New Books - Photography by Robert Buelteman

Art photographer Robert Buelteman recently donated copies of two book portfolios of his work: The Unseen Peninsula (1994), collecting images of the San Francisco Bay Watershed in the Sierra Morena Mountains, a region long closed to the public and very near a pristine state; and Eighteen Days in June (2000), completed while a resident in the Djerassi Resident Artists Program at Woodside, California in June of 1996. An exhibition of his work, "Preserving Open Space: Photography and Philanthropy Working Together" will be in the Thoreau Center's Seed Gallery from April 9 to June 6. For over 20 years, Bueltman has worked out his activism toward land preservation by sharing his commissioned photography to help raise awareness about the importance of sustaining our local natural habitats. The exhibition will feature black and white photographs, whose genesis began under commissions to various land preservation organizations, including Gold Gate National Parks Conservancy, the Peninsula Open Space Trust, Mid-Peninsula Open Space District, Sempervirens Fund, Committee for Green Foothills, and the International Rivers Network. Please join us for the opening reception this Thursday, April 9, from 5pm-7pm.

Subject Guide: Gardening

"What shall I learn of beans or beans of me? I cherish them. I hoe them, early and late I have an eye to them; and this is my day's work. It is a fine broad leaf to look on. My auxiliaries are the dews and rains which water this dry soil, and what fertility is in the soil itself, which for the most part is lean and effete. My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks. The last have nibbled for me a quarter of an acre clean. But what right had I to oust johnswort and the rest, and break up their ancient herb garden? Soon, however, the remaining beans will be too tough for them, and go forward to meet new foes."

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Here are a variety of books this month to provide you with information and inspiration for your Spring gardening pursuits.

Harry Wiland, Dale Bell, and Joseph D'Agnese. Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring Our Great Cities. (2006)

Learn how to use your garden and your horticultural skills to make your city more livable. This book profiles the individuals and groups in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles who are working to encourage the development of green spaces there. From roof gardens to urban farms, citizen activism and leadership are restoring communities through the creation of sustainable urban ecosystems.

Christopher Brickell, ed. & John Eisley, horticultural consultant. The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. (1989)

Are you looking for a large shrub that has pink flowers in summer? Do you need a tree that won't grow too large for a particular corner of your garden? This book can help. Created by a team of forty horticultural experts, photographers, and consultants, it is a clear and comprehensive guide to over 8,000 plants that can be cultivated in a diverse range of climates. Articles also include advice on cultivation, propagation, pruning, landscaping, and cautions about pests and diseases.

Kathleen Norris Benzel, ed. Sunset Western Gardening Book. (2001)

A no-nonsense garden guide to gardening in the Western U.S., it includes climate zone maps, over 8,000 plant listings, 30 plant selection guides, and hundreds of how-to tips and techniques.

Roger B. Yepsen, Jr., ed. Organic Plant Protection: A Comprehensive Reference on Controlling Insects and Diseases in the Garden, Orchard and Yard without Using Chemicals. (1976)

From the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming magazine, this is a guide to tending your patch of earth without "protective jackets of poison." The first part of the book explains step-by-step approaches to strategies for creating and maintaining the delicate balance of nature in your garden, while the second part is a quick reference to more than a thousand bugs and diseases that could be effecting your vegetables, fruits, berries, and trees.

Ellen Sandbeck. Slug Bread and Beheaded Thistles: Amusing and Useful Techniques for Nontoxic Housekeeping and Gardening. (2000)

Ellen Sandbeck shows that using all-natural alternatives to toxic chemicals in your home and garden is not only healthier but also more fun. Learn how to explode cockroaches with baking soda and sugar, how to deflate a cow, why caffeine is effective against mosquito larvae, and what happens when you wound sorghum.

Peter Bernhardt. The Rose's Kiss: A Natural History of Flowers. (1999)

Get to know the inner workings of your flowering plants, as well as the many hidden interactions they have with their surroundings and the other living organisms upon which they depend for survival. An accessible introduction to botanical science and the daily lives of these biological factories, this book also looks at the cultural roles of flowers in history, folklore, and mythology.

Karan Davis Cutler, ed. Starting from Seed: The Natural Gardener's Guide to Propagating Plants. (1998)

Growing seeds is one way to help the survival of threatened plants and protect biodiversity. From the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's 21st-Century Gardening Series, this is an illustrated guide to collecting, storing, and growing seeds. Filled with advice on hundreds of different vegetables, ornamental plants, and wildflowers, it will help you create a garden that is both beautiful and ecologically sensible.

Douglas Kent. A New Era of Gardening: A Book on Gardening for Oxygen and a Healthier Atmospher. (2001)

A controversial look at composting that asks: is your garden contributing to global warming? It might be if you are using too much energy to sustain it and composting too much greenwaste. The goal of the author is to help gardeners create sustainable landscapes that ultimately produce more oxygen than they do carbon dioxide, largely by burying biomass.

Susan J. Tweit. The Rocky Mountain Garden Survival Guide. (2004)

From ecologist Susan J. Tweit, this book tackles the challenges of gardening in the difficult conditions of the Rocky Mountains. Filled with tips that could be useful in a variety of places, its essays also illustrates an approach to gardening informed by ecology. The philosophy behind the book is that understanding the physical environment in which your garden is located and the relationships among the organisms there enables you to work with the landscape and its living population instead of trying to fight against it.

Thomas Leo Ogren. Safe Sex in the Garden and other Propositions for an Allergy-Free World. (2003)

Author Thomas Leo Ogren finds "prime examples of out of whack, sexually manipulated, highly allergenic landscapes everywhere I turn." What is the connection between plant sex and allergies? Since female trees produce fruit which is often considered "messy", landscapers plant predominantly male trees, which means lots of excess pollen, which means highly allergenic residential and commercial landscapes. Ogren argues that what you plant in your own yard can make a difference in making communities healthier places.

Deni Brown. The Herb Society of America's Encyclopedia of Herbs and their Uses. (1995)

Written for gardeners, herbalists, and cooks, this encyclopedia covers over 1000 herbs grown worldwide for their culinary, aromatic, medicinal, and economic uses, as well as for their decorative qualities in the garden. It includes identification photographs and detailed botanical descriptions, as well as complete garden designs and planting plans for your own herb gardens, both formal and informal.

Great Blue Heron

Apparently it is a great blue heron.

Bird on way to library

Picture of a bird on its way to the library. Don't know what kind of bird, though.

Book Discussion - Cradle to Cradle

Wednesday, April 15th
In the library
12:30p to 1:30p

Come join your friends and co-workers and share your thoughts about Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart. Guided by the principle that “waste equals food,” the authors offer a radical new vision for the way we design the things we make that challenges the one-way, “cradle to grave” manufacturing model and the enormous amounts of waste and pollution it leaves in its wake. They demonstrate how products can be designed to follow the example of natural systems so that they provide nourishment for something new at the end of their useful lives. Part social history, part green business primer, part design manual, this book grapples with some of the most fundamental issues in the creation of a more sustainable world.

Please let us know at library@thoreau.org if you are interested in attending and/or if you need help finding a copy.

From the publisher's description:

William McDonough's book, written with his colleague, the German chemist Michael Braungart, is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. Through historical sketches on the roots of the industrial revolution; commentary on science, nature and society; descriptions of key design principles; and compelling examples of innovative products and business strategies already reshaping the marketplace, McDonough and Braungart make the case that an industrial system that "takes, makes and wastes" can become a creator of goods and services that generate ecological, social and economic value.

In Cradle to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart argue that the conflict between industry and the environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth of purely opportunistic design. The design of products and manufacturing systems growing out of the Industrial Revolution reflected the spirit of the day-and yielded a host of unintended yet tragic consequences.

Today, with our growing knowledge of the living earth, design can reflect a new spirit. In fact, the authors write, when designers employ the intelligence of natural systems—the effectiveness of nutrient cycling, the abundance of the sun's energy—they can create products, industrial systems, buildings, even regional plans that allow nature and commerce to fruitfully co-exist.

Subject Guide: Oceans

In conjunction with the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival running this week from February 19^th to the 22^nd, this month's subject guide looks at some of the variety of books in our library on the history, study, exploration, exploitation, and conservation of the world's oceans. While the seas might seem so vast as to be impervious to human activity, in actuality centuries of exploitation and misuse have seriously degraded their condition through the wholesale removal of marine life and the obliteration of ecosystems. Public awareness about the state of our oceans and the possibilities of their restoration is growing thanks to groups like the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival and other organizations and individuals discussed below. The film festival is a unique opportunity to learn about the environmental, social, and cultural importance of marine resources, as well as to be entertained and inspired by the wonder of the seas. It includes over 35 documentary, fictional, and animated films from around the world, and each program is followed by in-depth discussions with filmmakers and content experts. Be sure to check out the festival schedule at www.oceanfilmfest.org, and find even more books about the oceans in our library catalog at library.thoreau.org. See you there. I'm probably going Sunday.

Callum Roberts. The Unnatural History of the Sea (2007)

From its beginnings in the eleventh century to the giant fishing industries of today, marine conservation biologist Callum Roberts looks at the history of intensive and uncontrolled commercial exploitation of ocean resources and its destructive effects. What emerges is a portrait of dangerously degraded marine ecosystems that stand in sharp contrast to the richer and more productive oceans of the past filled with their abundance of varied life. It is not “a requiem of the sea," however, as Roberts writes optimistically about the possibility of restoring the seas' splendor through international networks of protected reserves, fishing reforms, and simple human constraint.

Dallas Murphy. To Follow the Water: Exploring the Ocean to Discover Climate, From the Gulf Stream to the Blue Beyond (2007)

The many ocean currents transporting heat around the world play a significant role in stabilizing and moderating climate. Emphasizing how the ocean's internal mechanisms and their complex interactions with the atmosphere are vital for any understanding of climate change, Dallas Murphy writes about the history of ocean exploration and the scientific efforts to understand these currents. The book is also a portrait of the lives of the scientists involved in trying to understand ocean dynamics today as Murphy travels with them and observes their work in waters around the globe.

H. Bruce Franklin. The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America (2007)

Few people have heard of the menhaden - an oily, foul smelling, tiny-boned, nearly inedible little fish. But they have always been an integral part of America's agricultural and industrial history, and the tonnage of them caught along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts exceeds that of all other species combined. They also play an integral ecological role as a major component of the diet of many other marine animals and as a natural filter keeping inshore waters clear of algal blooms. Presenting a detailed case study of marine exploitation, this book examines the factors that have led today to the needless overfishing of the menhaden and the brink of ecological catastrophe.

David Helvarg. 50 Ways to Save the Ocean (2006)

Written by David Helvarg, environmental journalist and president of the Blue Frontier Campaign (www.bluefront.org), and illustrated by Jim Toomey, the cartoonist of Sherman's Lagoon, 50 Ways is a practical guide to simple everyday actions and choices you can make to enjoy and to help restore and protect our imperilled oceans. Making the connections between everyday habits and the health of the seas, it includes guidance on such issues as: the fish you should and shouldn't eat; using less plastic; joining in a coastal cleanup; conserving water; how and where to vacation; storm drains and driveway run-off; protecting local water tables; proper diving, surfing, and tidepool etiquette; and supporting local marine education.

David Helvarg. The Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide: The Blue Movement Directory(2005)

A guide to the over 2,000 local, regional, national, and international groups that make up the growing “Blue Movement,” defined as those “organizations and institutions that are working to understand, protect, and restore our ocean and coastal areas.” It provides a convenient way to find out what organizations are active on what issues in a particular part of the country, while also listing governmental agencies involved in coastal and marine oversight, major marine schools and science centers, and national ocean sanctuaries and marine parks.

John Pernetta. Firefly Guide to the Oceans (2004)

Written by the Project Director for the Global Environment Facility of the United Nations Environment Programme, this is a concise and richly illustrated guide to all aspects of the world's oceans and seas. Learn about their formation, geology, history, exploration, life, resources, and more. It includes an atlas of maps of the ocean basins, ocean currents, and other physical features, as well as an encyclopedia of marine fauna and flaura.

John G. Field, Gotthilf Hempel, & Colin P. Summerhayes. Oceans 2020: Science, Trends, and the Challenge of Sustainability (2002)

Sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment, this book presents a comprehensive assessement of the most important scientific and societal issues that are likely to arise in ocean management in the next two decades. Outlining a path to rational ocean governance, scientists and researchers analyze the state of marine science and technology, identify issues for sustainable development, and evaluate the capability of scientists, governments, and private-sector stakeholders to respond to these issues. A useful source of information for policymakers, government officials, resource managers, scientists, the media, and all those concerned with the current and future health of the oceans.

New Book - Mission, Inc.

Social Venture Network recently donated a copy of Mission, Inc.: the Practitioner's Guide to Social Enterprise, the latest title in The Social Venture Network Book Series. Thank you SVN. From the publisher's description:

In this groundbreaking guide, social entrepreneurs Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls draw on their own extensive experiences and those of twenty other social enterprise leaders to focus on the fundamental blocking and tackling tactics that make the difference between success and failure. Exploring the many paradoxes that can hamstring social enterprises, the authors explain how starting and running a social enterprise requires leaders to adopt an entirely different mindset and often a wholly different perspective on the day-to-day choices they’re forced to make. Likewise, Walls and Lynch help readers grapple with a different set of expectations from employees, investors, customers, and the community. For social enterprise practitioners, these expectations present an added layer of difficulty – but they can also offer unique advantages, which the authors explain how to leverage. Whether readers are looking for guidance on finding and hiring talent, marketing, finances, or scaling, this practical, accessible guide offers clear and compelling answers that light the way.