Happy National Reading Month 2019 (just a little late)!

March is National Reading Month!

Shara (Mrs. LeValley) and I love to read!  There are books everywhere in our home. Our goal every year is to each read a minimum of fifty-two books - one for each week of the year.  Not only do we read lots of books, but we each record them in a journal.  I don't write anything about the book; just title, author, number of pages, and where the book came from (my personal library, public library, borrowed book).  I have a record of every book I have read since January 2005, with one major exception - we moved to our current home in 2011 and I didn't record anything from we packed up and moved in March of that year until January 2012.  I'm bummed that I don't have any records from that time...  Even with that missing nine months, I have records of over eight hundred books, including thirteen so far in 2019.

What do I read?  A little of everything - biography, history, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, and more.  I especially read books about science, nature, and the outdoors (including hiking, fishing, and hunting stories).

Here is my nearly complete list of the science, nature, and outdoor books that I have read since 2005 (minus the missing months of 2011 - plus I think I may have forgotten to write down a few others).  These books have been grouped into rough categories in no particular order.  Many books could easily fit in more than one category.  Books that have been boldfaced are either ones that I particularly liked or thought were important.

Alaska/Canada

• One Man's Wilderness by Sam Kieth and Richard Proenneke
• Alaska's Wolf Man:  The 1915-55 Wilderness Adventures of Frank Glaser by Jim Rearden
• Shopping for Porcupine:  A Life In Arctic Alaska by Seth Kantner
• Standing Ground:  Alaska Stories, Police Tales, and Things I'd Rather Not Talk About by Alan L. White
• Fifty Miles from Tomorrow:  A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiaruk Hensley
• Tide, Feather, Snow:  A Life in Alaska by Miranda Weiss
• First Wilderness:  My Quest in the Territory of Alaska by Sam Keith 
• Yukon Alone:  The World's Toughest Adventure Race by John Balzar
• Winterdance:  The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen
• Red Summer:  The Danger, Madness, and Exaltation of Salmon Fishing in a Remote Alaskan Village by Bill Carter
• Braving It:  A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell
• Death on the Barrens:  A True Story of Courage and Tragedy in the Canadian Arctic by George James Grinnell
• The Alaskan Retreater's Notebook:  One Man's Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness by Ray Ordonica
• Disappointment River:  Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage by Brian Castner

Arctic/Antarctica

• Being Caribou:  Five Months on Foot With an Arctic Herd by Karsten Heuer 
• South With the Sun:  Roald Amundsen, His Polar Exploration and the Quest for Discovery by Lynn Cox 
• The Last Light Breaking:  Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos by Nick Jans
• Roald Amundsen by Tor Bomann-Larsen
• White Eskimo:  Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic by Stephen R. Brown
• The Last Imaginary Place:  A Human History of the Arctic World by Robert McGhee

The North Country

• Open Horizons by Sigurd F. Olson 
• Woman of the Boundary Waters:  Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving by Justine Kerfoot
• The Grand Portage by Walter O'Meara
• The Long-shadowed Forest by Helen Hoover 
• We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich
• At Home in the Woods:  Living the Life of Thoreau Today by Bradford Angier and Vera Angier 
• The Meaning of Wilderness by Sigurd F. Olson
• Chips from a Wilderness Log by Calvin Rutstrum

Birds/Birdwatching

• To See Every Bird on Earth:  A Father, A Son and a Lifelong Obsession by Dan Koeppel 
• The Ardent Birder:  On the Craft of Birdwatching by Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan
• The Ghost With Trembling Wings:  Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul
• Out of the Woods:  A Bird Watcher's Year by Ora E. Anderson
• Of a Feather:  A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul
• All Things Reconsidered:  My Birding Adventures by Roger Tory Peterson
• Hope is the Thing With Feathers:  A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds by Christopher Cokinos
• Wesley the Owl:  The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien
• The Verb 'To Bird': Sightings of an Avid Birder by Peter Cashwell
• A Supremely Bad Idea:  Three Mad Birders and Their Quest To See It All by Luke Dempsey
• Birdology:  Adventures With a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur by Sy Montgomery
• Crow Planet:  Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Gifts of the Crow:  How Perception, Emotion and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff and Tony Angell 
• Feathers:  The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson
• Life Birds by George Levine
• H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald 
• Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich
• Falcon Fever:  A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century by Tim Gallagher
• The Final Frontiersman:  Heimo Korth and His Family Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness by James Campbell
• One Wild Bird at a Time:  Portraits of Individual Lives by Bernd Heinrich 
• The Most Perfect Thing:  Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg by Tim Birkhead
• Lost Among the Birds:  Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year by Neil Hayward

Nature/Ecology/Natural History

• Swampwalker's Journal:  A Wetlands Year by David M. Carroll
• Natural Coincidence:  The Trip from Kalamazoo by Bil Gilbert
• Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison edited by Hampton Sides
• Wintering by Diana Kappel-Smith
• Teaching a Stone to Talk:  Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard
• Return to Wild America:  A Yearlong Search For the Continent's Natural Soul by Scott Weidensaul
• Northwoods Wildlife:  A Watcher's Guide to Habitats by Janine M. Benyus
• Last Child in the Woods:  Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
• It's Raining Frogs and Fishes:  Four Seasons of Natural Phenomena and Oddities of the Sky by Jerry Dennis
• The Eternal Frontier:  An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
• Wilderness Ethics:  Preserving the Spirit of Wildness by Guy Waterman and Laura Waterman
• My Story as Told by Water:  Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watching, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, From Living Rivers, In the Age of the Industrial Dark by David James Duncan
• Squirrels at My Window:  Life with a Remarkable Gange of Urban Squirrels by Grace Marmor Spruch
• Life Counts:  Cataloguing Life on Earth by Michael Gleich, Dirk Maxeiner, et al
• A Trail Through Leaves:  The Journal as a Path to Place by Hannah Hinchman
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• The Animal Dialogues:  Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs
• Looking for Hickories:  The Forgotten Wildness of the Rural Midwest by Tom Springer
• Ecology of A Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray 
• Life in the Soil:  A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners by James B Nardi
• The Search for a Sense of Wildness by Michael P. Ausema
• Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology by D. Bruce Means
• Where the Wild Things Were:  Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg
• The Snake Charmer:  A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James
• The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane
• Watchers at the Pond by Franklin Russell
• Dry Storeroom No. 1:  The Secret life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
• A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich
• One Square Inch of Silence:  One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World by Gordon Hempton ans John Grossman
• Mean and Lowly Things:  Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo by Kate Jackson
• The Book of Yaak by Rick Bass
• Summer World:  A Season of Bounty by Bernd Heinrich
• Every Creeping Thing:  True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife by Richard Conniff
• The Founding Fish by John McPhee
• A Reenchanted World:  The Quest for a New Kinship With Nature by James William Gibson
• Wilderness Warrior:  Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
• Footnotes on Nature by John Kieran
• Why We Run:  A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich
• The Path:  A One-mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo
• The Wild Marsh:  Four Seasons at Home in Montana by Rick Bass
• Water:  A Natural History by Alice Outwater
• The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul
• The Mountains Next Door by Janice Emily Bowers
• Still Life:  Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgram
• The Snoring Bird:  My Family's Journey Through A Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich
• Why I Came West by Rick Bass
• Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat:  Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals by Hal Herzog
• The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
• Kingdom Under Glass:  A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals by Jay Kirk
• Wading For Bugs:  Exploring Streams With the Experts edited by Judith L. Li and Michael T. Barbour
• The Big Swamp:  A Wildlife Biologist's Lifetime of Adventures by Raymond D. Schofield
• Life Everlasting:  The Animal Way of Death by Bernd Heinrich
• Time and Tide in Acadia:  Seasons on Mount Desert Island by Christopher Camuto
• Rambunctious Garden:  Saving Nature in a Post-wild World by Emma Marris
• The Forest Unseen:  A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
• Dirt Work:  An Education in the Woods by Christine Byl
• Eating Dirt:  Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill
• The Endangered Species Road Trip:  A Summer's Worth of Dingy Motels, Poison Oak, Ravenous Insects, and the Rarest Species in North America by Cameron MacDonald
• Fire Season:  Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
• A Sand County Almanac:  With Essays on Conservation from Round River by Aldo Leopold
• Beyond Walden:  The Hidden History of America's Kettle Lakes and Ponds by Robert M. Thorson
• Keith County Journal by John Janovy Jr.
• Island Year by Hazel Heckman
• A Sting in the Tale:  My Adventures with Bumblebees by Dave Goulson
• A Buzz in the Meadow:  The Natural History of a French Farm by Dave Goulson
•  The Prophet of Dry Hill:  Lessons From a Life in Nature by David Gessner
•  Theodore Roosevelt in the Field by Michael R. Canfield
• The Urban Bestiary:  Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Once They Were Hats:  In Search of the Mighty Beaver by Frances Backhouse
• Under the Stars:  How America Fell in Love with Camping by Dan White
• The Carry Home:  Lessons From the American Wilderness by Gary Ferguson
• Bog tender:  Coming Home to Nature and Memory by George Szanto
• The Eternal Frontier:  An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
• The Home Place:  Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
• Hawk's Rest:  A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone by Gary Ferguson
• Gathering Moss:  A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• The Pine Barrens by John McPhee
• Becoming Teddy Roosevelt:  How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th President by Andrew Vietze
• The Lost Species:  Great Expeditions in the Collection of Natural History Museums by Christopher Kemp
• The Snow Tourist:  A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall by Charles English
• Citizen Scientist:  Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction by Mary Ellen Hannibal
• Hiking Naked:  A Quaker Woman's Search for Balance by Iris Graville
• Saving Tarboo Creek:  One Family's Quest to Heal the Land by Scott Freeman
• The Nature Fix:  Why Nature Makes Us Happier Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams
• The Power of a Plant:  A Teacher's Odyssey to grow Healthy Minds and Schools by Stephen Ritz
• The Naturalist at Large by Bernd Heinrich
• The Art of Naming by Michael Ohl
• Buzz:  The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson
• The Feather Thief:  Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
• Apocalyptic Planet:  Field Guide to the Everending Earth by Craig Childs
• The Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass
• Nature Wars:  The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards Into Battlegrounds by Jim Sterba

Trees/Plants/Gardens

• Beautiful Madness:  One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens by James Dodson
• The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich
• The Wild Trees:  A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston 
• People With Dirty Hands:  The Passion for Gardening by Robert Chotzinoff
• American Chestnut:  The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel
• The Man Who Planted Trees:  A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet by Jim Robbins 
• Wood:  Craft, Culture, History by Harvey Green 
• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
• Unearthed:  Love, Acceptance, and Other Lessons from an Abandoned Garden by Alexandra Risen
• Nature's Temples:  The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests by Joan Maloof
• The Hidden Life of Trees:  What They Feel, How They Communicate:  Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
• Urban Forests:  A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape by Jill Jonnes
• The Wood for the Trees:  One Man's Long View of Nature by Richard Fortey
• Witness Tree:  Seasons of Change with a Century-old Oak by Lynda V. Mapes
• The Ghost Orchard:  The Hidden History of the Apple in North America by Helen Humphreys
• The Man Who Climbs Trees by James Aldred
• The Long, Long Lif of Trees by Fiona Stafford

Geology/Geography

• On the Map:  A Mind-expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield
• Rising From the Plains by John McPhee
• Coming Into the Country by John McPhee
• Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
• The Ground Beneath Us:  From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt tells Us About Who We Are by Paul Bogard
• Stories in Stone:  Travels Through Urban Geology by David B Williams
• The Map That Changed The World:  William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

Farming/Rural Life

•  A Country Year:  Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell
• The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
• See You in a Hundred Years:  Four Seasons in Forgotten America by Logan Ward 
• Clearing Land:  Legacies of the American Farm by Jane Brox
• Heirloom:  Notes From and Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark
• Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass by Gary Paulsen
• It's a Long Road to a Tomato:  Tales of an organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart
• Ripe:  The Search for the Perfect Tomato by Arthur Allen
• Claiming Ground:  A Memoir by Laura Bell
• Wisdom of the Last Farmer:  Harvesting Legacies From the Land by David Mas Masumoto 
• Mostly in Clover:  Growing Up in Rural Ontario. A Boy Now a Man Recounts His Memories by Harry J. Boyle
• Little Heathens:  Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish 
• Folks, This Ain't Normal:  A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
• Cabin:  Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine by Leo Ureneck 
• Triple Ridge Farm by Ruth Fouts Pochmann
• Battlefield:  Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson
• The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks
• More Scenes From the Rural Life by Verlyn Klinkenborg
• Farm:  A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Richard Rhodes
• Cabin Lessons:  A Nail-by-Nail Tale:  Building Our Dream Cottage from 2x4s, Blisters, and Love by Spike Carlsen 
• Growing A Revolution:  Bringing Our Soil Back to Life by David R. Montgomery
• Craeft:  An Inguiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands
• The Dirty Life:  A Memoir of Farming, Foods, and Love by Kristin Kimball

Logging

• Hard Maple, Hard Work by John Gagnon 
• McTaggart's Red Keg:  Logging From A-Z on the Tittabawassee in Michigan by Irene M. Hargreaves and Harold M. Foehl
• "Daylight in the Swamp":  Lumberjacking in the Late 19th Century by Robert W. Wells
• Timber!  The Bygone Life of the Northwoods Lumberjacks by John C. Frohlicher

Food

• In Defense of Food:  An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
• The Earth Knows My Name:  Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst
• Empires of Food:  Feast Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Evand D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas
• The Omnivore's Dilemma:  A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:  A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Third Plate:  Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber
• The Mushroom Hunters:  On the Trail of an Underground America by Langdon Cook
• A Really Big Lunch:  The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison
• 100 Million Years of Food:  What Our Ancestors Ate and Why it Matters Today by Stephen Le
• American Terroir:  Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen
• The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella
• The Traveling Feast:  On the Road and at the Table With My Heros by Rick Bass

Mountaineering/Adventure

• Tracks:  A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson
• Foot by Foot Through the USA by Winfield H. Line and Francis R. Line 
• Seaworthy:  Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting by T.R. Pearson
• A Sense of the World:  How A Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts
• Touching My Father's Soul:  A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest by Jamling Tenzing Norgay w/ Broughton Coburn
• Halfway to Heaven:  My White-knuckled - And Knuckleheaded - Quest for the Rocky Mountain High by Mark Obmascik
• A Splendid Savage:  The Restless Life of Fredrick Russell Burnham by Steve Kemper
• Breaking Trail:  A Climbing Life by Arlene Blum

Paddling/Canoeing/Rafting

• Canyon Solitude:  A Woman's Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon by Patricia C. McCairen 
• From a Wooden Canoe:  Reflections on Canoeing, Camping, and Classic Equipment by Jerry Dennis
• An Adirondack Passage:  The Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp by Christine Jerome
• Canoeing With the Cree by Eric Severeid 
• One Incredible Journey by Clayton Klein and Verlen Kruger
• The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee
• Cold Summer Wind by Clayton Klein
• Portage Into the Past:  By Canoe Along the Minnesota-Ontario Boundary Waters by J. Arnold Bolz 
• The Last Voyageurs:  Retracing LaSalle's Journey Across America:  Sixteen Teenagers on the Adventure of a Lifetime by Lorraine Boissoneault
• Waterwalk:  A Passage of Ghosts by Steven Faulkner
• Hidden Nature:  A Voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler

Hiking/Walking

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 
• A Season on the Appalachian Trail by Lynn Setzer 
• Walking My Dog, Jane:  From Valdez to Prudhoe Bay Along the Trans Alaska Pipeline by Ned Rozell
• The Marches:  A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland by Rory Stewart
• AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller
• Alone Together:  My Adventure on the Appalachian Trail by Wally Miars

Paleontology/Archaeology

• Before the Dawn:  Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade
• Atlas of a Lost World:  Travels in Ice Age America by Craig Childs
• Finders Keepers:  A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession by Craig Childs
• My European Family:  The First 54,000 Years by Karin Bojs
• The Lost World of the Old Ones:  Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest by David Roberts

Michigan/Great Lakes

• Walking to Mackinac by David E. Bonior
• The Superior Peninsula:  Seasons in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Lon L. Emerick
• The Living Great Lakes:  Searching For the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis
• The Fourth Coast:  Exploring the Great lakes Coastline From the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota by Mary Blocksma
• Graced by the Seasons:  Fall and Winter in the Northwoods by John Bates
• Great Lakes Nature:  An Outdoor Year by Mary Blocksma 
• River of Iron by David Lee
• The Wolves of Isle Royale:  A Broken Balance by Rolf O. Peterson
• Lake Country:  A Series of Journeys by Kathleen Stocking
• An Uncrowded Place:  The Delights and Dilemmas of Life Up North and a Young Man's Search for Home by Bob Butz
• Great Lakes Country by Russell McKee
• The Turn in the Trail:  Northwoods Tales of the Upper Great Lakes by Walt Sandburg

Native American

• Rez Life by David Treuer
• Holding Our World Together:  Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community by Brenda J. Child
• Braiding Sweetgrass:  Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
•  Masters of Empire:  Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America by Michael A. McDonnell
• Wilderness Empire by Allan W. Eckert

Hunting/Fishing/Trapping

• Ghosts of Tsavo:  Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa by Philip Caputo
• Fly-fishing the 41st:  Around the World on the 41st Parallel by James Prosek
• Trout Madness by John D. Voelker (Robert Traver)
• On The Run:  An Angler's Journey Down The Striper Coast by David DiBenedetto
• Trout Eyes:  True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fly Fishing by William G. Tapply
• Kerplunk! by Patrick F. McManus
• The River Home:  An Angler's Explorations by Jerry Dennis
• The Fish's Eye:  Essays About Angling and the Outdoors by Ian Frazier
• A Place on the Water:  An Angler's Reflections on Home by Jerry Dennis
• Hunting From Home:  A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains by Christopher Camuto
• American Buffalo  In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
• West With the Rise:  Fly-fishing Across America by James Barilla
• The Sporting Road:  Travels Across America in An Airstream Trailer - With Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer by Jim Fergus
• Colter:  The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass
• Fur, Fortune, and Empire:  The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America by Eric Jay Dolan
• Fool's Paradise by John Gierach
  
• The Everlasting Stream:  A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family by Walt Harrington
• At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman by John Gierach
• Still Life With Brook Trout by John Gierach
• Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders:  A John Gierach Treasury by John Gierach
• The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
• Remembrances of Rivers Past by Ernest Schwiebert
• The Fragrance of Grass by Guy de la Valdene
• Meat Eater:  Adventures From the Life of an American Hunter by Steven Rinella
• Afield:  American Writers on Bird Dogs edited by Robert DeMott and Dave Smith
• Upland Autumn:  Birds, Dogs, and Shotgun Shells by William G. Tapply
• Fishing the River of Time by Tony Taylor 
• Use Enough Gun:  Ruark on Hunting Big Game by Robert Ruark
• Every Day Was Special:  A Fly Fisher's Lifelong Passion by William G. Tapply
• Charley Waterman's Tales of Fly-fishing, Wing-shooting, and the Great Outdoors by Charley Waterman
• On the Water:  A Fishing Memoir by Guy de la Valdene
• Red Stag:  A Novel by Guy de la Valdene
• Brown Feathers:  Waterfowling Tales an Upland Dreams by Steven J. Mulak
• The Longest Silence:  A Life in Fishing by Thomas McGuane 
• Outdoor Chronicles:  True Tales of a Lifetime of Hunting and Fishing by Jerry Hamza
• A Fly Fisherman's Blue Ridge by Christopher Camuto
• Midwest Meanders by Tom Huggler
• This Reckless Breed of Men:  The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest by Robert Glass Cleland
• The Ghosts of Autumn:  A Season of Hunting Stories by Joel Spring
• A Fly Rod of Your Own by John Gierach
• Jill and I and the Salmon by Jack Russell
• Moose in the Water Bamboo on the Bench:  A Journal and a Journey by Kathy Scott
• What the River Knows:  An Angler in Midstream by Wayne Fields
• Salmon On A Fly:  The Essential Wisdom and Lore from a Lifetime of Salmon Fishing by Lee Wulff
• A Rough-shooting Dog:  Reflections From Thick and Uncivil Sorts of Places by Charles Fergus
• A Hunter's Fireside Book:  Tales of Dogs, Ducks, Birds & Guns by Gene Hill
• My Secret Fishing Life by Nick Lyons
• Covered Waters:  Tempests of a Nomadic Trouter by Joseph Heywood

Twelve holiday gift ideas for the outdoor kid in your life

It's that time of year when people think a lot about giving or receiving gifts.  Every magazine and website seems to put out an annual list of the top ten gifts (toys/tech/games/etc.).  I have my own list, but it's a little different.  The most fun I see kids have all year is when I turn them loose to explore a woods or a pond.  My list is focused on items to help kids explore.  Without further ado, here is my top twelve list of gifts for kids for this year (or any year).

I originally came up with this list in 2013, but have added two items and updated prices and links for 2018.  This list also works great for adults, but you might want to upgrade the first four items to adult sizes!


Getting Outdoors

Despite all the talk of  the disconnect between children and nature, most kids still love to explore the outdoors.  They just need to have the tools to make it more enjoyable. 

1.  Rubber boots - Having cold wet feet is no fun.  Nothing can ruin a day in the outdoors faster.  Rubber boots also let you explore puddles and the edges of ponds.  Knee high boots are best as they let your kid explore deeper puddles.  These boots do not have to be expensive.   My advice is to skip the ones with cartoons characters and get the plain black or green ones.  Look for a pair at around $15 at Walmart or your local farm and home center. 

2.  Wool socks - Pair the rubber boots with the right socks and they are suitable for year round wear in all but the coldest weather.  Socks are one item where its best to splurge - buy the best wool socks you can find.  I like socks from Darn Tough, SmartWool, and Farm to Feet, but several other brands are just as good.  Expect to pay $10 to $15 - trust me they are worth the extra cost!

3.  Waterproof Jacket/Rain Suit -  I love being out in the rain.  Everything seems so much different when it rains.  Rain softens the ground and quiets sounds,. Animals often hold tight in the rain. Worms come up out of the ground.  Tiny streams form and cascade.  In my mind there is nothing better than exploring a woods on a rainy day, but I hate having wet clothes.  A pair of rubber boots and a good rain suit opens up new worlds for exploration.  Try this set for around $30. 


Tools for Exploring

So the kids are outside, what are they going to do now?  Getting outdoors is more fun when you have the tools to explore!

4.  Headlamp - Don't limit your kids' explorations to daytime hours.  Nighttime is exciting because it holds mysteries.  Most kids love exploring the dark because its just a little scary- you want them to be safe.  A good headlamp helps.  Try this one designed for kids.  It's about $15, but can often be found cheaper.

5.  Aquatic Dip Net - One of my favorite things to do is to look for aquatic invertebrates.  What kid doesn't want to see what is swimming around in the water?  The tool needed for that is a good net.  This is not a place to skimp on price - that cheap butterfly net from the local big box store will not last long.  I like these adjustable nets from Acorn Naturalists. At $27.95 this is one of the most expensive things on my list.

6.  Insect Net - Sometimes I would rather look toward the sky than the mud.  I have yet to meet a kid that was not interested in catching butterflies, dragonflies, or other flying insects.  You need a large net with a long handle.  Again I like a net from Acorn Naturalists - another big purchase item at $24.95.  A nice thing about these nets is that parts can be replaced if they are ever damaged.

Once the kids have caught something they will need a place to put it so it can be observed.  There is no need to get fancy here.  A cleaned out clear plastic or glass jar (peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, etc.) will work just fine for any invertebrate (or even frogs, snakes, and salamanders for a short time).  A five gallon bucket is great for dumping your dip net into.  Ice cube trays and wash basins are prefect for observing aquatic creatures.  Sometimes, a closer view is desired.

7.  Magnifying Glass - Any magnifying glass will do.  They can be found at any drug store, big box store, or even many dollar stores. 


Identifying and Recording 

The kids are outside and exploring.  They have TONS of questions! They want to show you everything! 

8.  Guide Books - There are dozens of great guide books on every nature subject.  Peterson First Guides are great options for kids.  The Peterson Guides are such a bargain at under $8.00 each that you can afford to buy more than one.

9.  Note Book/Sketch Book - Having a place to write or draw pictures of what is found is a favorite of many kids (and adults).  A simple wirebound notebook will do, or good blank books can usually be found in the bargain sections of bookstores for a few dollars.  Even a stack of printer paper and a clipboard will work for this.

10.  Colored Pencils - Splurge on the Crayolas.  They are really that much better than the other cheap brands and at under $6.00 for a 50-pack, they might be the best deal on this list.

11.  Pencil Sharpener - A good colored pencil deserves to be sharpened with a good portable sharpener.  I purchased several of this style from Staedtler for students to use.  They are worth the $6.29 price tag. 

10. A cheap Digital Camera - This is the only thing on my list that requires batteries.  It will also require some sort of memory card to store pictures.  Good used cameras can often be found on craigslist.  (Right now Target has this model on sale for under $20!)  A digital camera is a great tool for the budding naturalist it is a great complement to (not a replacement for) the sketch book.  One advantage of the digital camera is that it reproduces a true to life image of those things that cannot be identified in the field so they can be looked up later. There is the additional cost of a memory card, but those can be found for under $10 and often go on sale.

There is my list of twelve things that every kid should have on their Christmas list.  Even if you bought everything on that list, total cost should still come in at under $200 (before any shipping costs).  Leave off any two of the four most expensive items (camera & memory card, nets, and rain suit) and cost comes in under $100.  Twenty-five dollars (or less) will buy a field guide, sketch book, colored pencils, and pencil sharpener - this will make a great start toward a lifetime of studying nature. 

Why nature?

Why nature?



Let me explain that better.  Why should people care about nature?

With technology it is possible to instantly connect with people around the globe, but people alive today are more disconnected from nature than at any previous point in human history.  This disconnection is unfortunate, because exposure to nature has been proven to be good for people.


Scientists are just beginning to measure the positive effects of nature on our well-being, but available
research indicates that it has the following effects:

It reduces stress,

 
reduces heart rate,

increases concentration,

 
improves learning,

 
and improves the retention of knowledge.

I currently sit on the board of directors for two organizations that know all about the value and power of nature.

The Chippewa Watershed Conservancy (CWC) protects natural habitat and open space in the counties of the Chippewa River watershed.  The CWC currently protect over 600 acres of land on twenty-two preserves in Mid-Michigan.  These preserves protect woodlands, wetlands, and river frontage throughout the Chippewa River watershed.  With the exception of a couple of preserves that have limited access, these preserves are currently open to the public. 

The Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) has the goal of promoting environmental literacy through education.   To achieve this goal, MAEOE hosts an annual environmental education conference, certifies teachers in environmental education, gives environmental education grants to its members, and offers online education resources.