Staff Picks
Building Your Nature Skills
- Sarah C.
- Thursday, December 20, 2018
Collection
Get the most out of your outdoor time with these great books! Learn everything from basic wilderness survival skills to identifying the birds you see in your backyard to making art in nature.
This list is part of the #BroaderBookshelf2019 reading challenge. Find more lists here.
Bushcraft 101
A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival
Published in 2014
Offers survival skills on using the surrounding wilderness as a useful resource, including how to manufacture needed tools, how to collect and cook food, and how to guard against the elements. --Publisher's description.
The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, & Cooking in the Wild
Published in 2016
Renowned outdoors expert and New York Times bestselling author Dave Canterbury provides you with all you need to know about packing, trapping, and preparing food for your treks and wilderness travels. Whether you're headed out for a day hike or a weeklong expedition, you'll find everything you need to survive - and eat well - out in the wild. Canterbury makes certain you're set by not only teaching you how to hunt and gather, but also giving you recipes to make while on the trail. Complete with illustrations to accompany his instructions and a full-color photo guide of plants to forage and those to avoid, this is the go-to reference to keep in your pack. The Bushcraft Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild helps you achieve the full outdoor experience. With it, you'll be prepared to set off on your trip and enjoy living off the land.--COVER.
The Natural Navigator
The Rediscovered Art of Letting Nature Be Your Guide
Published in 2012
Offers a guide to the age-old tradition of navigation on both land and sea through the observation of the Sun, Moon, and stars, weather patterns, landscape, growth of plants, and habitats of wildlife.
How to Read Water
Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea
Published in 2016
"In his eye-opening books The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs and The Natural Navigator, Tristan Gooley helped readers reconnect with nature by finding direction from the trees, stars, clouds, and more. Now, he turns his attention to our most abundant--yet perhaps least understood--resource. Distilled from his far-flung adventures--sailing solo across the Atlantic, navigating with Omani tribespeople, canoeing in Borneo, and walking in his own backyard--Gooley shares hundreds of techniques in How to Read Water,"--Amazon.com.
The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs
Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals--and Other Forgotten Skills
Published in 2015
Turn every walk into a game of detection. When writer and navigator Tristan Gooley journeys outside, he sees a natural world filled with clues. The roots of a tree indicate the sun's direction; the Big Dipper tells the time; a passing butterfly hints at the weather; a sand dune reveals prevailing wind; the scent of cinnamon suggests altitude; a budding flower points south. To help you understand nature as he does, Gooley shares more than 850 tips for forecasting, tracking, and more, gathered from decades spent walking the landscape around his home and around the world. Whether you're walking in the country or city, along a coastline, or by night, this is the ultimate resource on what the land, sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, and clouds can reveal - if you only know how to look! -- From back cover.
Unseen City
The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness
Published in 2016
"Johnson argues that learning to see the world afresh, like a child, shifts the way we think about nature: Instead of something distant and abstract, nature becomes real all at once comical, annoying, and beautiful. This shift can add tremendous value to our lives, and it might just be the first step in saving the world ... [C]hapter by chapter, "Unseen City" takes us on a journey that is part nature lesson and part love letter to the world's urban jungles. With the right perspective, a walk to the subway can be every bit as entrancing as a walk through a national park."--Provided by publisher.
Braiding Sweetgrass
Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Published in 2013
"An inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes she circles toward a central argument: the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return"-- Provided by publisher.
The Bumper Book of Nature
A User's Guide to the Outdoors
Published in 2010
A collection of nature activities, ideas, and information to get the whole family outside and involved with nature.
Field & Stream Outdoor Survival Guide
Survival Skills You Need
Published in 2012
Field & Stream editor-at-large T. Edward Nickens has fished, paddled, backpacked, hunted, and camped from the rainforest to the Arctic Sea. Winner of more than two dozen national writing awards, he is TV host for the Total Outdoorsman Challenge. In this book, he shares his wisdom and that of the outdoor experts at Field & Stream; contains 95 essential survival skills to survive almost anything nature throws at you.
What the Robin Knows
How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World
Published in 2012
Shares strategies for expanding one's awareness of bird communication and maintaining a non-threatening presence in natural environments, explaining the sounds and behaviors that reflect various bird warnings, feelings, and messages.