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The Deserts of the Southwest: A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide (Sierra Club Naturalist's Guides)
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MSRP: $18.95
Your Price: $18.95
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Manufacturer: Sierra Club Books
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Additional The Deserts of the Southwest: A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide (Sierra Club Naturalist's Guides) Information
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Newly revised and updated, The Deserts of the Southwest is a comprehensive field companion to the plants, animals, geology, topography, climate, and ecology of the American Southwest. A perennial classic, it describes the four deserts -- the Great Basin, Mohave, Chihuahuan, and Sonoran -- which together stretch into nine southwestern states and Mexico. The topography, geology, and climatic conditions of these arid lands set the stage for one of the most fascinating of ecological studies: the survival and adaptation of animal and plant life in the severe, often extreme desert climate and terrain.
Abundantly illustrated with line drawings, maps, charts, and diagrams, The Deserts of the Southwest offers both the outdoor adventurer and the armchair naturalist a clear and detailed portrait of this complex, beautiful, and fragile wilderness.
"This book should help any desert adventurer, neophyte or seasoned traveler, to be better prepared."
-- Desert News
"Peggy Larson has given us...a fine handbook for the newcomer who wants to know more about what he sees, and even for those of us who have lived here for many years."
-- Arizona Highways
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What Customers Say About The Deserts of the Southwest: A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide (Sierra Club Naturalist's Guides):
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Peggy Larson's style is really quite good. She presents the deserts of the American southwest (and northern Mexico) in a literate and educated fashion. She effectively uses scientific names of desert plants and animals interchangeably with common (but less unique) names without intimidating the reader. Detailed ink drawings - landscape, geology, plants, and animals - are scattered throughout the narrative and add considerable value.
We camped for a week in the Davis Mountains in west Texas in a section of the Chihuahuan desert last summer. If you are already familiar with the American deserts, you will find "The Deserts of the Southwest" a rewarding visit with an old friend. This is not a novel and it is quite possible to skip to selected chapters of personal interest, but I highly recommend exploring all chapters, all topics. This was not our first desert experience - we have hiked and camped across much of the Southwest over the last twenty years or so.
She knows her subject and shares her knowledge in an intriguing fashion. If you are somewhat new to the deserts and possibly have only sampled the deserts from a highway perspective, I suspect that after reading Peggy Larson's book you will likely change your travel plans to include a personal visit to an American desert. This was an unplanned trip as we were headed toward southern Colorado, but we became fascinated by the Chihuahuan desert and somehow we never drove any further.We were similarly quite lucky to find a copy of the first edition of Peggy Larson's Sierra Guidebook in a bookstore in Alpine, Texas. She manages to discuss individual plants and animals in some detail while painting a large scale, beautiful portrait of the four major deserts of North America.
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