Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to the Common Wetland Plants of Western Washington & Northwestern Oregon

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a wetland scientist and environmental planner. I use Sarah Cooke's book on a regular basis for the identification of wetlands. This book is awesome! The CLEAR pictures, plant keys, and plant descriptions are exteremely useful. The plant field indicator status is a help for the wetland delineator. Sarah's book is a MUST for any outdoor's enthusiast, developer, wetland scientist, or environmental planner!

For its coverage area, I'd give this book a five, but absent is information from mountain wetlands and those from the east side of the Cascades (although the author makes no pretenses about this). Although I understand the absence of east-side plants, given the number on montane wetlands on the west-side, the lack of coverage plants in these habitats is problematic. Another negative is the presence of photographic plates rather than photographs accompanying plant descriptions. In this day and age of computer publishing technology, there is no excuse for this. That said, the line drawings are excellent and the absence of accompanying photgraphs doesn't detract much. The information presented on each species is tremendous and extremely thorough. Contrary to many other regional wetland guides with which I am familiar, submersed aquatic plants are given appropriate coverage. Maps are crisp and clear and leave little to the imagination. Simply put, if you want to know nearly everything there is to know about a plant that could be found in a lowland west-side wetland, this book will tell you about it. Anyone with interest in wetlands in the coastal Northwest should get this book.

This is a must for anyone working with wetlands. It has descriptions, drawings and photos of most wetland plants.