Suggested Reading
The Ithaca College Natural Lands Committee has compiled a list of reference books and guides to aid in understanding all the systems that help make up the natural lands of Ithaca College.
* All books containing an asterisk are available at the Ithaca College Library
Natural Hazards (a call to awareness & common sense):
Start Here:
*Peterson Field Guides: Venomous Animals & Poisonous Plants; S. Foster & R. Caras
Other excellent resources:
*Ticks and What You Can Do About Them; Roger Drummond
Inspiration & Introduction
Start Here:
*Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature; Ellen Haas, Evan McGown, Jon Young
Other excellent resources:
*Keeping A Nature Journal: Discover a whole new way of seeing the world around you; C.W. Leslie & C.E. Roth
Primitive Living, Self-Sufficiency, and Survival Skills: A field guide to primitive living skills; T.J. Elpel
Mammals (hard to see and totally trackable):
Start Here:
*National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals; J.O. Whitaker, Jr.
*Animal Tracking Basics; Tiffany Morgan, Jon Young
Other excellent resources:
*Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America: Fourth Edition; Fiona Reid
*Mammals of the Eastern United States; John Hamilton, William Whittaker
*Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species; Mark Elbroch
*Tracking & The Art of Seeing: How to read animal tracks and sign; Paul Rezendes
Stories in Tracks & Sign: Reading the clues that animals leave behind; Diane K. Gibbons
Plants (nature’s grocery store and medicine chest):
Start Here:
*Newcombs Wildflower Guide; Lawrence Newcomb
The Foragers Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants; Samuel Thayer
Nature’s Garden:A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants; Samuel Thayer
Other excellent resources:
*Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places; “Wildman” Steve Brill
*Botany In A Day: Thomas J. Elpel's Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families; Thomas Elpel
Ecology Indicators & Processes (how does it all fit together?):
Start Here:
*Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England; Brian Cohen, Tom Wessels, Ann Zwinger
*Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Forests; J. Kricher & g. Morrison
Other excellent resources:
Invasive Plants of the Upper Midwest: An Illustrated Guide to Their Identification and Control; Elizabeth Czarapata
*Life in the Cold: An introduction to winter ecology 3rd ed.; Peter J. Marchand
*Invasive Plants: Guide to identification and the impacts and control of common North American Species; Sylvan R. Kaufman & Wallace Kaufman
*The Amphibians and Reptiles of New York State: Identification, Natural History, and Conservation; James Gibbs, Alvin Breisch, Peter Ducey, Glenn Johnson, John Behler, Richard Bothner
*Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America; Eric Eaton, Kenn Kaufman
*Spiders of the North Woods; L. Weber
Sacred Species (wisdom from our past):
Start Here:
*White Roots of Peace: Iroquois Book of Life; Paul Wallace, John Fadden
Dirt: The ecstatic skin of the earth; William Bryant Logan
Other excellent resources:
*Oak: The Frame of Civilization; William Bryant Logan
Trees (nature’s hardware store):
Start Here:
*Trees of New York State: Native and Naturalized; Donald Leopold
*Trees of the Northern United States and Canada; John Farrar
Other excellent resources:
*The Sibley Guide to Trees; D.A. Sibley
Birds (messengers of nature):
Start Here:
*A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America; Roger Peterson
*The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America; David Sibley
Other excellent resources:
Pete Dunne’s Essential Field Guide Companion: A comprehensive resource for identifying North American birds; Pete Dunne
Birds of North America: The complete photographic guide to every species; Francois Vuilleumier, ed.
