Resources
Click on topic below…annotated for you reading pleasure.
• Absolutely, Positively Must Reads
• Some of Our Favorites
• The Big Apple
• Jerseyana
• Field Guides
• Aesthetics
• Biodiversity & Extinction
• Evolution
• Class Insecta & Pollination
• Natural History Museums & Herbaria
• Everywhere & Nowhere
• Invasive Plants
• Kingdom Fungi
• Plant Databases
• Farm & Food Issues
• Regional Parks
• Native Plant Societies, Botanical Clubs, et al.
• Heritage Programs
• Land Trusts & Conservancies
• Soils & Geology
• Pinelands of NJ & NY
• Urban Ecology & Restoration
• Building & Preserving Communities

Absolutely, Positively Must Reads

Nature does nothing uselessly. – Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

Ehrenfeld, David. 1981. The Arrogance of Humanism. New York: Oxford University Press. 286 pp.

Read and heed. Ehrenfeld documents and expounds upon the failings of humanism, “the guiding philosophy of the modern world”, which has blinded us to our own limitations. Especially recommended for those who look to new technologies as the answer to our environmental ills. Should be mandatory reading for the Western world. The book ends with a quote from the Bible, Isaiah 47:10 “It was your skill and your science that led you astray. And you thought to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none but me’.” Dr. Ehrenfeld is a professor at Rutgers University, founder of the journal Conservation Biology (see below), and Contributing Editor to Orion Magazine (see below).
Lasn, Kalle. 1999. Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – and Why We Must. New York: Quill. 247 pp.

Founder of Adbusters Magazine, he really nails it. From page 112:
We recycle beer cans, newspapers and vodka bottle, we join carpools and food co-ops, we turn down the thermostat at night. We do all the right things. So why do environmental problems get worse? Maybe its time we stopped expending our energies on small, do-goody gestures and faced the fact that many of the paradigms within which we live are outdated and dysfunctional. Most of our environmental “solutions” are red herrings. They deflect energy from the essential work at hand. What we need is not fewer cars on the road, but new cities designed chiefly with pedestrians, bicycles and public transport in mind. Not just new eco-friendly products, but new consumption patterns and new lifestyles. Not just a Carbon tax, but a global, across-the-board pricing system that tells the truth. Not just a new measure of economic progress more accurate than the GNP, but a radical rethinking of the neoclassical paradigm we’ve been teaching in Economics 101 for the past few generations.
Orr, David. 1994. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 213 pp.

A call for an educational paradigm shift away from “educat[ing] the young for the most part as if there were no planetary emergency” and an overemphasis on success and careers, and instead fostering “healthy, durable, resilient, just, and prosperous communities.” “The world does not need more rootless symbolic analysts,” says Orr. “It needs instead hundreds of thousands of young people equipped with the vision, moral stamina, and intellectual depth necessary to rebuild neighborhoods, towns, and communities.”

“A sane civilization,” he says, “would have more parks and fewer shopping malls; more small farms and fewer agribusinesses; more prosperous small towns and smaller cities; more solar collectors and fewer strip mines; more bicycle trials and fewer freeways; more trains and fewer cars; more celebration and less hurry; more property owners and fewer millionaires and billionaires; more readers and fewer television watchers; more shopkeepers and fewer multinational corporations; more teachers and fewer lawyers; more wilderness and fewer landfills; more wild animals and fewer pets.”
Quammen, David. 1996. Song of the Dodo. New York: Touchstone.

This book is nothing short of dazzling in its ambition, scope and craft. Weighing in at 702 pages, it is long, but aren’t epics supposed to be lengthy? Deftly weaving personal observation, history and scientific theory (gleaned both from literature and interviews with many of Drosera’s heroes), this book discusses a tenet of ecology that keep us up at night – extinction. More specifically, the phenomenon of island biogeography. This theory outlines how the number of species waxes and wanes on an isolated landmass. These islands mirror our fragmented natural areas, which are isolated from each other by the developed, urban matrix. This book is a brilliant, stirring, breathtaking, utterly fascinating alarm bell. We are in the hands of a master. Be warned, this book will make you weep for humanity’s future.
Quammen, David. October 1998. “Weeds Shall Inherit the Earth”. Harper’s Magazine.

Read the article here. Something of a companion piece to the above, here Quammen speaks with a paleontologist about the “sixth extinction”: “The consensus among conscientious biologists is that we’re headed into another mass extinction, a vale of biological impoverishment commensurate with the big five. Many experts remain hopeful that we can brake that descent, but my own view is that we’re likely to go all the way down. I visited David Jablonski to ask what we might see at the bottom.” Another uplifting read. What can we say; conservation biology can be really depressing.
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Some of Our Favorites

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. -Greek proverb

Kingsolver, Barbara. 2000. Prodigal Summer. London: Faber and Faber. 444 pp.

Trained as a biologist before becoming a storyteller, Kingsolver deftly weaves the two in this lovely book, set in the forests and small farming towns of southern Appalachia. The three main characters, a reclusive wildlife biologist studying coyotes in the solitude of the national park, a lepidopterist marooned on foreign soil determined to keep her farm, and an retired teacher gamely attempting to breed blight-free chestnuts, are trying to keep at bay the sex that is in the air. A fun and educational read.
Orlean, Susan. 1998. The Orchid Thief. New York: Ballantine Books. 282 pp.

Does a great job of describing the intoxication derived from immersion in the plant world. Very enjoyable, easy read. In some places misrepresents evolutionary theory, but gets most of the details right.
Sacks, Oliver. 2002. Oaxaca Journal. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. 159 pp.

A thrilling find! His trip to Mexico with the American Fern Society (see below) resulted in this jewel. His writing sparkles with an inquisitive mind and love of learning. Disappointing as a public speaker, however.
Schumacher, E.F. 1989. Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. New York: Harper Perennial. 324 pp.

First published in 1973, but sadly remains relevant today. The author challenges us to consider how to define progress. Schumacher points out that “…economists, for all their purported objectivity, are the most narrowly ethnocentric of people..since their world view is a cultural by-product of industrialism, they automatically endorse the ecological stupidity of industrial man and his love affair with the terrible simplicities of quantification.” The author fashioned an economic model that considers ethics, ecology and metaphysics. Present measures of GNP do not include such components that are missing from the statistical models that solely measure GNP. He urges us to contemplate “how much further ‘growth’ will be possible, since infinite growth in a finite environment is an obvious impossibility”.
Whitman, Walt. 1973 (Original printing 1855). Leaves of Grass. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 1008pp.

“Poetry?”, you wonder. “What does that have to do with conservation?” Everything! We will work to save what we love, and love always seems best expressed in verse. A walk in the woods can make you exclaim “O the joy of my spirit – it is uncaged – it darts like lightening!” With child-like glee, Whitman is perpetually enraptured with all he observes, and isn’t shy about sharing his joy. We hope to always follow his example.
Wilson, Edward O. 1995. Naturalist. New York: Warner Books. 380 pp.

Brimming with a “holy cow” take on nature, Dr. Wilson’s memoir is a treat. This book charts his development as a scientist, capturing the pleasures of field biology, while describing the nascent field of ‘ecology’ as seen by one of its architects. Catapulted the term “biodiversity” to fame and coined “biophilia” (see Drosera’s About page). Dr. Wilson was one of the two authors of “The Theory of Island Biogeography” (see above). The writing skills that earned him two Pulitzer Prizes in Literature are on display here, an engaging recounting of an extraordinary life.
Plant Talk

Love this publication! Love it. Our solitary complaint is that it is only published quarterly. No animals, no crop science, no plants for human use. Just plants, in all their organismal splendor. What is a $28 subscription fee for such unadulterated joy?
Electrofork

The creative brain trust behind this gorgeous website. Click and be marveled.

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The Big Apple

New York is a sucked orange. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet, essayist (1803-1882)

Barlow, Elizabeth. 1971. The Forests and Wetlands of New York City. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 160 pp.

A lyrical account of bona fide nature in the Big Apple. A blend of natural and human history, the book begins with an overview of the geophysical characteristics of our city, its topography and geology, its wetland and forest systems, and how these attracted human settlement. Particular attention is paid to Inwood Hill Park, Pelham Bay Park, Staten Island Greenbelt, Jamaica Bay and Roosevelt Island. It is especially interesting in its documentation of how humans have changed the face of the city, for good and ill.
Blanchard, Peter P., Paul Kerlinger, and Mark Stein. 2001. An Islanded Nature: Natural Area Conservation and Restoration in Western Staten Island. New York: The Trust for Public Land and the New York City Audubon Society. 224 pp.

A product of the Harbor Herons Project, this book evaluates the open space conservation in western Staten Island. Chuck full of maps, photographs, drawings, plant lists, factoid boxes (e.g., in 1870, there were 5,600 acres of salt marshes. In 2000, 1,800 remain, with 60% filled to provide buildable land), and profiles of the parcels in the Harbor Heron region.
Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. 2000. A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press. 1416 pp.

A tome that weighs nearly five pounds – making New Yorkers who read it on the subway veritable beasts of burden. But it’s worth shlepping around. This Pulitzer Prize winning book reviews the many highs and lows of the Big Apple before it became the Five Boroughs. The authors delve into the City’s past with verve and wit, making for a compelling read. The many illustrations are a boon.
Caro, Robert. 1975. The Power Broker. New York: Vintage Books. 1246 pp.

The subtitle “Robert Moses and the Fall of New York” says it all. And yes, it is incredibly long. But if you could see our colleagues’ fits of rage at mention of this man’s name, you would understand why it is a must-read. Moses single-handedly changed the face of NYC, and destroyed much of our open space and native flora in the process. To be fair, he also started the first statewide system of parks in the country. The ramifications are endless, but here is one example – his predilection for Norway maples, which are now considered invasive pests. He planted them everywhere, to the chagrin of our forest managers. His hubris will make your hair curl. And it won the Pulitzer Prize.
Davis, William T. 1994 (3rd ed.). Days Afield on Staten Island. Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences. 122 pp.

A co-founder of SI Institute of Arts and Sciences (see below), Davis lived to see much change, even in 1894, commenting “…I have to abandon a little of my rambling every year.” Yet back then there were still 22 species of wild orchids, along with minks and flying squirrels. Today, Davis would be distraught at the loss of open space. The minks and flying squirrels are gone, and orchids have dwindled to only six remaining species.
Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. 458 pp.

Groundbreaking when it was written, this book remains relevant today. Instead of capitulating to the theorists who ruled regarding urban theory, Jacobs, an amateur, simply looked out her window. Based on her shrewd observations, she described how people use cities and the dynamics that make them work. Examples include NYC, Boston and Philadelphia. (Little known fact, Jacobs, et al. was responsible for preserving SoHo. If Robert Moses had had his way, we would now be driving over it, en route to the West Side Highway or the FDR. See what we mean about Moses?). Should be required reader for all city planners, including those of NYC, who seem ignorant of its existence.
Kahn, Robert (ed.). 2002. City Secrets: New York City. New York: The Little Bookroom. 582 pp.

Not your standard travel guide. Filled with unusual recommendations borne of the rich experiences of NYC cultural insiders.
Kieran, John. 1959. Natural History of New York City. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 428 pp.

Love the subtitle, “A book for sidewalk naturalists everywhere”. Like a divining rod, the book will enable its reader to feel the call of the wild, pulling them off the pavement and onto the organic forest floor. The author grew up in the City, and recounts the plants, animals and minerals he seems to know intimately. Like a walk in the woods with an old friend.
Kershner, Bruce. 1998. Secret Places of Staten Island: A Visitor’s Guide to its Scenic and Historic Treasures. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 148 pp.

A great resource, sharing the places to go, what you will see, how to get there and trail maps to get around.
Mittlebach, Margaret & Michael Crewdson. 1997. Wild New York. New York: Three Rivers Press. 196 pp.

This book is Drosera’s take home message – NYC is more than skyscrapers, neon lights and taxicabs – it’s also a treasure trove of biological riches. A guide to nature in the five boroughs, including plant and animal profiles (and fungi!), weather and geology, with site recommendations for each borough.
Sante, Luc. 2003. Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 460 pp.

Tour Manhattan’s underclass circa 1840-1919 with an gifted guide: the city’s topography, vice and entertainment, forces of law and order and their effectiveness, and revolt and idealism.
Tancredi, John. 1995. Gateway: A Visitor’s Companion. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. 192 pp.

Recounts the history, ecology, plants, wildlife, and human uses of the first urban national recreation area.
Tiner, Ralph W. 2000. Wetlands of Staten Island, NY: Valuable Vanishing Urban Wildlands. Hadley, MA: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 20 pp.

Waldman, John. 1999. Heartbeats in the Muck: A Dramatic Look at the History, Sea Life, and Environment of New York Harbor. The Lyons Press. 178 pp.

It would be unimaginable, if it weren’t true – the indignities heaped on the New York Harbor. Despite the decades of dumping, the harbor has made a comeback of sorts, with resident populations of ospreys and similar ilk now calling it home. Makes you wonder how Exxon, who can’t seem to keep its oil contained, decided that it’s 1990 spill extravaganza was not a big deal, since the waters were “already so degraded”.
Bicycle Network Development

Information regarding bikeways and greenways throughout NYC. You can view and download the 2005 New York City Cycling Map, the New York City Bicycle Master Plan, as well as more information about the Bicycle Network Development program. Also included in this site is the New York City Greenway Plan, outlining the city’s vision of a 350-mile greenway system and the Schematic Greenway Plan, a map showing current, nearly completed, and proposed greenways throughout the five boroughs.
Green Apple Map

Highlights the natural sites and culturally significant places that make NYC’s environment special. The map includes: natural areas, cultural and historical resources, farmers markets, bicycle paths, et al.
The Metro Forest Council

A not-for-profit organization providing leadership for protection, research, restoration and management of forested ecosystems in the metropolitan New York region.
The Metropolitan Flora Project

While most of the botanical community concentrates on tracking the threats to biodiversity in the tropics, scientists at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden are undertaking the most comprehensive study ever of the plant biodiversity in metropolitan New York. Studying the vegetation changes in highly populated areas is critical to understanding the future of life in our rapidly urbanizing world. The project has uncovered two major trends: the decline of native species and the spread of nonnative plants. Why is that not surprising?
New York Bioscape

An area encompassing a 100-mile radius from midtown New York City, the “Tri-State Region”. The Bioscape’s 28,000 square miles is a complex mosaic of human-use areas and natural lands and waters that supports both a diverse variety of plants and animals and is the home to nearly 24 million people – 8% of the U.S. population.
NYC Streets Renaissance

New York is a city best enjoyed on foot. Its streets are the soul of its neighborhoods and the pathways to some of the world’s most in-demand destinations. Instead, our streets are being managed almost entirely for traffic flow. Streets are more than just car corridors; they are valuable civic spaces and resources that need to be wisely allocated. The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign is building the movement to re-imagine our streets as lively public places.
Natural Areas Initiative

A joint program of New Yorkers for Parks and NYC Audubon, the initiative promotes cooperation among nonprofits, communities and government to protect and manage natural areas and raise awareness about the value of these open spaces.
Protectors of Pine Oak Woods

Formed in 1972 to fight the development of what is now Clay Pit State Park in Staten Island; hence the group’s name. They focus on conservation issues throughout the island, having helped save thousands of acres from the bulldozer.
TreeBranch Network

New York City’s internet portal to environmental and urban quality-of-life issues, supported by the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition & Friends of Gateway. NOSC is dedicated to improving New York life by expanding and enhancing its infrastructure for public health: parks, waterfronts, community gardens, and open spaces, through advocacy, research, education, and planning. FoG works to ensure the preservation of Gateway National Recreation Area’s significant natural and historic areas, while encouraging the addition of appropriate recreational, educational and cultural programs and facilities
Trees New York

Their mission is to plant, preserve, protect, and care for New York’s trees through education and action. They are active in all five boroughs of New York City and the surrounding region.
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Jerseyana

I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own. – Andy Warhol, painter, filmmaker, publisher (1928-1987)

Burger, Joanna. A Naturalist Along the Jersey Shore. 1996. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 304 pp.

Filled with personal observations derived from years of field work, Dr. Burger provides us with an overview of the shore community, and its changing faces through the seasons. While most of the book focuses on birds, the reader is also treated to ecological relationships with other birds, other animals and plants. Cute illustrations by the author.
Collins, Beryl Robichaud and Karl H. Anderson. 1994. Plant Communities of New Jersey: A Study in Landscape Diversity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 287 pp.

First published in the early 1970s as Vegetation of New Jersey, this update reflects the environmental challenges faced by the Garden State. Still, New Jersey has retained areas of great beauty and bountiful native vegetation. As always, the greatest threat to these is development, with invasives not far behind. The book reviews factors influencing species distribution (geology, soil, climate, humans) and plant communities. The bulk of the book examines in detail plant community types throughout the state.
Gillespie, Angus K. and Michael A. Rockland. 1992. Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

“Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike – they’ve all come to look for America”…Simon and Garfunkel sing the premise of this book – that as one of the most heavily travelled roadways in the country, this highway is “All-American” – the epitome of efficiency over aesthetics. Sadly, this road is the reason behind all those Jersey jokes – directing drivers past the least attractive parts of the state. The constant barrage of anti-Garden State-isms can result in the feelings in John Gorka’s wonderful song – “I’m from New Jersey, I don’t expect too much. If the world ended today, I would adjust.”
Hough, Mary Y. 1983. New Jersey Wild Plants. Harmony, NJ: Harmony Press. 414 pp.

Features over 2600 vascular plants with information on nativity, habitat, bloom time, frequency, taxonomic notes, plant uses and distributions mapped by county. An incredible resource.
Quinn, John. 1997. Fields of Sun and Grass : An Artist’s Journal of the New Jersey Meadowlands. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 342 pp.

This book captures the spirit of this marsh, 5 miles from Times Square. The Meadowlands has been abused and degraded by dams and dumping, roadways and runoff. Yet it is still home to an array of flora and fauna, which is the focus of this book. The author describes in tender detail the site’s ecology, geology, human and natural history, and factor’s that continue to impede its restoration.
Sullivan, Robert. 1998. The Meadowlands. New York: Scribner. 220 pp.

There must be something about this mix of grass and trash that acts like a magnet. Here, the author focuses more on the cultural than natural aspects of the Meadowlands, interjecting anecdotes from colorful local characters. Our favorite chapter is “Walden Swamp”, about the majestic freshwater Atlantic white cedar swamp that once occupied this spit of land. We have borne witness to these stumps and felled logs; a sad sight.
Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute

MERI ’s scientists monitor environmental conditions, conduct research and develop and apply technology to address the environmental problems of the Hackensack Meadowlands District.
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Field Guides

What use is the knowledge of things if you know not their names? – Carl von Linne (Linnaeus)

For the beginner…

Barnard, Edward Sibley. 2002. New York City Trees: A Field Guide for the Metropolitan Area. New York: Columbia University Press. 239 pp.

An excellent introduction, this pocket guide provides information on the identification process, the best places to see trees, official NYC “Great Trees” and 10 tree walks. Wonderfully informative with first-rate photographs.
Brown, Lauren. 1979. Grasses: An Identification Guide. New York: Houghton-Mifflin. 240 pp.

A soft and welcoming entree to the intimidating world of graminoids. Gorgeous drawings by Ms. Brown.
Cobb, Boughton; Cheryl Lowe, Elizabeth Farnsworth. 2005 (2nd edition). A Field Guide to the Ferns and Their Related Families of Northeastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 304 pp. (Peterson’s series)

An update to the late Boughton Cobb’s classic field guide by New England Wild Flower Society. This second edition includes revised text and color photographs.
Lotowycz, G.E & B.H. Conolly.2004. Illustrated Field Guide to Shrubs and Woody Vines of Long Island. Waterline Books; Hardwick, MA. 202 pp.

This book focuses on the woody plants that most field guides gloss over. An unexpected but welcome inclusion is the sub-shrubs, mostly of the Ericaceae, such as Chimaphila and Pyrola. The text also reflects the changing nature of our natural areas through its listing of species’ frequencies and inclusion of naturalized exotics. All of this is filtered through the geographic scope of Long Island.
Levine, Carol. 1995. A Guide to Wildflowers in Winter: Herbaceous Plants of Northeastern North America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 329 pp.

For those of you who like a challenge.
Martine, Christopher T. 2003. Trees of New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic States. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Forest Service, Trenton. 114 pp.

The pocket guide includes descriptions of 149 tree species-plus a glossary of terms, a simple identification key, and regional maps. For more information, visit NJDEP’s website
Martine, Christopher T. and R. A. Figley. 2003. Shrubs and Vines of New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic States. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Forest Service, Trenton. 114 pp.

The shrub/vine version of above.
Montgomery, J.D. and D.E. Fairbrothers. 1992. New Jersey Ferns and Fern Allies. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 293 pp.

Begins with a review of fern structure, classification, ecology and distribution. There is a key that covers all 83 species. The bulk of the book is devoted to individual species, each illustrated, with comments on taxonomy, habitat, growth habit and rarity status. Distribution maps show collection sites and the plant’s spread or depletion.
Newcomb, Lawrence. 1989 (2nd ed.) Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. New York: Little, Brown. 490 pp.

While more involved than the “flower by color” keys, this is worth the extra effort. Also includes woody vines and shrubs. An indispensable field reference.
Peterson, Roger Tory and M. McKenny. 1968. A Field Guide to Wildflowers, Northeastern and Northcentral North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 448 pp. (Peterson’s series)

After determining basic leaf shape, one then looks to flower color. Unfortunately, this means that plants that are closely related are often far apart from each other, which makes understanding taxonomic relationships difficult. But a good place to start.
Petrides, G. A. 1972 (2nd edition). A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 428 pp. (Peterson’s series).

Filled with drawings that compare and contrast similar species.
Rhoads, Ann, Timothy Block, and Anna Anisko. 2004. The Trees of Pennsylvania: A Complete Reference Guide. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. 520 pp.

Fully illustrated with drawings and color photographs, the book contains information on the 134 trees native to Pennsylvania and 62 additional species that have become naturalized in the state. The bulk of the book is descriptive information on each tree, including growth form, leaf, flower, fruit, and bark characteristics. Information is also included on fall leaf color, the size of the largest reported specimen, wildlife utilization, and uses by Native Americans and early European settlers. Introductory chapters cover basic tree biology and the nature and history of Pennsylvania’s forests. Identification keys are included as are lists of trees by habitat, geographic distribution, and potential human uses.
Symonds, G. W. D. 1958. The Tree Identification Book. New York: William Morrow & Company Inc. 272 pp.

Extremely useful for the neophyte, identification is based on photographs of twigs, leaves, fruits, flowers and bark. Also see the companion volume from 1963, The Shrub Identification Book.
Tiner, Ralph W. 1987. A Field Guide to Coastal Wetland Plants of the Northeastern United States. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. 286 pp.

Tiner is the master of wetland field identification in the northeast. Opens with an overview of tidal wetland habitats. Diagnostic key uses easy to recognize field characteristics. For each plant, there is a brief description of morphology, habitat, similar species, range and drawings.
Tiner, Ralph W. 1988. A Field Guide to Nontidal Wetland Identification. Maryland Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 283 pp.

See above.
Uva, Richard, et al. 1997. Weeds of the Northeast. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 416 pp.

Excellent general book on our most common “weeds”, including natives and non-natives. Each species has multiple photographs illustrating different life stages, with keys based on vegetative characteristics (instead of reproductive parts as is the norm). Very user friendly.
For the more advanced (these are technical books)…

Before you slog through these, may we recommend a visual dictionary to aid in deciphering botanical taxonomic linguistics?
Hickey, Michael and Clive King. 2001. The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 220 pp.

The book is arranged in two sections: the glossary, which defines over 2400 terms, and illustrations, which can be cross-referenced to the glossary.
Harris, James G. and Melinda Woolf Harris. 2001. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary (2nd edition). Spring Lake: Spring Lake Publishing. 216 pp.

Illustrates with line drawings the meanings of more than 1, 700 taxonomic terms used in plant keys and descriptions.
Then you have to ask yourself, “Am I a splitter or a lumper?” The below are the preeminent texts for the vascular flora of the northeastern U.S. and Canada.
Fernald, Merritt Lyndon. 1950. Gray’s Manual of Botany. 8th edition. New York: American Book Company. 1632 pp.

This revision of Asa Gray’s original makes it essentially a new work. Fernald was a “splitter”. If you are tentatively entering the world of plant taxonomy, this means you are apt to pull out more hair using this manual. However, the increased number of choices for species can often result in new ways of seeing familiar plants. The dichotomous key is also quite different from the other two. The guiding force behind the arrangement of specimens in many herbaria.
Gleason, H.A. 1963. The New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. 3 volumes. The New York Botanical Garden. New York: Hafner Publishing Co. 595 pp. [fully illustrated with line drawings].

Nathaniel Lord Britton, renowned botanist, was one of the co-founders of the SI Institute of Arts and Sciences (see above) and co-author of the original. We treasure our 1913 set from the first publication, replete with field notes by the original owner. The Dover reprints make these books affordable. Revised by Gleason, this edition is similar to Gleason and Cronquist below.
Gleason, H.A. and A.C. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. 2nd edition. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York. 910 pp.

The “green bible”, this is the first book we open once back in the office (too heavy to lug in the field, what with all the other field books, tape measures, camera and lenses, plot frame, bug spray, water bottle…). This revision, by the late Dr. Arthur Cronquist of the NY Botanic Garden in the Bronx, is more ambitious in lumping species.
To answer the ever-burning question, “Is it native?”
Hough, Mary Y. 1983. New Jersey Wild Plants. Harmony, NJ: Harmony Press. 414 pp.

Contains distributions maps for the native and naturalized plants of New Jersey as well as information on frequency, family, growth forms and habitats.
Mitchell, Richard S. & Gordon C. Tucker. 1997. Revised Checklist of New York State Plants. New York State Museum Bulletin 490.

Has information on varieties, family and nativity.
Rhoads, Ann, William Klein and Janet Klein. 1993. The Vascular Flora of Pennsylvania: Annotated Checklist and Atlas. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society. 636 pp.

Contains distributions maps for the native and naturalized plants of Pennsylvania as well as information on growth forms and habitats.
Advanced texts on special plants

Hitchcock, A. S. 1950. Manual of the Grasses of the United States. 2nd edition, revised. U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington D. C.

And websites

The Fern Lover’s Companion: A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada

This is pretty cool, an e-book on ferns. It takes a little while to download. It’s free!
Mid-Atlantic Plant Identification Guide

A multitude of e-resources for identifying plants in the Mid-Atlantic States, particularly vascular plants.
Studies of Trees

Another ebook, this one on trees. Published by the forester Jacob Joshua Levison in 1914. This “all-round book” is meant for the beginner, and “gives in a brief and not too technical way the most important facts concerning the identification, structure and uses of our more common trees, and which considers their habits, enemies and care both when growing alone and when growing in groups or forests.”
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Aesthetics

What is art? Nature concentrated. – Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)

Bartram, William. 1998. The Travels of William Bartram: Francis Harper’s Naturalist Edition. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. 749 pp.

William Bartram (son of John, see above) traveled through the southern U.S. and compiled his observations in this book, originally published in 1791 as, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws; Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions, Together with Observations on Manners of the Indians. Embellished with Copper Plates. Phew. Bartram’s romantic accounts caused quite a stir. These writings were the inspiration for many of the Romantic poets, evident in works by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and others. Bartram’s writings served as a model for the sacred gardens of Xanadu in Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.” Learn more here.
Giboire, Clive (ed.) 1990. Lovingly, Georgia: The Complete Correspondence of Georgia O’Keeffe and Aninta Pollitzer. New York: Touchstone. 365 pp.

“The wonderful great big sky – makes me want to breathe so deep that I’ll break – There is so much of it – I want to get outside of it all – I would if I could – even if it killed me…” Georgia O’Keeffe
Raymond, George Lansing. 1906 (3rd ed.) The Essentials of Aesthetics: in Music, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons (The Knickerbocker Press). 404 pp.

A gem by the prolific Professor Raymond. From the preface, “…the arts of the highest class have been traced to their sources in nature and the human mind…and have been shown to characterise the entire work of artistic imagination…” This book expounds on these virtues and, in increasing our appreciation of them, aims to bring more truth and beauty into the world. Don’t we all need more of that?
Sabini, Meredith. 2002. The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. 324 pp.

This book presents Jung’s observations, reflections, and prophetic predictions about nature, technology, and modern life. Taken from his published writings, letters, speeches, interviews, and seminars, Sabini’s book reveals an intriguing side of the famous Swiss psychiatrist, whose deep concern over the loss of an emotional and mythic relationship with Nature comes across in moving, poetic terms.
I am fully committed to the idea that human existence should be rooted in the earth . . . Nature, the psyche and life appear to me like divinity unfolded…what more could I wish for? – C.G. Jung
Silverstein, Shel. 1974. Where the Sidewalk Ends. New York: Harper and Row. 166 pp.

Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child
ANYTHING can be.
Geisel, Theodor Seuss (“Dr. Seuss”). The Lorax. 1971. New York: Random House. 72 pp.

“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” We need more Loraxes, less Oncelers.
Neil Finn/Crowded House

Far too wonderful to be absent from your music collection. Shawn Colvin, “wants to be Neil Finn,” and we can’t say we blame her. Lovely pop chord progression, sunny harmonies (try to resist singing along), contemplative lyrics, intelligent music. Oh Crowded House, we hardly new ye.
Stevie Wonder

We won’t embarrass ourselves, but suffice it to say this man is a genius. Many of his albums are absolute must-haves. Check out the discography here.
CRM Society

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) architect, designer and artist, a renaissance man who ostensibly began the Arts and Crafts movement. His work, based in nature, is stylistic, lyrical and celebratory. Muiccia Prada is another fan, “borrowing” his textile “Odalisque” a few collections back.
Goethe as Botanist

You may know of Goethe as a leading figure in the Sturm und Drang movement, or as the author of Faust. But did you also know that he constructed the model for floral morphology that is still taught today? “What pleases me most at present is plant-life.” – Goethe (1786).
Orion: People & Nature

The Orion Society’s mission is to inform, inspire, and engage individuals and grassroots organizations to become a cultural force for healing nature and community. Publish Orion Magazine, a forum for re-imagining humanity’s relationship to nature, featuring America’s foremost writers and artists.
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Biodiversity & Extinction

The planet loses 1 plant or animal species every 20 minutes. Biodiversity extinction is considered by ecologists to be the #1 crisis facing the planet. Find out why.

DeCandido, R., A.A. Muir & M.B. Gargiullo. 2004. A first approximation of the historical and extant flora of New York City: Implications for native plant species conservation. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 131(3):243-251.

Review of all plant species of the five boroughs, living and dead. The most important sentence in the article, “In the last 70 years, extirpations [local extinctions] have continued, even in natural areas protected in parks.” This has to change if we are to retain the 779 native plant species that remain.
Leopold, Aldo. 1987 (originally 1949). A Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press. 228 pp.

A classic vocalization of the conservation ethos. The book consists of three parts: the observations from the sand farm retreat in Wisconsin, the sketches of ecological lessons learned through life experiences, and the essays that call for reform in our relationship with the land. Poetic, wise, welcoming.
Heinrich, Bernd. 1997. The Trees in My Forest. New York: Cliff Street Books. 237 pp.

This book is a biography of 300 acres of cut woodland that the author owned and tended, the culmination of 20 years worth of walks in the woods. A portrait of the magic and mystery harbored within the umbrage of a tree. One chapter, entitled, “Trees as Individuals”, presents the personalities, quirks, and predilections of various species found in his Maine forest. Replete with wonderful drawings.
Margulis, Lynn and D. V. Schwartz. 1998. Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. 520 pp.

A catalogue of biodiversity, defining and describing the phyla of the five kingdoms. Great as a teaching tool. And we have only scratched the surface in understanding other life forms with which we share the planet.
Mayr, Ernst. 1997. This Is Biology. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 323pp.

Shaking off the “physics envy” that has troubled biologists for decades, Mayr celebrates the discipline of biology and how it explains the natural world. This book asserts biology’s place in the larger scientific community and constructs a conceptual framework that returns its focus to its holistic, organismal, and evolutionary aspects; all winningly told.
Musch, Irmgard, et al. (eds.) 2001. Albertus Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. Taschen. 600pp.

We love this book! Albertus Seba (1665-1736) was a pharmacologist from Amsterdam who had an unprecedented collection of animals and plants from around the world. He commissioned illustrations of every specimen, publishing the entire collection in a four-volume catalog. The illustrations are gorgeously creepy and wonderful. For some species, these drawings are our only records, since they are now extinct.
Natural History

A publication of the American Museum of Natural History, the magazine delves into nature, science, and culture, often with in depth stories on the species with which we share the planet. For 20 years it was home to Stephen Jay Gould’s monthly column.
Staten Island Institute of Sciences. 1997. Orchids and Orioles: Biodiversity on Staten Island. Staten Island, NY: Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences.

Stein, Bruce A., Lynn S. Kutner, Jonathan S. Adams. 2000. Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. 399 pp.

We always hear about the biological diversity of the tropical rain forests, where we lose a species every so many minutes. The U.S. is filled with wondrous biota as well, many which are threatened with extinction. A fascinating review of all that is worth celebrating and fighting for. Includes gorgeous photographs of imperiled species and maps showing biodiversity hotspots.
Wackernagel, Mathis and William Rees. 1996. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada: New Society Publishers. 160 pp.

How much land is required to support your lifestyle? At present levels of resource consumption in the United States – too much. If the rest of the world followed our lead (and they certainly hope to), there would need to be many more planets to sustain such gluttony. Welcome to your 12-step program toward sustainable living.
Wilson, E.O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 424 pp.

Here Wilson poetically describes biological diversity in all its splendor. After he hooks you with descriptions and life histories, he details the forces that threaten these riches, largely of our doing. A passionate call to conservation.
All Species Foundation

Goal: to catalog ALL living creatures within the time span of one human generation (twenty-five years). You go, ASF!
American Society of Plant Taxonomists

Taxonomists are the folks who designate species, and are thus responsible for how we tally our diversity. Please visit this website – plant taxonomists are an endangered breed! Who will take their place when they are gone? We are losing the youth of America to mindless reality shows! To make the hard sell even easier, they have a link to “career information”. Is that a whiff of desperation in the air?
The Center for Plant Conservation

A cooperative network of botanic gardens, arboreta, universities, land management agencies, and conservation organizations, the CPC works to save plants from extinction through the preservation and restoration of native U.S. species.
Issues in Biodiversity

Action in Bioscience, from American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS also publishes the excellent journal, BioScience). Here you will learn more about biodiversity, endangered and invasive species, and extinction.
Metropolitan Biodiversity Program

This Program of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation aims to enhance understanding of local and regional biodiversity and apply this knowledge to conservation. To accomplish this, the Program integrates information from the American Museum of Natural History’s scientific departments and regional collections directly into conservation-related research, education, planning and management initiatives in the New York region.
National Biological Information Infrastructure

A broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation’s biological resources. The NBII links diverse, high-quality biological databases, information products and analytical tools from various sources. Run by US Geologic Survey
The Patrick Principle (pdf)

In 1948, Dr. Ruth Patrick published her first paper from a systematic study of rivers. In it, she demonstrated that the numbers and kinds of species (biodiversity) reflected the basic ecology of the river and its environmental stresses. In other words, biological diversity is THE indicator of environmental problems affecting an ecosystem. Learn more about Dr. Patrick’s life here.
Plant Conservation Alliance

The PCA is a consortium of ten federal government agencies and over 145 non-federal organizations working to solve the problems of native plant extinction and native habitat restoration.
Pope John Paul II on world peace and nature

No matter your religious affiliation, these are words by which to live. An education in ecological responsibility is urgent: responsibility for oneself, for others, and for the earth. Finally, the aesthetic value of creation cannot be overlooked. Our very contact with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity.
Society of Conservation Biology

An international professional organization dedicated to promoting the study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity. Membership comprises a wide range of people interested in the conservation and study of biological diversity. Also publish the journal Conservation Biology.
The Threatened Biosphere

E.O. Wilson outlines the enormity of the problem “If future generations learn that they’re going to have to wait for millions of years to repair what we are carelessly doing in the living world in our lifetime, they are going to be very peeved. But the question always arises, ‘Why should they care?’ I mean, can’t we get along with 80 percent or even 50 percent of the biodiversity?”
Tree of Life Web Project

The Tree of Life is a collaborative web project, produced by biologists from around the world. On more than 3000 web pages, the Tree of Life provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their history, and characteristics. Will make you say, “Wow!”.
Wildlands Project

Works to restore and protect the natural heritage of North America.
E.O. Wilson, Living on Earth’s radio program “A Little Known Planet”

E.O. Wilson’s call to field research: “It’s not an exaggeration to say we live on a little known planet. The science of biology in the 21st century will depend on a closer examination of the diversity of life at the species level and an all out effort to complete the mapping of life on Earth.” Transcript and audio available.
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Evolution

Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment. – R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (1895-1983)

Darwin, Charles. 1964. On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 513 pp.

First published in 1859 (under the full title On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), this book rocked Victorian sensibilities. We continue to feel the aftershocks. We wonder whether Darwin had the sense of humor to devise the cover, a tongue-in-cheek take on Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”.
Dawkins, Richard. 1976. The Selfish Gene. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 224 pp.

Whether you agree or not, certainly stimulates the synapses.
Gould, Stephen Jay. 1996 (revised). The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 432 pp.

It is marvelous to observe the machinations of a genius at work. Here, Gould’s purpose is to debunk the status of shoddy intelligence tests as a means for gauging a person’s mental worth. The reader is treated to a historical study of scientific cultural bias, with the author dissecting both the substandard science and the societal turpitude. The world is a lesser place without the prolific, inspiring mind of Dr. Gould. We especially miss his natural history essays (many of which, thankfully, were collected into books).
Lewontin, Richard C. 1991. Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA. New York: Harper Perennial. 128 pp.

A renowned geneticist and Harvard University professor is telling us that we have been duped. Social, cultural, and political forces are driving the U.S. science agenda, especially in the area of genetic research. Shoddy science of questionable applicability abounds in his accounts. For example, the human genome project, touted as the answer to humanity’s ills, will fall far short of these promises, but will have made many people very rich in the process. He encourages everyone to be involved in this dialogue. A great introduction to an important topic.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1975 (orig. 1880). Island Life, or the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras, Including an Revision and Attempted Solution of the Problem of Geological Climates. New York: AMS Press. 522 pp.

A title that isn’t afraid to tell you what is contained therein.
Understanding Evolution

A wonderful resource for teachers, and those of us who are perpetual students, plumbing the depths of this science, including a primer on evolution, evidence supporting it, its relevance in our lives, common misconceptions, & the history of evolutionary thought. Brought to us by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
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Class Insecta et al. & Pollination

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,– One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do If bees are few. – Emily Dickinson
We wonder how all our little friends are fairing in the wake of all the West Nile spraying. To put it in perspective, more people will die from the flu this year in NYC. But public (mis)perception is everything…

Buchman, Stephen L. and Gary Paul Nabhan. 1996. The Forgotten Pollinators. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 292 pp.

For most plants, pollination is critical to seed production. Much of our food is the result of pollen transferred from one flower to another by an animal. Yet pollinators are on the decline. What are the ramifications of the loss of solitary bee habitat? Pesticide use on butterflies and moths? Deforestation on birds? The authors lay out the biological and cultural context of these human-induced changes through field observations, agronomy, botany, ecology and sociology. For more about pollination, check out this link.
Eisner, Thomas. 2003. For Love of Insects. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 448 pp.

As you may have guessed by now, we love brilliant, passionate scientists. Dr. Eisner is the tops. This book mixes memoir with the thrill of discovery of a field biologist and lab experimentalist. He is also an engaging public speaker and an incredibly nice person.
Imes, Rick. 1992. The Practical Entomologist. New York: Simon and Schuster. 160 pp.

A great initial foray into the wonderful world of insects.
Johnson, Kurt and Steve Coates. 1999. Nabakov’s Blues. New York: McGraw-Hill. 372 pp.

Surely you have heard of Lolita, inculcated as it is in our culture, but did you know “lepidopterist”? Nabokov was one in his spare time. Despite his lack of formal training, by the 1940s he was an expert in the Blues, a sub-family of butterflies. This book examines biogeography, evolution, biodiversity, and the place of butterflies in Nabakov’s writing.
General Sites

Backyard Nature

This site has a link for everything, even insect sounds!
Bug Bios

From US Geological Survey. Scroll down, past the map, for an insectivorous bonanza, in alphabetical order by state. Here are your Federal tax dollars hard at work. Is it possible to ask that your taxes preferentially fund such projects? We will have to ask.
CT Entomological Society

Founded in 1949, the Connecticut Entomological Society, encourage the exchange of ideas and experiences related to insects among its members and the general public. Amateurs welcome!
Manual of Insect Morphology

A step-by-step guide to dissecting insects to view anatomy up close and personal. Also gives hints on preservative techniques and how to capture details through drawings.
The Xerces Society

An international nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting biological diversity through invertebrate conservation.
Pollination by Insects (Entomophily)

Alternative Pollinators: Native Bees

A wonderful publication, discussing the use of solitary or native bees as pollinators. Reviews some of the larger groups of bees, including alkali bees, leafcutter bees, alfalfa leafcutter bees, bumblebees, sweat bees, squash bees, digger bees, orchard mason bees, shaggy fuzzyfoot bees, and hornfaced bees. Information is also presented on how to attract and conserve populations of wild bees for pollination purposes.
Diversity and Abundance of Insects in the United States

Here is a small-scale study you can do at home to discern the diversity of pollinator taxa in your area. Also has fact sheets on identification basics and threats to pollinators.
Entomology Index of Internet Resources

June 2001 issue of Conservation Ecology. Many excellent scientific articles on our native pollinators and threats to their continued survival.
Insect Visitors of Illinois Wildflowers

This website contains a database of insects that suck nectar or collect pollen from the various wildflowers of Illinois (most of the floral species are also found in the NYC-area). It also includes a few predacious insects that lurk near the flowers to consume other insect visitors. For each plant species, the flower-visiting insects are organized into the following groups: Long-Tongued Bees, Short-Tongued Bees, Wasps, Ants, Sawflies, Flies, Butterflies, Skippers, Moths, Beetles, Plant Bugs, and Lacewings. Within each group, the insect species are organized alphabetically within the appropriate insect family and its subdivisions. This website is not intended to be an identfication guide of flower-visiting insects and it contains no photographs.
Migratory Pollinators Program

Folks at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum are studying decline of long-distance pollinators such as rufous hummingbirds and monarch butterflies and the worsening ecological conditions of their migratory “nectar corridors,” patches of flowering plants where they refuel for the long journey.
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign

To encourage the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals in North America (also includes vertebrates).
Pollinator Decline

A special feature from the journal Ecology and Society.
Endangered Local Insects

Save the Pine Bush!

The Federally endangered Karner blue butterfly is the most famous resident of the Pine Bush of upstate New York. These folks are feisty and they play to win!
The Karner Blue Butterfly in Queensbury

Nature pride! The residents in Queensbury, NY have it in spades. Find out what you can do to save the blue!
Karner Blue from NYS DEC

An information fact sheet on Karner blue status in New York State, provided by NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. Here you will find the Latin binomial of our rare friend, along with its physical description, life history, range and habitat, status, and management and research needs. Here you will learn that the sandy habitat essential to the blue lupine, and therefore the Karner blue, occurs mostly along river valleys and outwash plains. These are the same areas favored by people. Entire populations of the Karner blue were driven extinct around large urban centers such as Chicago and New York City.
Vanishing Insects

A list of endangered, threatened, special concern, and rare insects of the United States. More than 845 species of insects are currently considered to be endangered, threatened, or rare within the U.S. and are listed by state natural resource departments or natural heritage agencies. Find out what you can do to save the blue!
(You’re a) Gall Makers

If you have no idea what this means, start here
Gagne, Raymond. 1989. The Plant Feeding Gall Midges of North America, Cornell University Press.

Johnson and Lyon.1991. Insects That Feed on Trees and Shrubs, Cornell University Press. (This book covers some gall inducing insects).

Felt, Ephraim. 1965. Plant Galls and Gall Makers, Hafner Press. (This book could be used as a starting point, but in a number of cases the genus and/or species name of the gall maker is not accurate as the book is not very up-to-date.)

Weld, Lewis. 1959. Cynipid Galls of the Eastern United States, Privately printed, Ann Arbor MI. (A very good reference for cynipid wasp galls).

Order Ephemeroptera (Mayflies)

Mayflies of the United States

Can be organized by any state. Has checklists, distribution maps, and links to more mayfly information.
Mayfly Central

Mayfly Central is a place, a program, and an information resource. It is located in the Department of Entomology at Purdue University, where it is associated with the Laboratory of Aquatic Entomology.
Short Key to Mayfly Genera

A simple key to aid in the identification of mayfly nymphs and adults down to the genus level.
Order Hymenoptera (Bees, Ants & Wasps)

Antbase

The Social Insects www ant pages, built and maintained at the American Museum of Natural History and Ohio State University. The site provides access to all the ant species of the world, one of the most important groups of animals, ecologically speaking. The site covers systematics, bibliography, biogeography and biodiversity of ants. You can also find lists of ants found in Central Park, Long Island, and Southern New England.
Ant Colony

The definitive source for ant enthusiasts! Where else on the web can you visit an AnTropolis?
Apoidea – Bees and Sphecid Wasps

The biology, natural history, ecology, identification, taxonomy, checklists, and maps of species in the superfamily Apoidea.
Bee Alert! Bee Cams

Find out what all the buzz is about at the University of Montana’s electronic observation hive, the world’s first!
Bee Phylogeny of Cornell University

A primer for understanding more about higher-level bee phylogeny (taxonomy at the level of genus, tribe, subfamily and family). The site reviews the phylogeny of bees, the antiquity of bees, the historical biogeography of bees, morphological studies, and the molecular systematics of bees.

Bees of New York State

Many people would be surprised to learn that in NY state alone there are over 450 species of bees. In terms of global diversity, we have six of the seven bee families in New York state, 10 of the 20 currently recognized bee subfamilies, and 47 of the 425 genera of the world. The fauna of New York state could best be described as typical of a temperate, northern Hemisphere bee fauna. Native bees provide an extremely important service as pollinators of native and agricultural plants. For example, apple production comprises a $100 million industry in New York state, and a large number of native bee species (primarily in the genera Andrena, Osmia, and Bombus) contribute to apple pollination.

Hymenoptera Fossil Gallery

Check out cool photos of your favorite fossils here.
International Society of Hymenopterists

Publishers of the hard-hitting Journal of Hymenoptera Research – an entomological journal dedicated to the study of the bees, wasps, and ants.
Solitary Bees & Things

All about solitary bees and how to attract them to your garden.
Order Lepidoptera (Moths and Butterflies)

We want to take a moment to say that we are adamantly opposed to butterfly releases. While releasing hundreds of butterflies seems a beautiful way to celebrate nuptials (or other events), it instead destroys nature’s delicate balance. These insects are not native stock. Introducing them into an area is incredibly harmful to local Lepidoptera. These illicit insects may carry new diseases and parasites. They compete for food resources. Most devastatingly, they interbreed with native populations, mixing gene pools. The next generation of butterflies thus has conflicting genetic codes that disrupt their migratory patterns. Please pass this tidbit on to the bride-to-be in your life; she doesn’t want this kind of blood on her hands.

While we are on the topic of things not to do, please don’t buy framed butterflies encased in glass. Such purchases create a market for an unsustainable commodity and encourage poaching of butterflies, moths (beetles, bees, etc.) from the wild.

Glassberg, Jeffrey. 1999. Butterflies through Binoculars: The East. New York: Oxford University Press. 242 pp.

One way to identify a lepidopterist in the field was to scan meadows for swishing mesh. These insect nets captured specimen that would be killed, mounted and catalogued. Identification of insects was based on such observational scrutiny. No longer! This book is the first to focus on identifying butterflies on wing. Filled with photographs that portray butterflies as they look in the wild. It is a great resource.
Gochfeld, Michael and Joanna Burger. 1997. Butterflies of New Jersey: A Guide to Their Status, Distribution, Conservation, and Appreciation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 327 pp.

Discusses the behavior, status, distribution, taxonomy, ecology and conservation of butterflies in New Jersey, with a focus on protection rather than collection.
Himmelman, John. 2002. Discovering Moths: Nightime Jewels In Your Own Backyard. Down East Books. 232 pp.

Covers all facets of the fascinating creatures, their life cycle, morphology, and behavior, and how to attract, observe, and photograph them. Includes photographs.
Wagner, David L. Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History (Princeton Field Guides). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 496 pages

Widely regarded as the most comprehensive book on Lepidopteran larvae in this region. Includes gorgeous photographs.
HOSTS – a Database of the World’s Lepidopteran Hostplants

HOSTS brings together an enormous body of information on what the world’s butterfly and moth (Lepidoptera) caterpillars eat. It offers a synoptic data set drawn from about 180,000 records comprising hostplant data for about 22,000 Lepidoptera species drawn from about 1600 published and manuscript sources. It is not (and cannot be) exhaustive, but it is probably the best and most comprehensive compilation of hostplant data available.
Connecticut Butterfly Association

The group is responsible for butterfly walks, indoor programs, butterfly habitat creation and restoration, butterfly life history chart for CT. They publish a bi-monthly newsletter for members and are involved in CT Butterfly Atlas Project (see below).
Connecticut Butterfly Atlas Project

That Peabody Museum rocks. In this latest permutation, it houses said atlas. They need some butterfly photos, so spread the love.
Moths in a Connecticut Yard

Interesting snippets and great photos. Proof that you don’t have to travel so far afield to find elements of nature!
The Lepidopterists’ Society

We love the homespun look of this one.
Monarch Watch

From University of Kansas, all you ever wanted to know about Monarchs and their migrations along the Atlantic Seaboard.
Butterflies of the Big Apple

New York City is rich in butterflies. Indeed, a single park like the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt has more species inhabiting it than are found in all of Great Britain! Take that, Tony Blair! Brought to you by the North American Butterfly Association.
Butterfly Photographs (NY)

Top notch images from the New York area, plus a checklist of the butterflies of Central Park, featuring lovely drawings and basic butterfly biology.
NYS Butterflies

An informal discussion group dedicated to those that share an interest in butterflies and moths found in NYS and the Northeast.
The Mulberry Wing

Field Notes of the New York City and North Jersey Butterfly Clubs, plus information on Odonates as well.
Slug Caterpillars of New Jersey

Beautiful photographs.
North Jersey Butterfly Club

Meets in Morristown. Events, butterfly sites, and links.
NABA – SEP

Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of NABA, based in Philadelphia, aims to increase public awareness and enjoyment of butterflies. So come out and join them for meetings, field trips, and sightings.
PA Butterfly Chat Archives

Archives and subscription management for the e-mail group for Pennsylvania butterfly and dragonfly discussion.
Order Odonata (Dragonflies and Damselflies)

Dunkle, S.W. 2000. Dragonflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to Dragonflies of North America. New York: Oxford University Press. 266 pp.

A field guide to the 300 species of dragonflies found in the U.S. and Canada. Includes color photographs, species descriptions, range maps, and information on habitat and mating rituals.
Lam, Ed. 2004. Damselflies of the Northeast. Forest Hills, Queens: Biodiversity Books. 96pp.

The only book of its kind, with detailed information on their ecology, range and field identification. Excellent color photographs and accurate drawings by the author.
CT Dragonfly Flight Records

Charts organized by family of species, counties and earliest/latest sightings.
Dragonflies and Damselflies of New Jersey

Odonates! They are wetland predators, meaning they eat mosquitoes! To find out more about how cool they are, check out this site.
Dragonfly & Damselfly Photographs

Top notch images from the New York area, plus a checklist of the odonates of Central Park, featuring lovely drawings and basic damselfly and dragonfly biology.
Integrated Biological Aquatics Assessment

NJDEP’s study of dragonfly and damselfly decline, which serves as a bioindicator of deteriorating water quality. Stream-associated Odonata are in danger of extinction and continually threatened by water quality degradation due to fertilizer and pesticide runoff, sewage and organic wastes, and siltation due to erosion. In addition, the construction of dams often results in the replacement of rare stream dragonflies with more common pond species. There are 172 Odonata species found in New Jersey, with 43 considered rare.
OdonataCentral: Dragonflies & Damselflies of North America

A list of the 185 species of dragonflies & damselflies of New York State. This list may be further refined by county. You can click on the species to see its distribution and the camera icon to see photos and information. Put out by University of Texas at Austin (the site as a whole covers USA & Mexico), quite a wonderful site!
The Odonata of North America

Dragonfly Society of the Americas brings you this site – a current North American checklist with a list of English names.
Odonate Diversity and Sampling Effort in the Lower 48 States

Arranged by county.
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

When J. B. S. Haldane, a British geneticist, was asked what his studies of nature revealed about God, he replied, “An inordinate fondness for beetles”.

The Beetle Experience

Sights, sounds, and information on beetles native to North America.

Beetle Science

A top-notch site. Based on the work of scientists in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University, the site is a tour of the Coleopteran world in the context of biodiversity, systematic biology, invasive species, et al. Here, you can also learn more about the newly discovered species, the McLean Bog Beetle, discovered in a New York wetland.
Coleoptera

Has everything – beetle anatomy, descriptions, databases, catalogues, bibliography, art, & gossip. (Overheard, “Those scarab beetles are scandelous!”)
Coleopterists’ Society

Beetles, the insect order Coleoptera, are the dominant form of life on earth: one of every five living species is a beetle! Various species live in nearly every habitat except the open sea, and for every possible kind of food, there’s probably a beetle species that eats it. Beetles appeared before dinosaurs existed, and now greatly outnumber the dinosaurs’ descendants, the birds. Beetles include beneficial and pest species, beautiful and plain, huge and tiny. They have even had a role in human culture, most notably the ancient Egyptians revering the sacred scarab as a symbol of life and rebirth. The Coleopterists’ Society is an international organization devoted to the study of all aspects of systematics and biology of beetles of the world.
Fondness for Beetles

A promotional site for a book of the same name. The site itself has lots of information & interesting links, including the ability to create a customized beetle screensaver. Now where else on the web can you find that?
Other insects

Cicada Mania

Dedicated to “the most amazing insects in the world”, find all things cicada here.
New Jersey Mosquitos

A list of the Garden State’s 63 mosquito species, most with pictures, so you can keep track of the varieties you swat.
Singing Insects of North America

We’re not talking Beverly Sills. The site enables users to identify crickets, katydids, and cicadas north of Mexico. The males of most species in these groups make loud, persistent calls that attract sexually ready, conspecific females.
And other arthropods…which of course really means spiders

Key to Spiders of Black Rock Forest, NY

With a guide to spider morphology and a gallery of the eight-legged lovelies.
Noteworthy Spiders of Pennsylvania

You should know: Spiders are not insects. “Spiders, along with daddy longlegs, ticks, mites, and scorpions, belong to the class Arachnida. They are beneficial animals that feed on all sorts of arthropods, including insects. About 3,000 species of spiders are found in the United States. Spiders rarely bite people, and most species found in the world are harmless.”
Spider Conservation

Spiders, like many other invertebrates, have generally been forgotten by the conservation community. This site promotes spider conservation including threats to spider diversity (you know who you are), current conservation actions, and challenges in protecting spiders and their habitats. Yeah, it’s called “arachnophobia!” Save the spiders!
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Natural History Museums & Herbaria

We love this stuff!! Sadly, that is not enough. Not only is biodiversity worldwide threatened with extinction, so is its study. Despite the fact that the careful and measured observation of nature has a long illustrious history, colleges and universities have dismantled their departments of botany, zoology, soils. Why? Because natural history is not a profitable enterprise. Instead, there is the reductionism of all of biology to the molecular level.

To combat this, Dr. Thomas Eisner (see above) started a class called “The Naturalist’s Way” at Cornell University. Check it out here.

Forman, L. & D. Bridson (eds). 1989. The Herbarium Handbook. Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. 214 pp.

NPR Segment: Harvard’s Indispensable Specimens (August 10, 2005)

With collections dating to the late 1700s, Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology is one of the country’s oldest museums. Displays drawn from the collection range from the skeleton of an extinct dodo bird to more than 300 different hummingbirds.
But the back rooms are filled with millions of items that will never be displayed. This installment of the Hidden Treasures Radio Project, explains why the curators can’t throw anything away.
The Academy of Natural Sciences

Founded in 1812, the Academy has been at the forefront of documenting species, interpreting their roles in the environment and restoring and preserving ecosystem health. Also has the Herbarium, which houses some of the oldest and most important plant collections in the Americas.
American Museum of Natural History

While everyone else rushes to the Hall of Ocean Life to gaze up at the blue whale (it is impressive), we start our AMNH forays here. We always wanted to live in the dioramas.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Herbarium

Holds about 250,000 plant specimens. The collection is worldwide in scope, with concentration on plants of the greater New York area. The original collection was formed by uniting the herbaria of the Brooklyn Lyceum, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the Long Island Historical Society.
Chrysler Herbarium of Rutgers University

If RU had had their way, this collection would be in a landfill. So sad, the utter disregard for our collective natural history and natural heritage. This disdain seems to permeates every facet of society.
Anyway, the Chrysler Herbarium is the last internationally recognized herbarium still in existence in the state of New Jersey. Approximately 120,000 plant, algal, moss and lichen specimens are arranged and catalogued systematically. The collection is world-wide in scope, with an emphasis on New Jersey. It also now has a mycological herbarium with more than 40,000 specimens.
Herbarium Field Techniques

As promulgated by the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Linnaean Herbarium

Housed in the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the herbarium comprises some 4000 specimens, many of which were once distributed by Linnaeus to his disciples. There is also a guide to match handwriting samples to the appropriate god of botanical taxonomy, which makes our hearts all a-flutter.
New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium

How cool is this? They even have native bryophytes, fungi and lichens! We wish they had native vascular plants as well, though.
The New York State Biodiversity Research Institute

Dedicated to promoting inquiry and advancing knowledge in the fields of geology, biology, anthropology, and history, through the investigation of material evidence germane to New York State’s past, present and future. Lots of great publications too.
The New York State Museum Natural History Illustrations

The museum houses the above research institute. The website features botanical illustrations from the 17 volume series ‘The Flora of New York’. The collection includes illustrations by notable contemporary illustrators such as Bobbi Angell, Ann Lacy, Bente Starcke King and Ted Baim. The above link also bring you to three collections of fungi images – one of illustrations, one of paintings, and one of wax mushroom models.
The Peabody Herbarium at Yale University

Founded in the mid-19th century, they have over 350,000 specimens from throughout the world. There are an estimated 5,000 type specimens (the plant on which the species description is based). The collection is particularly rich in ferns, bryophytes and grasses, as well as in historically important materials from the early botanical collectors. In addition, it is the herbarium of record for the flora of Southern New England from 1864 until 1955, when that collection function passed to the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University

Yale’s earliest museum collection, a miscellaneous assortment of “natural and artificial curiosities” from around the world, was begun in the eighteenth century and was typical of college collections. The more than eleven million specimens in the Museum’s collections are cared for under the supervision of curators in ten divisions: Anthropology, Botany, Entomology, Invertebrate Zoology, Invertebrate Paleontology, Vertebrate Zoology (includes Herpetology, Ichthyology, Mammalogy, and Ornithology), Paleobotany, Vertebrate Paleontology, Mineralogy, Meteorites, and Historical Scientific Instruments.
South Fork Natural History Society

SOFO is dedicated to promoting nature education through hands-on, in-the-field study of the South Fork’s native flora, fauna, and ecosystems.
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences

Founded in 1881, this is one of the oldest cultural institutions in the city, pre-dating the American Museum of Natural History. The museum has an incredible collection of natural artifacts, especially those concerning Staten Island. SIIAS’s two naturalists are fonts of knowledge. A five-minute walk from the ferry terminal, worth the trip.
Torrey Herbarium at UCONN

The George Safford Torrey Herbarium (CONN) supports botanical research in systematics, taxonomy, biodiversity, ecology, ethnobotany, palaeobotany, evolution and education. The herbarium combines significant palaeobotanical, bryological, lichenological, mycological, phycological and vascular plants totaling over 160,000 specimens, all housed in a fully modern, state-of-the-art facility.
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Everywhere & Nowhere

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. – John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

~Discover the soul of the place you live.~

Bissinger, Buzz. 1997. A Prayer for the City. New York: Random House. 408 pp.

The author shadows Ed Rendell (now governor of Pennsylvania) during his first term as mayor of Philadelphia and his struggle to save the city. Written with gusto and alive with details.
Kunstler, James H. 1994. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape. Free Press 304 pp.

Explores and deplores the privatized suburban wasteland that makes up so much of the country.
Leslie, Claire W. and Charles Roth. 2000. Keeping a Nature Journal. Pownal, VT: Storey Books. 181 pp.

Nature journals are wonderful things. They root you in the here and now and grant you the excuse to slow down, observe and reflect on the natural world.
Proust, Marcel. 2002. Swann’s Way. New York: Viking. 486 pp. [translated by Lydia Davis].

All the clichés of the madeleine, ignore; this book is a treasure. A swirling mélange of details through the prism of memory. “The Méséglise way with its lilacs, its hawthorns, its cornflowers, its poppies, its apple trees, the Guermantes way with its river full of tadpoles, its water lilies and buttercups, formed for me for all time the contours of the countrysides where I would like to live…”
Thoreau, Henry David. 1980 (orig. 1854). Walden: or, Life in the Woods. New York: Signet Classic. 255 pp.

Of course.
White, E.B. 1999. Here is New York. New York: The Little Bookroom. 56 pp.

White takes a stroll around Manhattan and drinks it all in, concisely, as is his wont.
White, Gilbert. 1988. The Natural History of Selborne. London: Century. 256 pp.

First published in 1788, this is the first popular natural history book. Gilbert, a country parson, recounts his wanderings in his native parish in England. The book is filled with keen observations on the flora and fauna and steeped in a sense of place.
WPA Guide to New York City: A Comprehensive Guide to the Five Boroughs of the Metropolis. 1992. New York: The New Press. 700 pp.

Love of FDR seems to bridge partisan divides. The Federal Writers’ Project, part of the WPA, was conceived to provide work for journalists. Gradually, the Works Progress Administration expanded the concept as presenting to the American people a portrait of America. First published in 1939, this book brings the Big Apple’s history alive while remaining a useful guide today.
WPA Guide to Philadelphia. 1988. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press. 704 pp.

Originally published in 1937, another addition to the American Guides Series. The book is a compilation of social, political, economic and cultural facets of Philadelphia. We love the walking tours and old school typeface. A must read!
Communities 21

International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives provides local government with the methodologies and practical tools to establish healthy, livable communities that are ecologically sustainable.
Foundation for Landscape Studies

Works to foster an active understanding of the importance of place in human life.
Historic Bartram’s Garden

The house and garden of John Bartram, “the greatest natural botanist in the world” as proclaimed by Linnaeus, is located in Philadelphia. Bartram, a Quaker, journeyed throughout the colonies to find and document new species. In October 1965, John and his son William (see below) discovered a beautiful flowering shrub, new to the annals of science, which they named Franklinia alatamaha after their friend back home and the river in Georgia where it grew. This plant was last recorded in the wild in 1803. Today it is extinct, growing solely in botanic gardens and at private homes, propagated from the seeds originally collected by the Bartrams. Read more about the beautiful plant here. Also note that the shrub may be seen “in person” at Fort Tryon in Manhattan and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Long Island Maps & Their Makers

Long Island has a cartographic history reaching back almost five centuries. Here can be found a sample of the many ways in which mapmakers have shown Long Island–ranging in time from the first explorers’ charts to recent digital maps.
Mütter Museum

Located in Philadelphia, this museum houses a bizarre collection of medical curiosities that are gruesomely wonderful. A must!
Place Matters

A joint project of City Lore and the Municipal Art Society, Place Matters seeks to promote and protect places that connect us with the past, sustain community life and make our surroundings distinctive.
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Invasive Plants

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. – Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)

For more about invasive plants, see Drosera’s Invasives page.

BOOKS

Elton, Charles S. 1958. The Ecology of Invasions by Plants and Animals. New York: Chapman & Hall. 181 pp.

The book that started it all. Elton was prescient in his early warning of the ecological catastrophe inherent in the issue of invasives. Still relevant today and worth reading.
Randall, John M. and Janet Marinelli (eds.). 1996. A Natural History of Exotics in America. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbook. 111 pp.

One of the first handbooks compiled on national invaders.
ESSAY

Quammen, David. Planet of Weeds. Harper’s Magazine, October 1998, pp 57-69.

I was in graduate school when this essay came out. I was in the thick of chronicling the demise of rare plants. A depressing job, to be sure. After reading this essay, I cried. I often wonder what would happen if the opening line, “Hope is a duty from which paleontologists are exempt.” were also applicable to conservation biologists.
WEBSITES

1. Federal Government

Invasive and Exotic Species of North America

A partnership of a number of Federal divisions, many of which are on this page. The site provides an accessible and easy to use archive of high quality images related to invasive, introduced and exotic species. Make sure you go to the “About” page to join up – it’s free!
Invasive Grasses

From the Federal Highway Administration, an illustrated list of 10 invasive grasses that have been making their way through various parts of the country. Includes our nemeses, Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) and common reed (Phragmites australis).
Invasivespecies.gov

The gateway to Federal efforts concerning invasive species. This site outlines the impacts of invasive species and the Federal government’s response, provides species profiles and finds links to agencies and organizations dealing with invasive species issues.
National Park Service – Weeds Gone Wild

Who doesn’t want to know more about weeds gone wild? And people say ecologists are out of touch with pop culture. Has many good fact sheets on invasive plants. An excellent website.
USDA Aphis Plan Protection and Quarantine Invasive Species

Provides information about invasive species and pest management. Here you can find out what kinds of critters are harbored in wood packing materials and hot topics regarding avocados.
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species

USGS site that provides excellent information about aquatic invaders (both plant and animal). Repository for spatially referenced biogeographic accounts. Includes scientific reports, online/realtime queries, spatial data sets, regional contact lists and general information.
2. Information by State/Region

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s Invasive Aquatic Plant Program

General information about the program, survey results, including colorful maps, descriptions of the invasive aquatics, information on volunteering, a form to request a lake survey, legislation concerning aquatic invasive plants, management information, publications, and links to other helpful sites.
Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG)

Provides information about invasive plants in Connecticut with good control information. Trend alert! Overuse of purple loosestrife as a pictorial backdrop on these websites.
Delaware River Invasive Plant Partnership

Site features brochure, invasive plant fact sheets, management planning resources and listserve.
Ecology and Management of Invasive Plants Program

Run by Dr. Bernd Blossey out of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, this site describes the damage caused by invasive plants as well as control (especially biological) information.
Invasive Alien Species Handbook

From Maryland Native Plant Society, this publication provides information on the identification and removal of many common invasive alien species.
Invasive Exotic Plant Management Tutorial for Natural Lands Managers

From MA-EPPC (see below) – a “one-stop-shop” for natural resource managers who are interested in organizing on-the-ground efforts to prevent, manage and control invasives. The purpose is to provide sufficient background information on the problem and then provide management guidance in the form of a standard process or approach so that managers can more readily apply the information to their specific invasive plant problem.
Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE)

A comprehensive database of invasive plants in New England. Has distribution maps, site collection records and catalogs of invasive plants. Love their graphic of Oriental bittersweet with a stranglehold on New England. An excellent site.
An Overview of Nonindigenous Species in New Jersey (Adobe PDF file)

This report provides background on the numbers and origins of nonindigenous species in New Jersey, discusses problems caused by harmful invasive species, describes current state and federal programs and examines methods of control and prevention. Includes fact sheets.
Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council

MA-EPPC provides information about invasive species in the Mid-Atlantic States. We highly recommend the book, which you can order online.
New York City Parks’ “Do Not Plant” List

Over 100 species of plants frowned upon by New York City Parks & Recreation for use in landscaping. So, maybe someone needs to explain to me why they keep planting this stuff in the middle of “Forever Wild” natural areas?
New York Invasive Plant Council

An outpost of NY Natural Heritage Program, the site provides coordination and guidance on the management of invasive plants in New York State.
New York Metropolitan Region’s Worst Invasives

Compiled by our good friends at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel

Information on aquatic invasive plants and animals. The NEANS Panel addresses issues and concerns relative to the freshwater and marine resources of northeastern North America.
Northeastern Weed Science Society

Serves the Northeastern United States by bringing together those who are concerned with the knowledge of weeds and their control; cooperates with other scientific societies to promote research, education, and outreach activities; and publishes scientific and practical information of value concerning Weed Science and related fields.
Pennsylvania’s Invasive Plants

Brought to us by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, this site defines invasive plants, lists serious and moderate threats, and what actions you can take.
Roadside Vegetation Management Research

From Penn State, lots of fact sheets on managing the worst roadside offenders, such as tree-of-heaven and Japanese knotweed.
3. Other

IPlants: Invasive Plants and the Nursery Industry

A study by a Brown undergrad regarding the nursery trade’s perception of invasive plants and attempts to control them. Lots of information, including a fascinating account of the history of the exotic plant trade in the U.S.
The Nature Conservancy’s Invasive Species Initiative

Includes an interactive map showing invasive plants specific to different regions, a large library of information on controlling invasive plants in your garden and natural areas, and an extensive photo gallery of invasive species, including seedlings and young plants.
Workshop on Linking Ecology and Horticulture to Prevent Plant Invasions

Run by the Center for Plant Conservation (see below). This is a continuing seminar seeking to develop voluntary approaches for reducing the introduction and spread of invasive plants.
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(Mutual of Omaha’s wild) Kingdom Fungi

In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. – Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist

Lincof, Gary A. 1981. National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mushrooms. New York: Knopf. 928 pp.

What all our fungi friends recommend. (Usually we wouldn’t advocate photographs – which is what Audubon series uses – over line drawings, but we trust our mycological comrades).
Connecticut-Westchester Mycological Association

Regionally-oriented mushrooms.
Fungi Images on the Web

We know fungi are not plants, but they are so cool! This is an incredible resource: one website clearinghouse with a link page to all the mushroom images on the net – more than 1500 images!
John C. Tacoma’s Mushroom Slide Collection, 1968-1978

This collection consists of 1,329 slides of mushrooms common to the Midwest region. The slides were taken mainly in Indiana and its state parks during a 10-year period by John C. Tacoma, also known as the “Mushroom Man.”
Lichen Literature

General lichen references, works for beginners, lichen keys online, and a lichen bibliography by genus. C’mon folks, you know you want to!
Loveable Lichens

We here at Drosera sense a kindred spirit across the Atlantic. The author points out that lichens are commonly “seen”, but not really. They are grossly overlooked, which is a shame because they are inherently beautiful. Heaps of information, pictures and enthusiasm.
Lichens of North America

Lichens are a unique form of plant life, the product of a symbiotic association between an alga and a fungus. The beauty and importance of lichens have long been overlooked, despite their abundance and diversity in most parts of North America and elsewhere in the world. This site has information on lichen biology, their use as biological indicators, and their interactions with wildlife and humans.
Long Island Mycological Society

A rather spartan website, with a very impressive checklist (pdf file) of Long Island fungi. This single feature makes it worth the visit.
The Mycological Society of America

Dedicated to the study of fungi of all kinds including mushrooms, molds, truffles, yeasts, lichens, plant pathogens, and medically important fungi. They have about 1200 members, professionals and amateurs with interests covering the entire range of scientific disciplines such as ecology-pathology, systematics-evolution, genetics-molecular biology, and physiology. They embrace new members like long-lost family.
New Jersey Mycological Society

A non-profit organization whose aims are to provide a means for sharing ideas, experiences, knowledge and common interests regarding fungi, and to furnish mycological information and educational materials to those who wish to increase their knowledge about mushrooms.
New York Mycological Society

The New York Mycological Society is a nonprofit organization of 150 members who share an interest in mycology (the study of mushrooms and fungi) as well as in mycophagy (the eating of mushrooms). The present NYMS was reincarnated some 40 years ago by the composer John Cage and a small group of other mushroom lovers and students.
North American Mycological Association

NAMA’s mission is “to promote, pursue, and advance the science of mycology.” They also have a slickster site and a questionable logo.
Northeast Mycological Federation

We take back what we said about Long Island’s site – this one is über-spartan.
Rutgers Mycological Herbarium

Estimated to contain more than 40,000 fungal specimen, the RMH herbarium houses the collections of the New Jersey Mycological Association. It also includes several historical collections.
Tom Volk’s Fungi

An incredibly enthusiastic professor at the University of Wisconsin’s love of fungi is proudly on display here. A wonderful resource.
Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club

We couldn’t get the eastern PA site to work, so we chose this one instead. And we love their motto, “fungi, fun, friends”. Isn’t that nice?
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Plant Databases

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. – John Muir naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

American Bryological and Lichenological Society

Check it out! Go nonvascular! We love their adorable logo, because you will so need that hand lens for these plants! Publisher of everyone’s favorite, The Bryologist.
Flora of North America

Information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico. Many of these taxa changes are reducing botanists to tears. The Flora will appear in 30 volumes and will be available in print and on the Web. Some of these are already online. Soon to be the e-mack daddy.
Index Nominum Genericorum Plantarum

How can you resist Latin on the internet? You cannot.
International Association for Plant Taxonomy

A burning question for many of you, “How do botanists stay on top of taxonomic changes?” This source is our little secret. BTW, taxonomists are themselves rare, so if you are looking for a career or thinking about a change, consider it. Come to think of it, the forests aren’t exactly swarming with botanists either. Maybe that is because universities across the country have discontinued basic natural history departments such as botany, zoology, and soils and replaced them with “plant science” which requires wearing a lab coat and the ability to be puzzled by field identifications. But alas, we digress.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System

Here you will find authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals (including our friends, the insects), fungi, mosses and lichens of North America and the world.
NatureServe

NatureServe and its network of natural heritage programs are the leading source for information about rare and endangered species and threatened ecosystems. A source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals, and ecological communities of the U.S. and Canada. A conservationist’s cornucopia.
New York Flora Atlas

It’s new and improved! And a wonderful example of how herbarium sheets continue to enrich our knowledge of the nature that surrounds us. At it’s most basic, the atlas shows users the most current distribution of vascular plants in New York State. This updated atlas also has information on plant habitats, associated ecological communities, and taxonomy. In addition, users can learn about the location of vouchered specimens and see images to get a better visual for each plant.
Paleobotany and Palynology

An absolutely first rate website that these are the disciplines that study botanical fossils – plant parts (paleobotany) and pollen (palynology). University of Florida was the only department website we could find…such fascinating fields, there should be more of a clamor for it.
The Parasitic Plant Connection

More than you ever wanted to know about leech-like vegetation. Scroll down!
PLANTS Database

A source of standardized information about plants from the USDA. The database focuses on vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. Includes photographs, synonyms, range maps and rare/invasive listings.
And some other fact-filled sites…

100 Plant Facts

A compendium of useful facts with which to entertain friends and family.
Wayne’s Word

A nonprofit online textbook dedicated to little known facts and trivia about natural history subjects (including sections on noteworthy plants, botany and the duckweed family). We bow in awe before Professor Armstrong’s site.
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Farm & Food Issues

What if each of us, day by day, fully fathomed where our food comes from, historically, ecologically, geographically, genetically? What would it be like if each of us recognized all the other lives connected to our own through the simple act of eating? What if we understood which other species were regenerated, and which were contaminated or destroyed by what we choosed to eat, by our care or by our carelessness? The way we garden, gather, fish, or forage can be a communion, or it can become an ecological clalamity. The more we understand where our food comes from, the greater chance there is that we can save the living riches of the natural world. -Gary Paul Nabhan, ethnobotanist, author Coming Home to Eat

Berry, Wendell. 1986. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. 228 pp.

A critique of modern agriculture and still our favorite Berry book. The main point is that Americans are alienated from the land. This disenfranchisement permeates our culture, and leads us to mistreat the environment and our neighbors. We don’t agree with all his points (i.e., gender-based segregation of work). Yet the parts Berry gets right will resonate to your core.
Brown, Edward Espe. 1970. The Tassajara Bread Book. Berkeley: Shambala. 146 pp.

“We need more cooks, not more cookbooks.” This book encourages you to get your hands dirty.
Martins, Patrick and Ben Watson. 2003. The Slow Food Guide to New York City: Restaurants, Markets, Bars. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing. 343 pp.

How they missed one of our favorite restaurant, Rose Water in Park Slope, is baffling. They were clearly in the area. But we needn’t be cranky, it’s a great reference!
McPhee, John. 1994. Giving Good Weight. New York: The Noonday Press. 261 pp.

Written from 1975 to 1979, this is a charming collection of stories. Our favorite is the first chapter, the titular profile of NYC’s Greenmarkets from the agrarian perspective. McPhee spent months interviewing and working with farmers, both upstate on their farms and at the markets in the city, capturing all the local flavors.
Nabhan, Gary Paul. 2001. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods. New York: W.W. Norton. 288 pp.

Nabhan is an ethonobotanist who spent one year eating only foods cultivated, hunted, or gathered within 250 miles of his home in the Arizona desert. The result is part diary, part political treatise, and part scientific pilgrimage told in a series of entertaining vignettes. A fascinating and enjoyable read.
Schlosser, Eric. 2002. Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial. 400 pp.

Charting the rise of fast food in the U.S. after World War II makes for a surprisingly engrossing read. As the subtitle suggests, “The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”, the story is also alarming. The fast food industry has triggered all kinds of societal ills, not the least of which is the homogenization of our landscapes. If you somehow missed the cultural juggernaut that is this book caused, run, don’t walk to your nearest library.
Waters, Alice. 1996. Chez Panisse Vegetables. New York: Harper Collins. 344 pp.

Alice Waters’ secrets to great cuisine – the best-tasting food is grown, harvested and brought to market by people who practice sustainable, organic agriculture – the origins of what is now known as “California cuisine”. In this book, Waters emphasizes vegetables at their seasonal peak – each getting a short treatment on its cultivation, how to shop for and prepare it. The book is worth purchasing for the illustrations alone – gorgeous woodcuts of individual vegetables.
State Cooperative Extensions focus on issues relating to agriculture and the environment; management of natural resources; food safety, quality, and health; horticulture; family stability; economic security; and youth development. They are housed in the agricultural extension colleges of our (usually state) universities. Take advantage of these knowledgeable folks.

CT – University of Connecticut

NJ – Rutgers Cooperative Extension

NY – Cornell Cooperative Extension

PA – Penn State Cooperative Extension

Added Value – Red Hook Farmers’ Market

Our market features our famous salad greens and other produce grown on Red Hook Community Farm by our youth leadership team as well as products from other regional farmers including fresh milk, yogurt and ice cream, a full selection of fruit and pasture raised meats. Unlike other Farmers’ Markets, our farm-stand and the CSA are run by Added Value’s youth participants.
American Farm Trust

AFT protects land through publicly funded agricultural conservation easement programs; plans for growth with agriculture in mind through effective community planning and growth management and keeps the land healthy for farmland through encouraging stewardship and conservations practices.
Chez Panisse

We are big fans of Alice Waters (see above). She has dedicated herself to educating others, especially children on the continuum of food, from farming to eating, sustainability, conservation and health. Read more about it on the website under “Our Commitment”. Plus her food just tastes good.
Coop Directory Service

This site answers the burning question “what is a coop?”, has information for the industrious on how to start your own and has a directory to find a food coop near you. Here is a link to our local.
Farm Service Agency

Stabilizing farm income, helping farmers conserve land and water resources, providing credit to new or disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and helping farm operations recover from the effects of disaster are the missions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). And they are really doing a bang-up job, as the U.S. farming population continues to decrease by leaps and bounds, while agribusiness grows to behemoth size.
Farm Aid

Farm Aid works to keep family farmers on their land. These farmers are the only guarantee for fresh, local food. Their goal is to bring together growers and citizens to restore family farm-centered agriculture. Family farmers ensure safe, healthful food, protect natural resources, and strengthen local economies. Here’s a way to rock out and keep America growing!
Farm to Table

A resource for eating locally in New York. Find farmers markets, producers, community supported agriculture, and great restaurants and stores where you can savor local products.
Glynwood Center’s Agricultural Initiative

Located in Cold Spring, NY, Glenwood connects communities, farmers, and food. The goal is to help sustain small and mid-sized farmers whose work generates many public benefits, including fresh, healthy food, scenic landscapes, wildlife habitat, and sound local economies. These farmers are most at risk as a result of federal policies that favor large farms producing commodities for export.
Greenmarkets

New York State farmers’ markets, a program of the Council on the Environment of New York City. Features a map with site locations. Starting April 2006, both the Union Square and Grand Army Plaza (Prospect Park) Greenmarkets will offer native plants for sale!
Hawthorne Valley Farm

A 400-acre, diversified Biodynamic farm in the hills of the Taconic Range in Columbia County, New York and is part of the Hawthorne Valley Association, dedicated to agriculture, education, and the arts.
Landcaster Farmland Trust

The Trust’s raison d’etre: Saving the most productive non-irrigated farmland in the U.S. These farms are the bedrock of community heritage and quality of life. Unfortunately, this unique landscape remains under threat because Landcaster County has become one of the fastest growing areas in Pennsylvania.
The Land Institute

LI works to develop an agricultural system with the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops. If their “Natural Systems Agriculture” were adopted, it could be the end of agricultural scientists from industrialized societies delivering agronomic methods and technologies from their fossil fuel-intensive infrastructures into developing countries and thereby saddling them with brittle economies.
Natural Resource Conservation Service

A result of the Dust Bowl era, this USDA division was originally Soil Conservation Service. The name change reflects the fact that our carelessness broadened in scope. NRCS assists private land users in the development and implementation of conservation plans that promote a healthy and sustainable environment. The NRCS provides technical assistance by working with the American people to conserve natural resources on private lands, and to foster an understanding and appreciation of how natural resource systems relate to each other and to all of us. Also check out their plant materials page.
New York State Farmland Protection Program

The Farmland Protection Program (FPP) provides matching funds to help purchase development rights to keep productive farm and ranchland in agricultural uses.
Queens Farm

Yes, as in NYC! The Queens County Farm Museum’s history dates back to 1697, it occupies New York City’s largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland and is the only working historical farm in the City.
Scenic Hudson Farmland Protection

A 1997 report by the American Farmland Trust ranked the Hudson Valley as one of the 10 most threatened agricultural regions in the country. In 1995 Scenic Hudson began to apply its land conservation tools and experience to save the valley’s farmland. They have protected more than 3,300 acres of working farmland in four communities in Dutchess and Columbia counties.
Slow Food Movement

Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness, Slow Food U.S.A. is an educational organization dedicated to stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community; to the invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions; and to living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life. Go slow!
Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture

The Center is a non-profit farm, educational center and restaurant in the heart of Westchester County. They demonstrate, teach and promote sustainable, community-based food production. They offer a unique experience: a chance to learn about farming firsthand on a real working farm, the only farm open to the public so close to New York City.
The Small Fruits of New York

The Small Fruits of New York was the seventh and last in a series of fruit monographs published by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. This book was completed by U. P. Hedrick in 1925 and has become a classic reference for those working with the cultivated varieties of native food plants, such as Rubus (raspberries & blackberries), Ribes (gooseberries), and Fragaria (strawberries).
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Regional Parks

We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope. – Wallace Stegner, writer, professor, and environmentalist (1909-1993)

~Connecticut~

Connecticut State Parks

County Parks

There are no official county government websites for these counties. Please reference a local phonebook or call your friendly county officials: Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, and New Haven Counties.
~New York~

New York City Parks

New York City Department of Parks

Friends of Blue Heron Park

The 222 acre Blue Heron Park Preserve in Annadale, Staten Island is a New York City Department of Parks natural areas park which surrounds wetland ponds, swamps and streams which drain into the Raritan Bay.
Friends of Van Cortlandt Park

Protecting, preserving and promoting Van Cortlandt Park as a natural resource. That’s what we’re talking about!
Gateway National Recreation Area

Gateway NRA is a 26,000 acre recreation area located in the heart of the New York metropolitan area. The park extends through three New York City boroughs and into northern New Jersey.
Inwood Hill Park

For an interesting mix of trees and Guinness at the northern tip of Manhattan.
Parks in Queens

Queens has more parkland than any other borough in New York City. Join the fun in Queens parks!
Prospect Park Alliance

Prospect Park is a 526-acre urban oasis located in the heart of Brooklyn, New York City’s most populous borough. The Prospect Park Alliance is a public/private partnership that furthers the restoration, preservation and development of the Park.
Salt Marsh Alliance

The Salt Marsh Alliance was formed to supplement city funding for the Salt Marsh Nature Center in Marine Park, Brooklyn. The residents of Marine Park and Gerritsen Beach believe that the park is a valuable asset to the neighborhood. Members volunteer as stewards of the wetlands and other park offerings to make up for the shortfalls in city allocations to parkland. What civic pride!
Staten Island Greenbelt

Staten Island holds in its heart 2,800 acres of nature’s rugged beauty. Discover the Greenbelt’s woodlands, wetlands and meadows.
County Parks

Columbia County Parks

Click on “outdoors” and scroll down to “hiking trails”
Delaware County Parks

Has no information on parks/recreation/outdoors on its website.
Dutchess County Parks

Greene County Parks

Nassau County Parks

Orange County Parks

Putnam County Parks

Rockland County Parks

Suffolk County Parks

Sullivan County Parks

Westchester County Parks

New York State Parks

New York State Office of Parks

~New Jersey~

New Jersey State Parks

County Parks

Atlantic County Parks

Bergen County Parks

Burlington County Parks

Camden County Parks

Cape May County Parks

Cumberland County Parks

There seems to be no such thing. This is a sad state of affairs.
Essex County Parks

Another one with no website.
Gloucester County Parks

Hudson County Parks

Hunterdon County Parks

Mercer County Parks

Middlesex County Parks

Monmouth County Parks

This seems to be one of the best websites.
Morris County Parks

Ocean County Parks

Passaic County Parks

Salem County Parks

Again, no website. Abysmal.
Somerset County Parks

Sussex County Parks

No listings. This is the fourth NJ county with no parks department. What is in the drinking water in the Garden State?
Union County Parks

Warren County Parks

~Pennsylvania~

Pennsylvania State Parks

Poconos Environmental Education Center

Highest accolades to the friendly folks at PEEC. The food, not so much. But the park (Delaware Water Gap) is amazing and worth the trip.
County Parks

N.B. All Pennsylvania counties have at least one conservation district. These districts, part of the county’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (see below under “soils”), allow for conservation decisions to be made at the local level. Many of the links below are to these areas.

Natural Bucks County: Guide to Public Natural Areas. July 2000. Doylestown, PA: Bucks County Commissioners.

The final piece of work associated with the Bucks County Natural Areas Inventory conducted by the Botany Department of the Morris Arboretum 1997-1999. This book is a guide to 36 areas of natural significance throughout Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Carbon County Parks

Lackawanna Natural Areas

Lehigh County Parks

Monroe County Parks

Northampton County Parks

Wayne County Parks

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Native Plant Societies, Botanical Clubs, et al.

I believe in God, only I spell it ‘nature’. – Frank Lloyd Wright, architect (1867-1959)

Native Plant Societies – National

Botanical Society of America

BSA exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere. Also publishes the American Journal of Botany.
North American Native Plant Society

NANPS was founded in 1984 as the Canadian Wildflower Society. Widespread disturbances of natural areas have resulted in drastic reductions of native plant populations. The natural areas that do remain are increasingly degraded by invasive alien species such as purple loosestrife, garlic mustard, and buckthorn. Exotic species such as dandelion and Queen Anne’s lace have overtaken the diverse landscapes of native wildflowers to such an extent that many people believe them to be native. NANPS’s goal is to reverse this trend. Through education and information they aim to inspire an appreciation of North America’s native plants — aiding the restoration of healthy ecosystems across the continent.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The Wildflower Center educates people about the environmental necessity, economic value, and natural beauty of native plants. Their Native Plant Information Network has a diverse array of materials and resources. It’s a bonanza! They also publish the award winning Native Plants. Headquartered in Austin, TX, they just opened a satellite office in Westchester County.
The American Fern Society

Established in 1893 to foster interest in ferns and fern allies, AFS has over 900 members worldwide and is one of the largest international fern clubs. It encourages the exchange of information and specimens between members via its newsletter. “Fern forays” into the woods are an annual August event. There is a local branch in NYC.
Native Plant Societies – Regional

Connecticut Botanical Society

Founded in 1903, CBS is a group of amateur and professional botanists who share an interest in the plants and habitats of Connecticut and the surrounding region. Their goals are to increase knowledge of the state’s flora, to accumulate a permanent botanical record, and to promote conservation and public awareness of the state’s rich natural heritage. The website is an excellent resource, with lots of great articles and plant photos.
Delaware Valley Fern & Wildflower Society

DVFWS encourages the enjoyment of ferns and wildflowers by cultivating them in the home garden; by studying them in their wild habitats; by promoting their conservation and preservation, and by providing a forum for the exchange of information and expertise.
Long Island Botanical Society

LIBS is a field-oriented club, with six to eight local field trips a year. They also have plant identification workshops, monthly meetings and a quarterly newsletter. They are currently producing a new Flora of Long Island.
New England Botanical Club

NEBC, which originated in 1895, is a non-profit organization that promotes the study of plants of North America, especially the flora of New England. The Club publishes the journal Rhodora, holds monthly meetings during the academic year, maintains a herbarium of more than 252,000 sheets, has a small library, and annually grants a research award.
The New England Wild Flower Society

One of the the oldest and one of the most widely known plant conservation organizations in North America, whose focus is promoting conservation of North American native plants through education, research, horticulture, habitat preservation, and advocacy. There is a lot of information on conservation, rarity and invasives. The Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, Massachusetts, features naturalistic displays of native plants organized by habitat and includes woodland, bog, meadow, pine barren, western/alpine, and pond side plantings.
The Native Plant Society of New Jersey

The Native Plant Society of NJ is a statewide non-profit organization founded for the appreciation, protection, and study of the native flora of New Jersey. They publish a newsletter; conduct nature walks, garden tours, and dispense advise on design and maintenance of native gardens and landscapes; and run regular plant sales, tours, and convene meetings with featured speakers.
Partnerships for New Jersey Plant Conservation

The group works with others to protect and preserve the rare and imperiled native plants of New Jersey and their habitats. Also has a list of botanical references and native plant nurseries.
New York Flora Association

All interested persons are invited to join the New York Flora Association, an organization dedicated to the promotion of field botany and greater understanding of the plants that grow in the wild in New York State. They are a non-profit group administered by the New York State Museum Institute. They also produce the atlas of state plant distributions (see above).
The Pennsylvania Flora Project

Run by the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum, the Flora Project compiles information to prepare maps of all the native and naturalized plants known to occur in Pennsylvania. The Plants of Pennsylvania: An Illustrated Manual, (May 2000, University of Pennsylvania Press) includes keys to families, genera, and species; illustrations; scientific and common names; and data on distribution ranges, relative frequency, rare and endangered species, blooming and fruiting periods, taxonomic notes, and an illustrated glossary.
Pennsylvania Native Plant Society

A not-for-profit organization that helps people learn about and enjoy native plants found in Pennsylvania. It sponsors numerous field trips throughout the state and also publishes a quarterly newsletter for members. And a very snazzy home page.
Philadelphia Botanical Club

Formed in1891, the objectives of the club were “to further the interests of Botany and to make a checklist and herbarium of the plants found within the radius of fifty miles from Philadelphia.” Presently, monthly lectures of botanical interest are held from September through May. Many field trips are scheduled from April to October. Also publishes the journal Bartonia.
Torrey Botanical Society

The oldest plant society in North America, based in the New York Botanic Garden in the Bronx. TBS promotes interest in botany, and collects and disseminates information on all phases of plant science. Also publishes Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society.
Native Plants Organizations and Regional Lists

American Chestnut Foundation

TACF is a not-for-profit organization funded primarily by American and international members. Their goal is to restore the American chestnut tree to its native forests through a scientific research and breeding program developed by TACF’s founders. Visit this site to learn more about the sad state of our American chestnut trees.
Atlas for Long Island Plants

Newsday has done us a great service with this nifty section “Long Island-Our Natural World”. This particular story is about plants, but there are lots of links to other aspects of nature on the Island. Also has a searchable database with photos.
Beachplum at Cornell

Cornell University wants to promote the humble beachplum as a new food crop. The site features cultural history, a grower’s guide to cultivation, and fruit-quality analysis. The most important part, they are working on an ice cream – always a worthy cause.
Delaware Wildflowers

The most beautiful pictures of wildflowers on the internet.
Ferns of Long Island

A single page with photographs and descriptions.
Ferns & Fern Allies of New England

A compendium written by someone who has been growing ferns for 20 years, and doing field identification for 10.
Mosses of New Jersey

Approximately 383 taxa of mosses are known to occur in New Jersey. See them here.
Mosses & Vascular Plants of NY

Presents floristic trends based on 150 years of collecting data on New York State plants.
Native Orchids of New York State

Lists species by habitats. Also has information on conservation, rarity and references.
The Native Orchids of Pennsylvania

Pictures and short description of species. Also has a discussion board.
Natural Resources of Roosevelt, NJ

This is a wonderfully rich and detailed site covering a wide range of topics. Has lots of pictures of plants and fungi.
Penstemon Website – Home of the Beardtongue

Penstemon is a popular garden ornamental as well as an interesting plant to examine in its native habitats. Its common name, beardtongue, comes from the bearded staminode found in most species. Many hybrid cultivars of Penstemon are sold through garden supply and seed companies. Includes information on cultivation, taxonomy, and lots of photographs. Put together by a professor at the University of Oklahoma.
Vascular Plants Technical Committee

From the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, this site provides a review of the status of vascular plants in the state. It includes summary statistics on rarities and exotics and threats to population survival. It also summarizes inventories and monitoring efforts, collections, databases, and numerous historical and current references.
Scott’s Botanical Links

This site, brought to us by Scott Russell, a professor of botany at the University of Oklahoma, compiles useful botanical education resources. Each site is rated on a 4-star scale. Now the site includes some 1863 links.
Western Pennsylvania Wildflowers

450 or so species of wildflowers found in Western Pennsylvania pictured and described.

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Heritage Programs

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. – Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Partnerships between state governments and The Nature Conservancy, heritage programs work to preserve their states’ native biological diversity through inventory, research, environmental review, habitat protection, and data management. Heritage programs maintain rare species lists*, natural community information, rare plant fact sheets, and various other reference materials.
*Be aware that rarity status may change as plant lists are updated.

Connecticut Natural Heritage Program

New Jersey Natural Heritage Program

New York Natural Heritage Program

Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program

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Land Trusts, Conservancies, et al.

Sixty million Canis familiaris, as many dogs now, as we once had bison. That’s a very sobering little gauge, in itself, of the degradation of America. – David Quammen, writer

~New York Bioscape Region~

Appalachian Trail Conference

Coordinates all the work that goes into ensuring a superlative hiking experience.
The Highlands Coalition

Established in 1988, the coalition seeks to protect and enhance the sustainability of natural and human communities in the Highlands region of PA, NJ, NY, and CT. The Coalition is comprised of more than 110 local, state, regional and national conservation organizations.
The Mianus River Gorge Preserve

Working to preserve, protect, and promote appreciation of the natural heritage of the Mianus River Gorge and the quality of its watershed.
Natural Lands Trust

Natural Lands Trust – preserving the Delaware Valley’s special natural places for more than fifty years.
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference

The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference is a federation of more than 85 hiking clubs and environmental organizations and 10,000 individuals dedicated to building and maintaining marked hiking trails and protecting related open space in the bi-state region.
Open Space Institute

Founded in 1963, they are a nonprofit land conservation organization that works to permanently protect from development landscapes of significant environmental, historical and agricultural value. OSI has assisted in the protection of nearly 600,000 acres in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
The Trust for Public Land

Founded in 1972, TPL is the only national nonprofit working exclusively to protect land for human enjoyment and well-being. TPL helps conserve land for recreation and spiritual nourishment and to improve the health and quality of life of American communities. They do lots of great conservation work in NYC.
~Connecticut~

Aspetuck Land Trust

Formed in 1966, ALT is a non-profit Connecticut Corporation devoted to preserving open space and the natural resources of Easton, Fairfield, Weston and Westport for the benefit of the public. A board of directors representing the 4 towns manages the Trust. Through generous gifts of land, continued efforts of volunteers, and cooperation from town agencies, ALT has preserved over 1,700 acres of land, which will be maintained in a natural state in perpetuity.
Avalonia Land Conservancy

Established in 1968, the land trust was formed to accept land in the towns of Groton, Griswold, Ledyard, North Stonington, Stonington, Preston, and Voluntown, CT.
Branford Land Trust

The Branford Land Trust is a non-profit organization, founded in 1967. The Trust now owns nearly 775 acres in over 94 parcels in Branford, which is located in Connecticut, on the shore of Long Island Sound, just east of New Haven.
CT Land Trust Directory

Over 70 entries!
Litchfield Land Trust (no web address)
PO Box 712
Litchfield, CT 06759-0712
Phone: (860) 355-1196
e-mail: jendicot@optonline.net

Merritt Parkway Trail Alliance

The Merritt Parkway Trail Alliance is a group of organizations and individuals who advocate the creation of a safe, continuous, non-motorized trail for users of all ages and abilities. As the only such inland trail running east-west along the length of Fairfield County, CT, the Merritt would provide a link to existing paths that cross the Parkway as well as to several proposed trails.
Middlesex Land Trust

Established in 1987, their mission is to preserve open space in northern Middlesex County by identifying, protecting, and maintaining significant natural features such as wetlands, scenic areas, critical wildlife habitats, prime farmland, and unique geological formations.
New Haven Land Trust (no web address)
21 Longhini Lane
New Haven, CT 06519
(203) 562-6655

~New Jersey~

Delaware & Raritan Greenway

Delaware & Raritan Greenway, Inc. (D&R Greenway) is central New Jersey’s regional land conservancy. The only professionally staffed, community-based organization with a sole focus of regional land preservation.
Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance

A nonprofit conservation organization working to preserve and protect the rural character of Hunterdon County, New Jersey.
Monmouth Conservation Foundation

A non-profit organization dedicated to acquiring, holding, and preserving open space in Monmouth County.
Musconetcong Watershed Association

MWA is a non-profit organization incorporated in 1992 to protect and enhance the Musconetcong River and it’s related resources. (The river runs for 43 miles from Lake Musconetcong to the Delaware River at Reiglesville NJ.) MWA’s primary mission is education and awareness, which is carried out through grassroots activities including educational programs in local schools, municipal government outreach, workshops and seminars for the public, stream cleanups and outdoor educational programs.
New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Through acquisition and stewardship, NJCF protects strategic lands, promotes strong land use policies and forges partnerships to achieve conservation goals. Since 1960, NJCF has protected tens of thousands of acres of open space throughout the state.
New Jersey Future

A not-for-profit crusading for smarter land use. They are nationally recognized promoters of sustainable economic, environmental and social progress for all Garden State citizens.
NJ Land Trust Directory

Over 25 entries!
The Ridge and Valley Conservancy

Formed to protect and preserve farmlands, watercourses, and historic sites that constitute the rural character of the Kittatinny Valley and Ridge region of New Jersey. They promote the public interest in conserving land for aesthetic, recreational, cultural, ecological, agricultural and development uses in harmony with the natural environment. RVC is a nonprofit corporation established exclusively for charitable, educational, and scientific purpose.
South Jersey Resource Conservation & Development Council

The South Jersey RC&D Council is a nonprofit organization. They develop and maintain resource technology information systems and initiate, support and implement conservation projects. Conservation and development? We are suspect.
Upper Raritan Watershed Association

Formed in 1959, the URWA is a non-profit organization that protects and preserves the natural resources of the Upper Raritan watershed region. Through advocacy, scientific research and education the URWA has worked to increase environmental awareness and to ensure that changes are guided by sound environmental principles.
~New York~

Dutchess Land Conservancy

Since 1985, preserving the rural character and open lands of Dutchess County, New York. They foster sound, well-planned development in conjunction with the conservation of our natural resources.
Hudson Highlands Land Trust

The Hudson Highlands Land Trust is a private not-for-profit land conservation organization committed to the preservation of the rural character, scenic beauty and natural resources of the Hudson Highlands.
Mt. Sinai Heritage Trust

The Heritage Trust is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to enhancing natural resources and the distinctive character of the surrounding communities. The Trust was formed to support “smart growth” and to enhance a sense of community.
NY Land Trust Directory

Over 90 entries!
The North Shore Land Alliance

A land trust formed to protect and preserve, in perpetuity, the green spaces, wetlands and historical sites of Long Island’s North Shore for the enjoyment and benefit of future generations and the protection and enhancement of homeowner property values.
Orange County Land Trust

Dedicated to preserving fields, forests, wetlands, ridgelines and river corridors throughout Orange County through voluntary land conservation.
Peconic Land Trust

The Hamptons, the East End, Peconic, North Fork, South Fork, Eastern Suffolk… however you identify the special place that is Eastern Long Island, you’ll want to know more about Peconic Land Trust’s work with landowners to protect scenic vistas, water quality and productive farmland.
Pound Ridge Land Conservancy

The Pound Ridge Land Conservancy is a private, non-profit corporation, with the mission of preserving the rural character of Pound Ridge, NY through the acquisition and maintenance of undeveloped land. The Conservancy’s preserves are kept in their natural state, for aesthetic, ecological and educational purposes.
Putnam County Land Trust

Dedicated to preserving and maintaining for the public, open spaces, and the natural resources within, for the purpose of conservation, education, and passive recreation.
Scenic Hudson Land Trust

Safeguards irreplaceable landscapes, protects productive farmland, reclaims and transforms neglected industrial waterfront sites, and purchases strategic properties to revive community centers.
Serpentine Art and Nature Commons

The Serpentine Art and Nature Commons is a not-for-profit community based organization devoted to the preservation of the 35 acres of wooded hillside on Grymes Hill, Staten Island, NY. They maintain the area as an open space, prevent irresponsible land development, rescue land that is eroding, and restore some of the original flora and fauna to the area.
Westchester Land Trust

Founded in 1988, the trust conserves open space, creates new parks and fosters sound land use planning in Westchester County, NY.
~Pennsylvania~

Conneaut Lake/French Creek Valley Conservancy

Promotes the environmental integrity of the French Creek watershed of northwestern PA and its environs in Erie, Crawford, Mercer and Venango Counties, and advocates the protection of natural resources in the watershed to the aesthetic, ecological, recreational and economic benefit its citizens.
Countryside Conservancy (no web address)
PO Box 55
La Plume, PA 18440-0055
Phone: (570) 945-6995
e-mail: cconserv@epix.net

Tunkhannock Creek Watershed, Lackawanna, Wyoming and Susquehanna Counties

Delaware Highlands Conservancy

Founded in 1994, the conservancy protects over 3,500 acres across the Upper Delaware River region through conservation easements. They also maintain a small nature center with a butterfly barn…whatever that is.
Lackawanna River Corridor Association

Promotes the restoration and conservation of the Lackawanna River and its watershed resources in northeastern Pennsylvania. Since 1987, the LRCA has promoted the river through education, public involvement, consensus building, partnerships and hands on opportunities. They depend on the support and informed involvement of their fellow citizens.
PA Land Trust Directory

Over 50 entries!
Pocono Heritage Land Trust
PO Box 553
Pocono Pines, PA 18350-0553
Phone: (570) 643-2890
e-mail: poconoheritage@yahoo.com

Radnor Conservancy

Protects and conserves the natural, scenic, historic and cultural landscape of Radnor Township. Through a program of preservation, ongoing stewardship, and partnership, the Conservancy strives to preserve open space, protect natural resources, and safeguard historic features of importance.
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Soils & Geology

Nature life is the nourishing soil of the soul. – C.G. Jung, psychoanalyst (1875-1961)

Bell, Michael. 1985. The Face of Connecticut: People, Geology, and the Land. Hartford, CT: State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut, Bulletin 110.

Brady, Nyle C. and Ray R. Weil. 2001. The Nature and Properties of Soils (13th Edition). New York: Prentice Hall. 960 pp.

The now venerable textbook, founded in 1922, introduces the fundamental principles of soil science. It emphasizes soil as a natural resource, highlighting its interaction with other components of forest, range, agriculture, wetland, and constructed systems.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. & Kefyn M. Catley. 2002. Life in the Leaf Litter. New York: Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, AMNH. 28 pp.

A charming booklet introducing us to the saprophytic denizens that dwell below our feet. Includes a basic key to identify who’s who.
Okulewicz, Steven C. 1990. The New Field Guide to Staten Island’s Rocks and Minerals. Staten Island, NY: Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences.

Sanders, J.E., and Merguerian, Charles. 1994. The glacial geology of New York City and vicinity. pp. 93-200 in A.I. Benimoff (ed.). The Geology of Staten Island, New York, Field Guide and Proceedings. The Geological Association of New Jersey, XI Annual Meeting, 296 pp.

Did one glacier do all that work? Find out here.
Schuberth, C. J. 1968. The Geology of New York City and Environs. Garden City, NY: The Natural History Press. 304 pp.

Tedrow, John C.F. 1986. Soils of New Jersey. Melbourne, FL: Kreiger Publishing. 512 pp.

Professor Emeritus at Rutgers and an awfully nice person, Dr. Tedrow has a soil series named after him! (For the curious out there, it’s an Udipsamment). This is the book for information on soils of the Garden State. Not that there is much competition…
Bedrock Geologic Maps of New Jersey

Get yours today!
Connecticut Geological & Natural History Survey

Responsible for natural resource data collection inventories in: surficial and bedrock geology, land cover, remote sensing; inventories of fauna and flora, including endangered species; and the development and operation of resource oriented data base management system. What they are clearly not responsible for, however, is website content, because this one has next to none.
Connecticut Geology

Earth science information for Connecticut teachers and students. Includes information on geologic preservation, glacial geology, trap rock ridges, virtual field trips with lots of resources, books and links. The highlight is the bedrock map of the state, in all its splendor.
Geology of Connecticut

A shallow look at the earth’s surface within the political boundaries of this fine New England State. Really, an outline of a course at Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Provides information on plate tectonics, terranes (not a typo), earthquakes, fossils and glaciers.
Geology of the New York City Region

Take a geologic tour of the five boroughs with the U.S. Geological Survey!
Geology of Staten Island

An overview of the rock formations on the island, with explanations and photographs of major formations.
New Jersey Geological Survey

Check out the great geologic map of NJ on their home page!
AMNH NYC Geology

More on what is under our feet. Here you will find a map of the city, plus information on classes, walking tours and cruises that focus on the rocks and geologic processes recorded in the NYC metropolitan area.
Long Island Geology

Digital elevation models, glacial geology, crataceous geology, coastal processes and features, it’s all here.
NYC Soils Survey

The NYC Soil Survey is a pioneering study of urban soils, spanning a citywide reconnaissance soil map, a series of intensive soil surveys and special research projects.
New York NRCS

The National Cooperative Soil Survey Program has been providing accurate soil information for New York for 100 years. Soil surveys provide a field-based scientific inventory of soil resources, including maps, data about the physical and chemical properties and information on the potentials and limitations of each soil.
New York State Geological Survey

We’ve got a problem here, folks. Despite the fact that The New York State Geological Survey is the oldest, continuously operating survey in North America, or that the NYSGS served as a model for many other state surveys, as well as the United States Geological Survey, recent policy changes have greatly reduced the size and function of the NYSGS. The NYSGS does not have an official web site at this time. (Because all things natural history continually get the shaft. Eds.) This website is a labor of love by a non-civil servant type. Today, the staff in Albany can provide a large number of bedrock and surficial geologic maps, research reports, and offer access to unpublished open-file materials. In addition, their professional staff is available to answer general questions about the geology of the state. This is sad stuff. Why don’t you give these folks a call and ask them what exactly is it that makes a soil hydric? Let them know you care. They would love that.
Pennsylvania Association of Professional Soil Scientists

A nonprofit organization dedicated to foster the profession of soil classification, mapping, and interpretations, and to disseminate information concerning soil science as it contributes to the protection of the environment and general human welfare. Where else can you take an interactive soil quiz, read about Hazleton, Pennsylvania’s State soil?
Pennsylvania NRCS

The National Cooperative Soil Survey Program has been providing accurate soil information for Pennsylvania for 100 years. Soil surveys provide a field-based scientific inventory of soil resources, including maps, data about the physical and chemical properties and information on the potentials and limitations of each soil.
Pennsylvania Geological Survey

It will assuage your anxieties to know that survey geologists are actively researching and mapping land across Pennsylvania.
Rutgers Department of Geological Sciences

New Jersey and rocks, perfect together.
Soil and Water Conservation Society

Soil and Water Conservation Society is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization that serves as an advocate for conservation professionals and for science-based conservation practice, programs, and policy, with chapters throughout the U.S. Their mission is to foster the science and art of natural resource conservation. The Soil Biology Primer is a good starting point for learning more about the world that lives beneath your feet.
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Pinelands of NJ & NY

Ecoregion Profile for Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens

National Geographic’s short overview, with photos.

1. New Jersey

Boyd, Howard P. 1991. A Field Guide to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. NJ: Plexus Publishing. 423 pp.

In typical field guide fashion, there are descriptions and illustrations to identify regional flora and fauna. Bonus material comes at the beginning, where Boyd describes the unique ecology of the Pine Barrens.
McPhee, John. 1994. The Pine Barrens. New York: The Noonday Press. 157 pp.

From cranberry bogs to fire ecology to the Jersey Devil, McPhee captures the peculiarities of the region, especially its people, “the Pineys”. First published in 1969, it also describes efforts to save the preserve from development. While the battle described in the book may be over, the fight is not.
Guide to NJ Pinelands

By Burlington County Library System, links on everything from canoe rentals to vegetation lists. Lots of great information.
Highlights of NJ Pinelands

Garden State EnviroNet’s facts and figures.
NJ Pinelands Commission

The New Jersey Pinelands is a vast unbroken forest of pine, oak and cedar make the Pinelands the largest tract of open space on the mid-Atlantic coast, in the most urbanized state in the nation. The Pinelands was our country’s first National Reserve. Today, the Pinelands is protected and its future development guided by the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan. The plan is administered by the New Jersey Pinelands Commission in cooperation with units of local, state, and federal governments.
Pinelands Preservation Alliance

A not-for-profit that protects and preserves the resources of the NJ Pinelands.
Plants of the NJ Pinelands

From Georgian Court University, a collection of color photographs of 61 New Jersey Pinelands plants with scientific and common names, the family to which it belongs, its approximate height at maturity, and descriptions of the plant and its habitat.
Plants of Southern New Jersey

Lists of wildflowers, many with photos, that are common & not so common to the Pinelands. Links to reports on some NJ rare species by the Natural Heritage Program (Element Stewardship Abstracts). Also has a list of recommended sites for botanizing.
Still Life with Flora – The botanist captivated by barrens

A profile of botanist and artist Dr. Albert List. “Parts of the Pine Barrens do look like another planet,” says Prof. List, 72. “They’re strange and wonderful.” Professor List’s magnum opus is an identification manual of the plant life of the Pine Barrens, which features about 1,000 original india ink drawings and took him 15 years to complete. These prints were donated to the Alexander Library of Rutgers University.
2. New York

Here is a map.

Long Island Pine Barrens Society

This society was formed in 1977 to raise awareness about the importance and uniqueness of the Pine Barrens, its species, ecosystems, landscapes and resources. The focus of the group has shifted from educational awareness to an active preservation campaign.
Long Island’s Last Stand

A coalition of over 100 concerned environmental, civic and business associations supports a ten-year action plan to save the most significant remaining open spaces and farmland and to restore and protect the harbors, bays and public parklands. Sponsored by The Nature Conservancy.
New York State’s Central Pine Barrens

A rich concoction of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, interconnected surface and ground waters, recreational niches, historic locales, farmlands, and residential communities, this region contains the largest remnant of a forest thought to have once been over a quarter million acres on Long Island. The Central Pine Barrens overlies one portion of Long Island’s federally designated sole source aquifer for drinking water.
Pine Barrens Trails Information

Suffolk County Department of Parks manages over 46,000 acres of parkland.
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Urban Ecology & Restoration

It is an incalculable added pleasure to anyone’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder book of nature. – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the U.S. (1858-1919)

Gandy, Matthew. 2002. Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York City. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 344 pp.

Focuses on the interface of urban structure and nature. The “metropolitan nature” in the book includes the creation of our water supply system, Central Park, landscaped highways and barrio politics.
Sauer, Leslie Jones. 1998. The Once and Future Forest: A Guide to Forest Restoration Strategies. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 381 pp.

This book focuses on how to restore & manage the fragmeneted forests of eastern U.S. It goes into historical land use, current problems, and the restoration process, with descriptions of ecological strategies for landscape management. It ends with a chapter on the nuts & bolts that must be considered when initiating and implementing a restoration program.
American Environmental Photographs

This collection consists of approximately 4,500 photographs documenting natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Produced between 1891 and 1936 by American botanists, these photographs provide an overview of important representative natural landscapes across the nation. They demonstrate the character of a wide range of American topography, its forestation, aridity, shifting coastal dune complexes, and watercourses. Comparison of early photographs with later views highlights changes resulting from natural alterations of the landscape, disturbances from industry and development, and effective natural resource usage. To know where we are going, we have to know where we’ve been.
Baltimore Ecosystem Study

Aims to understand metropolitan Baltimore as an ecological system. The program brings together researchers from the biological, physical, and social sciences to collect new data and synthesize existing information on how both the ecological and engineered systems of Baltimore work and how ecosystems change over time.
Center for Urban Restoration Ecology

Their mission is to restore and enhance the ecological integrity of degraded public lands in the New York-area through various methodologies.
Ecosystem Processes Along an Urban-to-Rural Gradient

A pdf (Acrobat Reader) file of a paper published in Urban Ecosystems on the effect of urban development on the functioning of forest ecosystems, as determined by studying stands of red oaks from New York City to rural Litchfield County, Connecticut.
First Lady Laura Bush

“Restoring Native Prairie Grasses to Her Texas Ranch”. Aired on NPR in April 2004. Drosera and the First Lady have much in common. Who knew? She is also quite the botanist. Listen in.
The Gaia Institute

The Gaia Institute couples ecological engineering and restoration with the integration of human communities with natural systems through research and development, education, design and construction. They explore how human activities and waste products can be treated to increase environmental quality, biodiversity, ecological productivity, and economic well being. Visit the site for information on green roofs and a special lightweight growing medium developed, essentially from refuse. Based in the Bronx, NYC.
Green Cities

Strategies for cities and green living from Natural Resource Defense Council.
Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Based in Millbrook, NY, IES strives to advance the understanding of ecological systems, to solve environmental problems, to understand how people learn about science and ecological concepts, to enhance the general public’s relationship with ecological principles, and to train ecologists capable of addressing complex environmental problems important to human societies.
The Mannahatta Project

The project reconstructs the ecology of Manhattan when Henry Hudson first sailed by in 1609 and compares it to what we know of the island today. The Mannahatta Project will help us to understand, down to the level of one city block, where in Manhattan streams once flowed or where American chestnut trees may have grown, where black bears once marked territories, and where the Lenape fished and hunted.
Landscape and Urban Planning

This used to be the journal Urban Ecology, but it was subsumed into this more generic title, which sucks the biology right out of it. Here is their blurb: A journal concerned with conceptual, scientific, and design approaches to land use. By emphasizing ecological understanding and a multi-disciplinary approach to analysis and planning and design, it attempts to draw attention to the interrelated nature of problems posed by nature and human use of land.
New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program

The Harbor Estuary Program (HEP) is a National Estuary Program authorized in 1987 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The program is a multi-year effort to develop and implement a plan to protect, conserve, and restore the estuary.
Open Access Space Information for New York City

OASIS NYC is an interactive mapping and data analysis application to enhance the stewardship of open space for the benefit of New York City residents.
Society for Ecological Restoration

The Society for Ecological Restoration is an international non-profit organization actively engaged in ecologically-sensitive repair & management of ecosystems. They publish two journals, one of which is peer-reviewed.
Species composition and structure of forest patches within an urban landscape

Zipperer, Wayne C. 2002. Urban Ecosystems. 6: 271-290. Free download. Regenerated and remnant forest patches were inventoried in Syracuse, New York, to determine differences in structure, species composition, human disturbances, and landscape context.
State of the Forest Symposium

Ecological issues regarding the degradation and restoration of forests in the Highlands province of New Jersey, from October 2002.
Sustainable Long Island

They promote economic development, social equity and a healthy environment for all Long Islanders and in the generations to come.
Urban Habitats

An electronic journal that focuses on current research on the biology of urban areas, such as urban botany, conservation biology, wildlife and vegetation management, urban ecology, restoration of urban habitats, landscape ecology and urban design, urban soils, bioplanning in metropolitan regions, and the natural history of cities around the world. This link is to a paper providing an overview of the NY Metropolitan Flora project (see above), which documents the flora of the NYC area.
Urban Sprawl

Archived webcast of Nature in Fragments: the Legacy of Urban Sprawl. AMNH Spring Symposium, Spring 2000.
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Building & Preserving Communities

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. – Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890)

Katz, Peter and Vincent Scully. 1993. The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. 288 pp.

Just say no to strip malls! The New Urbanism is a movement that seeks to restore a civil realm to urban planning and a sense of place to our communities; counteracting suburban sprawl, automobile dependency, and the disarray of our cities.
Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. 544 pp.

An eloquent lament on the demise of community. Our “social capital” has plummeted, taking our collective quality of life with it. The author charts cultural phenomena that have contributed to this, and suggests how America can reinvent its civic life. More at the website.
Sobel, David. 2004. Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities. Barrington, MA: The Orion Society. 102 pp.

From the forward: “We believe that the solutions to many of our ecological problems lie in an approach that celebrates, empowers, and nurturesthe cultural, artistic, historical and spiritual resources of each local community and region, and champions their ability to bring thos resources to bear on the healing of culture and community.” The author outlines his vision for the role schools could play (since they should, but largely they don’t).
The Architectural League

An independent forum for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines. The League promotes excellence and innovation in architecture and urbanism by furthering the education of architects and designers, and by communicating to a broad audience the importance of architecture and landscapes in public life.
Congress for a New Urbanism

New Urbanism guides development at all scales, from individual buildings to the larger region. It includes infill projects in existing urban areas, redeveloped neighborhoods including public housing developments, and regional guidelines for development.
Historic Districts Council

The citywide advocate for New York’s designated historic districts and for neighborhoods meriting preservation.
Metropolis Magazine

Blends architecture, design, civic planning and preservation to present a unique view of the designed environment.
The Municipal Art Society of NY

A private, non-profit membership organization whose mission is to promote a more livable city. Since 1893, the Society has worked to enrich the culture, neighborhoods and physical design of New York City. It advocates excellence in urban design and planning, contemporary architecture, historic preservation and public art.
National Trust for Historic Preservation

As the leader of America’s dynamic preservation movement, the Trust has worked for more than half a century to save the historic buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes that form our communities and enrich our lives. All over the country, people are working to insure that our rich heritage stays alive.
New York Historical Society

We like their motto, “Know where you live.”
New York Landmarks Conservancy

Dedicated to preserving, enhancing, revitalizing and reusing architecturally significant buildings in New York City and State.
Preserve & Protect

A not-for-profit corporation providing space on the world wide web for historic preservation and environmental protection organizations in New York.
10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania

An alliance of organizations and individuals committed to enhancing the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians. They focus on promoting policies and actions that will: revitalize cities, boroughs, older suburbs; preserve farmland and rural resource lands; conserve our natural, heritage and fiscal resources; and improve the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians.
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