The most comprehensive field guide available to the Rocky Mountain region--a portable, essential companion for visitors and residents alike--from the go-to reference source for over 18 million nature lovers. This compact volume contains: An easy-to-use field guide for identifying 1,000 of the state's wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, mosses, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, mammals, and much more; A complete overview of the Rocky Mountain region's natural history, covering geology, wildlife habitats, ecology, fossils, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather patterns, and the night sky; An extensive sampling of the area's best parks, preserves, mountains, forests, and wildlife sanctuaries, with detailed descriptions and visitor information for 50 sites and notes on dozens of others. The guide is packed with visual information -- the 1,500 full-color images include more than 1,300 photographs, 11 maps, and 16 night-sky charts, as well as more than 100 drawings explaining everything from geological processes to the basic features of different plants and animals. For everyone who lives or spends time in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming, there can be no finer guide to the area's natural surroundings than the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Rocky Mountain States.

The roots of the current National Wildlife Refuge System were formed in 1903 by Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted to keep our most important habitats "forever wild". Devoted primarily to protecting wildlife, wetlands, and open spaces, refuges offer unrivaled opportunities for visitors to observe and learn about our natural world. There are now more than 500 refuge areas in the United States, comprising more than 90 million acres. Habitats protected by refuges include virgin forests, tidal marshes, prairies, deserts, and tundra; species that flourish on refuges include the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the American alligator, the American bison, mountain lions, bats, beavers, bears, sea turtles, and hundreds of others, including more than 60 endangered species. With more than 19 million copies sold to date and more than 105 titles now in print, the National Audubon Society's book program includes the National Audubon Society Field Guides (Knopf) and National Audubon Society First Field Guides (Scholastic). The mission of the Society is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds and other wildlife, for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity. The National Wildlife Refuges are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This guide describes 590 species, with detailed information on flowering season, related species, range, and habitat. More than 100 plant drawings supplement these descriptions, and more than 200 color photographs show flowers as they appear in the field.

Recommended as a Great Summer Read by Colorado Public Radio In Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountain Region, Vera Evenson, curator of the Sam Mitchel Herbarium of Fungi at the Denver Botanic Gardens, covers species of mushrooms found in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. This comprehensive guide features introductory chapters on the basics of mushroom structure, life cycles, and habitats. Profiles for 220 mushroom species include color photographs, keys, and diagrams to aid in identification, and tips on how to recognize and avoid poisonous mushrooms.

"Mushrooms: An Illustrated Field Guide is a compact, beautifully illustrated field guide to 50 North America's most popular mushrooms. Inside this elegant hardcover, you'll find profiles on individual species, each showcasing a full-page illustration, plus a definition of fungi, information on where to find mushrooms and how--and when--to collect them, and, last but not least, notes on how to avoid mushroom poisoning." --

Author Daniel Mathews provides in-depth scientific information on the natural world found between Grand Teton, Wyoming, and Jasper, Alberta. From conifers to lichens, grizzly bears to salamanders, and cutthroat trout to pine beetles this guidebooks provides a thorough reference for hikers, backpackers, and armchair naturalists. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs and line drawings, Mathews covers a thousand species of plants, animals, fish, birds, and insects found in the northern Rocky Mountains.

Provides an introduction to patterns of forest ecology, looks at each of the major forest types of eastern North America, examines changes that occur as abandoned fields turn into forests, features background on the process of adaptation and natural selection, and describes forest changes in each of the four seasons.

Presents a handbook for the identification of over five hundred species of trees by illustration and text.