Return to Native Trees of the Southern Rocky Mountains

These books are highly recommended for the natural history of the Southern Rocky Mountains, centered in Colorado and Wyoming. For me the top book for science is Douglas Knight's Mountain and Plains: The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes (Yale 1983), and the top book for reading about the trees is Donald Culross Peattie's A Natural History of Western Trees (1956, and later reprints).

I welcome suggestions and discussion. Please send email to wier@ iws.net

Natural History of the Region

Benedict, Audrey DeLella, 1991. A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to the Southern Rockies , Sierra Club Books. A very well-written and complete guide to the natural life of this area. Includes descriptions of the important plants and animals and their relationships as well as excellent detailed overviews of geology, climate, and weather. Not an identification handbook, and does not mention minor species. A large and comprehensive work. The single best guide to the natural history of the southern Rockies.

Benyus, Janine M., 1989. The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Western United States . Simon and Schuster, New York. Excellent descriptions of some of the primary animals, birds, and plants and their relations, grouped by habitat, with advice on where to find habitats and how to see the animals.

Emerick, John C. 1995. Rocky Mountain National Park Natural History Handbook . Roberts Rinehart, Niwot, Colorado. A fine short handbook covering plants, animals, geology, and forest types, with abundant superb photos by some of the best photographers in Colorado. Text is brief but very successful in summarizing the material. Useful for adjacent areas as well.

Huber, Thomas P., 1993. Colorado: The Place of Nature, The Nature of Place. University Press of Colorado, Niwot, Colo. Describes all factors of the environment - geology, climate, weather, plants, animals, human effects, and so on - for twelve locations in Colorado. A pleasant and informative introduction to the natural history of the state. Many citations for further reading about each area.

Knight, Douglas H., 1993. Mountain and Plains: The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes , Yale Univ. Press, New Haven. This book is a summary of the ecology of Wyoming, and parts of neighboring states that share the same regional ecosystems. It is a very thorough review of the professional literature on Rocky Mountain forests. Easy to read, but intended for the person who wants detailed explanations. This book does not provide any plant identification. Includes a very extensive bibliography.

Kricher, John C., 1993. A Field Guide to the Ecology of Western Forests . Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass.

Mutel, Cornelia Fleisher, and Emerick, John C., 1992. From Grassland to Glacier The Natural History of Colorado and the Surrounding Region , 2nd edition, Johnson Books, Boulder, Colo. A guide to the plant and animal life of Colorado. Emphasis is on the most common plants and animals, and their interactions. Similar scope to Audrey Benedict's book without being so comprehensive.

Field Guides to Trees and Shrubs

Kelley, George. A Guide to the Woody Plants of Colorado . Pruett Publishing, Boulder, Colorado. 1970. A nice guidebook with brief detailed descriptions of Colorado trees and shrubs.

Petrides, George, 1992. A Field Guide to Western Trees . Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass. The best field handbook for tree identification for the entire western United States. Includes location maps, good identification information, and very brief additional information about tree use and relationships. Does not include all native trees of Colorado or New Mexico.

For More details about western trees.

Feister, Roberta, 1995. A Tree of Wonder . Summit County Historical Society, Fairplay, Colorado. This book describes the Bristlecone pines of Colorado.

Harlow, William M., Harrar, Ellwood S., Hardin, James W., and White, Fred M., 1996. Textbook of Dendrology . McGraw-Hill. A standard reference on trees of the United States.

Lamb, Samuel H., 1975. Woody Plants of the Southwest . Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The best guide to the trees of New Mexico.

Lanner, Ronald M., 1981. The Pinon Pine A Natural and Cultural History, University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada. A popular account of the Pinyon pine in history and in the present day.

Murphy, Alexandra. Graced by Pines: The Ponderosa Pine in the American West . Mountain Press Publishing, Missoula Montana. 1994. Essays on the Ponderosa pine in its natural settings across the Rockies, how it is used by Indians, and how it has been affected by fire and logging.

Peattie, Donald Culross, 1956. A Natural History of Western Trees . Houghton Mifflin, Boston Mass. Some of the finest descriptions of western trees and their settings ever written. Closer to literature than a field handbook or a scholarly treatise, and quite a large volume. Good information on the uses of each kind of tree and its place in the history of the west. This is a book you can enjoy reading anytime and anywhere for its own sake, rather than merely a handbook for technical information.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (updated regularly). Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/
The most detailed compilation of information available online about the trees of the Rocky Mountains. Each tree has some ten to twenty pages of information, including complete citations to professional investigations.

Veblen, Thomas T., and Lorenz, Diane C., 1991. The Colorado Front Range: A Century of Ecological Change . Univ. of Utah Press. Salt Lake City. Descriptions of life zones and plant succession along the Front range, and an investigation of changing forest types in the area based on pair photographs (both made of the same view) taken decades apart. Comparison of the photographs reveals remarkable changes in the past century.

The West of Thomas Nutall - Natural History Pioneers and the Exploration of Western America

Thomas Nuttall, botanist, ornithologist, and minerologist, was the first experienced scientist to cross North America, and explored in New England, the southeast US, the Ohio Valley, the Great Lakes, the upper Mississippi, the Arkansas valley, the plains and Rocky Mountains, the Columbia and Willamette valleys, California, and the Hawiian Islands between 1808 and 1841. These are the major writings I know of about the early naturalists who explored America.

Cutright, Paul Russell: Lewis & Clark Pioneering Naturalists. 1969.

Coville, Frederick V.: American botanist.: Tne Botaonical Explorations of Thomas Nuttall in California. ; Washington, D.C.: Biological Society of Washington, 1899. 8vo. Pp.109-121.

DeVoto, Bernard: Across the Wide Missouri. Illustrated by Alfred Jacob Miller; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947. The best book about the mountain men and their world; Nuttall and Townsend included.

Evans, Howard Ensign.: Pioneer Naturalists: The Discovery and Naming of North American Plants and Animals. New York: Holt 1994.

Gilbert, Bill: Our Nature. University of Nebraska Press, 1987. Bison Books. Chapter on Thomas Nuttall.

Graustein, Jeannette E.: Thomas Nuttall, Naturalist: Explorations in America, 1808-1841. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967. An exhaustive study of Nuttal and his accomplishments.

Nuttall, Thomas, edited by Savoie Lottinville: A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the Year 1819. 1980/1999. University of Arkansas Press.

Peattie, Donald Culross: Green Laurels: The Lives And Achievements Of The Great Naturalists. New York, NY: Literary Guild, 1936.

Porter, Charlotte M.: The Eagle's Nest: Natural History and American Ideas, 1812-1842. Univ of Alabama Press, 1986.

Reveal, James L.: Gentle Conquest, The botanical discovery of North America with illustrations from the libary of Congress. Washington: 1992. Many superb reproductions of early botanical illustrations.

Thwaites, Reuben Gold (ed) and Wyeth, John B and Townsend, John K.: EARLY WESTERN TRAVELS 1748-1846 : VOLUME XXI : WYETH'S OREGON, OR A SHORT HISTORY OF A LONG JOURNEY, 1832; AND TOWNSEND'S NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, 1834.

Townsend, John Kirk: Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River. 1833. (as Across the Rockies to the Columbia. Lincoln: University Nebraska Press, 1978.)

Viola, Herman J.: Exploring the West. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1987.