each national monument with carefully selected attractions identified and described based on the author's wide-ranging explorations. Our National Monuments invites readers to experience for themselves these lands and learn about the people and cultures who came before, and to whom these lands are still sacred places. QT Luong is one of the most prolific photographers working in America's public lands and the author of Treasured Lands, the best-selling and acclaimed photography book about the national parks. Combining hundreds of his sumptuously printed photographs with essays from citizen conservation associations caring for these national treasures; including a foreword by former Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and photographs of marine national monuments from Ansel Adams award-winning photographer Ian Shive, the comprehensive portrayals of Our National Monuments help readers understand how these essential landscapes are preserving America's past and shaping its future.