Including over 800 color photos, this authoritative guide is the first of its kind for the Middle Rio Grande Bosque of New Mexico.

Extending from the spillway below Cochiti Dam, about fifty miles north of Albuquerque, to the headwaters of Elephant Butte Reservoir, near Truth or Consequences in the southern portion of New Mexico, the Middle Rio Grande Bosque is more than a cottonwood woodland or forest. It is a complete riverside ecosystem, among the more important in the world's arid regions. Every day hundreds of visitors to the bosque encounter flora and fauna they can't identify. Researchers and municipal, county, state, and federal resource agency personnel concerned with the bosque's management need to know how plants and animals are linked to their habitats. With descriptions of more than seven hundred plants and animals illustrated with color photographs, this authoritative guide is the first of its kind for the Middle Rio Grande Bosque and is an invaluable resource for land managers, teachers, students, eco-buffs, and nature enthusiasts. It also reveals the important role the bosque plays in New Mexico's natural heritage.

This beautifully illustrated study is the first book to focus on the birds of prey of New Mexico.

From pine forest to desert scrub, from alpine meadow to riparian wetland, Albuquerque and its surrounding area in New Mexico offer an appealing variety of wildlife habitat. Birders are likely to see more than two hundred species during a typical year of bird-watching. Now, two experienced birders, Judith Liddell and Barbara Hussey, share their intimate knowledge of the best places to find birds in and around this important region. Covering the Rio Grande corridor, the Sandia and Manzano Mountains, Petroglyph National Monument, and the preserved areas and wetlands south of Albuquerque (including crane and waterfowl haven Bosque del Apache), Birding Hotspots of Central New Mexico offers twenty-nine geographically organized site descriptions, including maps and photographs, trail diagrams, and images of some of the birds and scenery birders will enjoy. Along with a general description of each area, the authors list target birds; explain where and when to look for them; give driving directions; provide information about public transportation, parking, fees, restrooms, food, and lodging; and give tips on availability of water and picnic facilities and on the presence of hazards such as rattlesnakes, bears, and poison ivy. The book includes a “helpful information” section that discusses weather, altitude, safety, transportation, and other local birding resources. The American Birding Association’s code of birding ethics appears in the back of the book, along with an annotated checklist of 222 bird species seen with some regularity in and around Albuquerque.

An experienced outdoors writer, naturalist, and family camper, Christina M. Selby offers families an in-depth guide to experiencing the natural splendors of New Mexico in New Mexico Family Outdoor Adventure. With more than eighty destinations throughout the state, the Land of Enchantment offers abundant opportunities for exploration with hiking, biking, camping, skiing, wildlife watching, fishing, climbing, outdoor cultural activities, and more. Parents, grandparents, children, tweens, and teenagers will enjoy the activities and locations that Selby has enjoyed with her family and features throughout the book. Organized geographically, with easy-to-use maps, the guide explores every corner of the state with detailed descriptions and beautiful photography of trails, campsites, rivers, and lakes. At each location, every outdoor activity is graded in terms of difficulty and age-appropriateness, so you'll know exactly the right activities for every member of your family. Whether you're planning your first family adventure or are an experienced outdoors family, pick a destination and get outside. What are you waiting for?

This is a true story of discovery and discoverers in what was the northern frontier region of Mexico in the years before the Mexican War. In 1826, when the story begins, the region was claimed by both Mexico and the United States. Neither country knew much about the lands crossed by such rivers as the Guadalupe, Brazos, Nueces, Trinity, and Rio Grande. Jean Louis Berlandier, a French naturalist, was part of a team sent out by the Mexican Boundary Commission to explore the area. His role was to collect specimens of flora and fauna and to record detailed observations of the landscapes and peoples through which the exploring party traveled. His observations, including sketches and paintings of plants, landmarks, and American Indians, were the first compendium of scientific observations of the region to be collected and eventually published. Here, historian Russell Lawson tells the story of this multinational expedition, using Berlandier’s copious records as a way of conveying his view of the natural environment. Lawson’s narrative allows us to peer over Berlandier’s shoulder as he traveled and recorded his experiences. Berlandier and Lawson show us an America that no longer exists.

In this first-ever landmark study of New Mexico's wild carnivores, Jean-Luc E. Cartron and Jennifer K. Frey have assembled a team of leading southwestern biologists to explore the animals and the major issues that shape their continued presence in the state and region. The book includes discussions on habitat, evolving or altered ecosystems, and new discoveries about animal behavior and range, and it also provides details on the distribution, habitat associations, life history, population status, management, and conservation needs of individual carnivore species in New Mexico. Like Cartron's award-winning Raptors of New Mexico, Wild Carnivores of New Mexico shares the same emphasis on scientific rigor and thoroughness, high readability, and visual appeal. Each chapter is illustrated with numerous color photographs to help readers visualize unique morphological or life-history traits, habitat, research techniques, and management and conservation issues.

Few places in the world can claim such a diversity of species as the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), with its 6,000 recorded animal species estimated to be half the number actually living in its waters. So rich are the Gulf's water that over a half-million tons of seafood are taken from them annually—and this figure does not count the wasted by-catch, which would triple or quadruple that tonnage. This timely book provides a benchmark for understanding the Gulf's extraordinary diversity, how it is threatened, and in what ways it is—or should be—protected. In spite of its dazzling richness, most of the Gulf's coastline now harbors but a pale shadow of the diversity that existed just a half-century ago. Recommendations based on sound, careful science must guide Mexico in moving forward to protect the Gulf of California. This edited volume contains contributions by twenty-four Gulf of California experts, from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. From the origins of the Gulf to its physical and chemical characteristics, from urgently needed conservation alternatives for fisheries and the entire Gulf ecosystem to information about its invertebrates, fishes, cetaceans, and sea turtles, this thought-provoking book provides new insights and clear paths to achieve sustainable use solidly based on robust science. The interdisciplinary, international cooperation involved in creating this much-needed collection provides a model for achieving success in answering critically important questions about a precious but rapidly disappearing ecological treasure.

New Mexico is home to about 4,000 species of plants that inhabit the varied ecosystems found at the intersection of the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, and the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. Willa Finley and LaShara Nieland, authors of a previous field guide of Texas plants, Lone Star Wildflowers, traveled throughout New Mexico and photographed approximately 200 commonly encountered plants in all stages of growth from spring through fall. They also visited with Native Americans to learn the extensive practical ways in which they and their ancestors have used the flora. The research is presented in a colorful, well-organized format, using easily understood language appealing to wildflower enthusiasts of all levels of experience. Land of Enchantment Wildflowers features -Easy-to-use format with plants grouped according to flower color, indicated by color bars along the page edges. -456 full-color photos, all taken by the authors, including flowers, leaves and seedpods. -Origins of common and scientific names. -Historical and modern uses of plants for food, medicine, and other applications, along with archaeological findings. -Information about toxins and commercially valuable chemical compounds. -Interactions with wildlife and livestock, both positive and negative. -Landscaping uses, noting growth requirements, as well as deer resistance. -Over 100 butterfly and moth species identified, with description of their interaction with specific plants.