Customer Reviews

Peterson Field Guide(R) to Western Trees

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a birder but always wanted to ID the trees that the birds were perched in. I first took this book out in the field to the Arboretums in San Francisco and Berkeley. I found the book easy to use for IDing native trees. I also took this book with me on a trip to the eastern Sierras and trees that I have previously looked at as "pines" turned into Lodgepole, Mountain Hemlock, Whitebark, Red and White Fir, and Jerrery Pine. It really opened up a new world for me. And naming nature is one way to understanding the wonderfully diverse tree species of the west.

We built a cabin in the mountains and I wanted to be able to distinguish cedars from spruce from pines from ???. We've learned so much from this book. It has exactly the right amount of information to educate without overwhelming. The book is now stuffed with leaves, needles and locations as we become educated about our environment.

Well designed book with easy-to-use color pictures, and good descriptions. It's small enough to carry with you, but comprehensive.

Frankly, I don't understand why everyone likes this book. It dedicates entirely too much space to trees that grow primarily in the east, south east, and Mexico(the author considers central Texas as "western," so any trees that touch this area from the east is included). Yes, it does have good information on many western trees and you will likely find the tree you're looking for, but if he would have stuck to, say, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and west he could have gotten more information and more photos (nearly 300 of the 400 trees in this book have no photo) in the same size book or smaller.

As a backpacker, weight is an important factor to consider when deciding whether something is worth carrying or not. Carrying this book is like throwing an extra one pound lead weight in my pack. There is at least that much information in this book that is useless to me living in Washington State. As much as I would like to take this book for the info it does have, I just can't afford to pack that much extra useless weight, and then only to be frustrated to not find a particular tree I want to identify because there's no photo (it has happened). Again, if he would have stuck to western trees only, there would no doubt be more and better information and photos of all the trees that grow predominantly in the west in the same size book.

Peterson Field Guides seem to be primarily focused on the eastern half of the United States (I understand they're outstanding for that region) and it seems they haven't strayed too far from the eastern states with this book either.

I bought this book for my dad for Christmas because he told me he wanted to be able to identify trees. We live in Oregon, so I was pleased to see that it has western and eastern tree options to choose from on Amazon. I was very please with the book! Beautiful illustrations and exactly what I was looking for. My dad loved it!

The book is great for people that like to look up trees and the book was in great shape

this tree book is amazing.while i hate science, this book got me into it. its still not my favorite subject, but now i like it.