Adventures with a Texas Naturalist

Adventures with a Texas Naturalist PDF

Author: Roy Bedichek

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-06-28

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0292791992

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A classic since its first publication in 1947, Adventures with a Texas Naturalist distills a lifetime of patient observations of the natural world. This reprint contains a new introduction by noted nature writer Rick Bass.

Adventures with a Texas Naturalist

Adventures with a Texas Naturalist PDF

Author: Roy Bedichek

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9780292757042

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You may not know the little birds from the little flowers and not even care to, but still you will find in Adventures with a Texas Naturalist a ripe mind seeing in all relationships the human significance ...

Enjoying Big Bend National Park

Enjoying Big Bend National Park PDF

Author: Gary Clark

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 160344338X

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This book will help turn every trip to Big Bend National Park into a memorable adventure. Veteran naturalist Gary Clark and photographer Kathy Adams Clark help you choose the best hike or drive in Big Bend National Park, based on the season in which you visit; the number of days you have in the park; and your activity, age, and fitness levels. The Clarks provide valuable practical information, along with a descriptive list of items essential for being outdoors in desert and mountain environments and an overview of park rules. They describe more than thirty activities available in the park: two-hour or half- and full-day adventures; adventures for the physically fit or physically challenged; and adventures with children, for nature lovers, or in vehicles. The Clarks also point out scenic highlights and animals and plants that might be seen along the way.

Lone Star Menagerie

Lone Star Menagerie PDF

Author: Jim Harris

Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing

Published: 2000-03-17

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0585262683

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There's more than one kind of Texas native-we share our magnificent state with numerous other species some with four legs or more and some with no legs at all. Naturalist Jim Harris has studied most of them, and in Lone Star Menagerie he shares some little-known facts, fascinating tales, and amusing personal experiences with these creatures that we live alongside.

Karánkaway Country

Karánkaway Country PDF

Author: Roy Bedichek

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-06-28

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0292791984

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Roy Bedichek spent most of his life working in the educational field in Texas, but his main interest was always the great outdoors. His first book, Adventures with a Texas Naturalist, was published when he was almost seventy, and his second, Karánkaway Country, appeared three years later. Both were the result of a lifetime of exploring a beloved land, of searching observation, of discussion, debate, wide reading, and reflection. Long out of print, Karánkaway Country is now available in a handsome second edition with a new Foreword by W. W. Newcomb, Jr. Karánkaway Country focuses on the natural history of a strip of coastal prairie lying roughly between Corpus Christi and Galveston and once inhabited by the poorly known and much maligned Karankawa Indians. It serves as home base for an exposition of Bedichek's philosophy, providing a convenient local setting for richly tailored essays on wildlife, soil, human skin, and a variety of other topics suggested by a wide-ranging intellect. Bedichek's philosophy, if it can be reduced to a few words, is essentially that humans must learn to live on peaceful and conciliatory terms with our natural environment.

A Naturalist's Guide to the Texas Hill Country

A Naturalist's Guide to the Texas Hill Country PDF

Author: Mark Gustafson

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2015-04-15

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 162349236X

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In this guide, biologist Mark Gustafson introduces residents and visitors to the history, geology, water resources, plants, and animals found in the nineteen counties occupying the eastern part of the Edwards Plateau, the heart of the Hill Country. He profiles three hundred of the most common and unique species from all of the major groups of plants and animals: trees, shrubs, wildflowers, cacti, vines, grasses, ferns, fungi, lichens, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and invertebrates. Color photographs are included for each species along with a brief description. He closes with a chapter on significant state parks and natural areas in the region as an invitation to visit and explore the Texas Hill Country. As large metropolitan areas continue to encroach on the Hill Country, newcomers are moving in and more people are flocking to its many attractions. This guidebook will enrich the appreciation of the region’s rich and unique biodiversity and encourage conservation of the natural world encountered.

Exploring the Edges of Texas

Exploring the Edges of Texas PDF

Author: Walt Davis

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2010-01-18

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1603441530

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In 1955, Frank X. Tolbert, a well-known columnist for the Dallas Morning News, circumnavigated Texas with his nine-year-old-son in a Willis Jeep. The column he phoned in to the newspaper about his adventures, "Tolbert's Texas," was a staple of Walt Davis's childhood. Fifty years later, Walt and his wife, Isabel, have re-explored portions of Tolbert’s trek along the boundaries of Texas. The border of Texas is longer than the Amazon River, running through ten distinct ecological zones as it outlines one of the most familiar shapes in geography. According to the Davises, "Driving its every twist and turn would be like driving from Miami to Los Angeles by way of New York." Each of this book’s sixteen chapters opens with an original drawing by Walt, representing a segment of the Texas border where the authors selected a special place—a national park, a stretch of river, a mountain range, or an archeological site. Using a firsthand account of that place written by a previous visitor (artist, explorer, naturalist, or archeologist), they then identified a contemporary voice (whether biologist, rancher, river-runner, or paleontologist) to serve as a modern-day guide for their journey of rediscovery. This dual perspective allows the authors to attach personal stories to the places they visited, to connect the past with the present, and to compare Texas then with Texas now. Whether retracing botanist Charles Wright's 600-mile walk to El Paso in 1849 or paddling Houston's Buffalo Bayou, where John James Audubon saw ivory-billed woodpeckers in 1837, the Davises seek to remind readers that passionate and determined people wrote the state's natural history. Anyone interested in Texas or its rich natural heritage will find deep enjoyment in Exploring the Edges of Texas. Publication of this book is generously supported by a memorial gift in honor of Mary Frances "Chan" Driscoll, a founding member of the Advisory Council of Texas A&M University Press, by her sons Henry B. Paup '70 and T. Edgar Paup '74.

Letters of Roy Bedichek

Letters of Roy Bedichek PDF

Author: William A. Owens

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 601

ISBN-13: 0292717873

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Although Roy Bedichek published less than his more famous friends J. Frank Dobie and Walter Prescott Webb, he wrote voluminously and, many say, with more distinction than the others. In addition to his four published books, Bedichek produced a great number of letters through which he communicated his broad interests and deep learning to a wide variety of correspondents. Prefaced by a biographical sketch, this volume presents a collection of Bedichek letters that give us an insight into his literary and creative development—from his earliest years through his career at the University of Texas and on into his later years. They include letters to his closest associates, J. Frank Dobie and Walter Prescott Webb, and to many old friends, such as William A. Owens, John A. Lomax, and John Henry Faulk. Also included is Bedichek's correspondence with other contemporaries, not all old friends, among them Texas Governor James Ferguson, the recipient of some of Bedichek's most trenchant criticism. Throughout this collection, Bedichek's sparkling wit and profound learning are evident as he discusses his favorite subjects, among them ecology, education, literature, politics, and history, frequently related to Texas. When Roy Bedichek gave his collection of letters to the Barker Collection in the University of Texas Library, he designated William A. Owens as the authorized editor of the letters, with the restriction that none of them be published until seven years following his death, which came in 1959.

Naturalist's Big Bend

Naturalist's Big Bend PDF

Author: Roland H. Wauer

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781585441563

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Given in honor of District Governor Hugh Summers and Mrs. Ahnise Summers by the Rotary Club of Aggieland with matching support from the Sara and John H. Lindsey '44 Fund, Texas A & M University Press, 2004.

West of the American Dream

West of the American Dream PDF

Author: Paul Christensen

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 9780890967539

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"West of the American Dream is a multifaceted account of the search. Christensen shares his feelings of culture shock in east-central Texas as he meets the cowboy version of the blue-collar Texan and his Mexican American neighbours. He introduces readers to the convoluted history of poetry in Texas, a tradition, started by women, that shifted from a focus on the land to the quotidian habits of urban living. Using a unique dissection of the public ritual of a poetry reading, Christensen assesses the origins of modern poetry, the value of imagination in modernist and postmodernist verse, and what Texas poets achieved and how their work evolved after World War II."--Jacket.