The California Naturalist Handbook

by Greg De Nevers, Deborah Stanger Edelman, Adina Merenlender

The California Naturalist Handbook provides a fun, science-based introduction to California's natural history with an emphasis on observation, discovery, communication, stewardship and conservation. It is a hands-on guide to learning about the natural environment of California. Subjects covered include California natural history and geology, native plants and animals, California's freshwater resources and ecosystems, forest and rangeland resources, conservation biology, and the effects of global warming on California's natural communities. The Handbook also discusses how to create and use a field notebook, natural resource interpretation, citizen science, and collaborative conservation and serves as the primary text for the California Naturalist Program.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Science, Science Nature, Geology, Environment

261 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Illiterate]

An enjoyable introduction. It’s more basic and less specific to CA than I expected - more a textbook than a handbook - but that’s OK.

[Catullus2]

A useful and well written book on California nature.

[Ryan McCarthy]

1: Felt a bit stretched thin in the scope of what it was trying to address, but definitely an informative read.

2: I liked this a good deal more the second time around. Really densely packed with info so it takes multiple reads.

[Peter Tillman]

I picked up this book from the library, coming to it as a then-newcomer to California. I read/browsed it, and my reaction is ... Meh. Decent book, nice illustrations, decent text, I learned a few things. But I would never *buy* it. Maybe it's trying to do too much in one book? I've browsed through many of the California Natural History Guides series, also published by UC, and find them more focused, and generally more interesting.

If you live in California, your public library will have a bunch of these guides. Try before you buy, is my recommendation. The book at hand is OK, but perhaps more suited to a YA audience. And a bit too PC for my taste. YMMV.

[Holland]

Great informational text that reads pleasurably! As interested as I am in a subject, non-fiction can often put me to sleep--this book is highly educational yet approachable. It covers all the basics of the natural world in Caliofrnia. A lovely way to get introduced when coupled with outdoor explorations to see first-hand examples of what you read about. This book accompanies the California Naturalist course which is offered through the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources program, in many places around the state. Find a course near you--or just read the book for starters!

[Vanya Swift]

A good introduction to many aspects of California's ecology, climate, hydrology, and other natural factors. Easy to grab and bring along and a good place to spark interest about what is right outside our door.

[Cathy]

Good, succinct and balanced coverage of topics of interest and concern for naturalists, even those outside of California. Each chapter had some activities at the end to make the topics "hands-on."

[Christian]

nice introduction to a wide swath of ideas that can be explored further with greater focus.

[Haley Canales ❊]

Great read to dip your toe into the big environmental issues of our time. However, the book felt very redundant and not up to date. *required reading for CalNat course*

[Gregory Stanton]

A good handbook, with good resources.

[Bryanna Plog]

Fantastic intro to natural history and ecology concepts in general as well as California!

[Daniel Morgan]

This is a solid book about CA nature! I felt that it focused a bit more on NorCal (which to be fair is most of the state), but this book had great coverage of all the different biomes and facets of CA nature. I appreciated that each chapter had a "how you can get involved section" that involved a variety of genuinely cool, not-corny activities that even adults can enjoy. For example, a short list of recommended natural history museums or parks, a guide for how to go explore a local creek, even some new activities like visiting SMUD in Sacramento. I've lived here my whole life and have a geology/environmental sciences degree, and even I still learned a few things! Every now and then I stumbled upon something that was just a *bit* out of date, but this is a very solid book. If you like CA nature, get this book - you won't regret it.

[Emily]

Brief overview of aspects of California natural history, a great way to dive in. There are many proposed ways to engage further in each chapter. I would like to read the updated version this fall as some statistics included predictions for 2025 and I'm curious about the accuracy of those predictions.

[Sabrina]

Nice refresher of basic concepts of the study of natural history and what it means to be a "naturalist" in the 21sth century.

Really best used for getting people getting up-to-speed w/ the CA Naturalist program/effort. For actual study of geology, plants, birds, ecology, research methodology, methods of taking field notes, etc. the UC Press Naturalist series and other topic specific texts are better resources.

[Katie]

2018-11-27 Thru page 91; Have to return to the library

Great book, I'm probably going to buy it. Informative, full of fun facts, and helpful analogies to help the reader visualize/remember the information! (E.g. I've used the "California is like a bathtub" analogy at least 10 times since). As compared to the Natural History of SF Bay, I think this book has less about human history, and a deeper, cross-sectional look at the earth systems and biology of the region (which I like!).