Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Eastern Forests: North America (Peterson Field Guide)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great field guide that covers many aspects of forests East of the Great Plains. Although it covers many common species of both animal and plant, it is not overly helpful for positively identifying individual species; and if one wants that, you are better off with a more specific field guide (i.e., Eastern Birds). It does, however, detail the workings of a forest and accompanies this fascinating text with 53 color plates, 80 color photos and many black and white drawings. In the first few chapters, it demonstrates the different forest types through indicator species; and it details the process of Old Field succesion, and the animals and plants that come and go as the process progresses. In the last chapters adaptation, and seasonal patterns are covered. I would highly reccommend this field guide for any one who would like to know how a forest works.

The purpose of this guide is not to assist one in identifying species of flora and fauna found in the Eastern Forest--such a tome would be monumental in size--but rather to instill in the reader an understanding of the forest's general dynamics. The book is divided into eight sections; they are:

1) How to use this book
2) Forest field marks
3) Eastern forest communities
4) Disturbance and pioneer plants
5) Adaptation
6) Paterns of spring
7) Nature in summer
8) Autumn and winter

This book is an excellent beginning point for those who want to develope a better understanding of forest ecology. I highly recommend it.

Though this guide and its companion Western forest edition have been in print for over a decade, I only stumbled on it last year. It concisely provides the missing links between other field guides to plants, fungi, insects, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, tracks, fossils ... you get the drift. As a hiker, bird-watcher or -feeder, observer, photographer or amateur naturalist, the first step is usually simple identification of species. (With summer warblers, of course, the first step is actually seeing the bird in question.) In the same way that traditional field guides provide portable I.D. info, the ECOLOGY version helps you understand the change you see as you hike down out of a Beech-Maple forest into an Oak-Hickory stand, or the subtle differences when a Northern Riverine Forest segues into a Northern Swamp. By no means comprehensive (remember this fits in your pocket), this book, like the science of ecology itself, is composed of seemingly endless delightful digressions. Where do galls come from? How do dragonflies mate? Have you ever bothered to learn frog calls? What can the vegetation in an old field tell you about history? This volume (and by my inference the Western companion) are an excellent and fascinating addition to any field guide collection.

This is a high quality book at a very decent price, it is interesting and covers almost all facets of the forests, and in a way, goes a little bit beyond that with sections on butterflys, insects and other plants besides trees.Like it is mentioned in other reviews, this is not a guide per say to plants, animals,etc.but it is a fairly decent read.

This has come to be one of my favorite of Peterson's Field Guides. While, as has been mentioned, it is not really a guide to identification per se, there are still many wonderful pictures of forest mammals, birds, trees, shrubs, flowers, reptiles, amphibians, and more that you may come across in your travels throughout eastern woods and fields. Beyond that, however, the book serves as an excellent guide to the functioning of forest ecology, which is a vastly more complex (and ultimately more satisfying) goal than simple identification. As a teacher of ecology, I often use this book with my students as superior to our actual ecology textbook, especially when dealing with the eastern American region in specific. So for those interested in patterns and functioning in a forest ecosystem, this book is outstanding. If you are more into identifications, then this is the one field guide to take that will give a comprehensive overview of forest life. Either way, it's an excellent resource for any naturalist.

All of the Field Guides in this series are fabulous. I found this one useful for my undergrad ecology class... and cheap enough that it wasn't a big investment on top of the already expensive class/main textbook.

Anyone who has some field guides should buy this one because it is an overview of the natural world of the Eastern U.S. So many questions are answered in a concise way. I read the book from cover to cover, a new experience as I don't normally read field guides as if they were books. The book is easy to read. An excellent gift for those interested in nature.

This is a great, concise book for taking on field work expeditions. Very informative, excellent color pictures, and wonderful descriptions of Eastern Decidious Forest Binome.

This peterson guide isnt what you would expect when buying something titled a field guide. The way its organized is almost more of a textbook, rather than a real field guide such as the adubon books. Having said that, this is something anybody interested in learning what the earth is doing around them should pick up, regardless if you intend on using it for the field.
It teaches you what to look for, and how to look at everything. So when you identify a tree or a shrub, you dont just get a name, you learn what is going on around said shrub or tree. The guide teaches you how to look at the earth and figure out what has happened, what is happening and what will happen.
But, to an extent it can be of great use in the field after reading it. After youve read through it, you understand how things work. If you determine your in an oak hickory forest, you will have learned what species of plants, birds and animals inhabit the area. Youll expect to see white tailed deer and a squirrel, and you wont be looking for bears.

Great way to get your brain working in the ecology mentality. If you want more than just this X tree is X species, and want to learn what is truly going on in the earth around you, buy this guide.

i like to look through this book and learn, but without photos, i feel i'm constantly going online to see photos of various critters.