Peterson Field Guide (R) to Peterson Field Guide (R) to Eastern Forests

All of the Field Guides in this series are fabulous. I found this one useful for my undergrad ecology class... and cheap enough that it wasn't a big investment on top of the already expensive class/main textbook.

This has come to be one of my favorite of Peterson's Field Guides. While, as has been mentioned, it is not really a guide to identification per se, there are still many wonderful pictures of forest mammals, birds, trees, shrubs, flowers, reptiles, amphibians, and more that you may come across in your travels throughout eastern woods and fields. Beyond that, however, the book serves as an excellent guide to the functioning of forest ecology, which is a vastly more complex (and ultimately more satisfying) goal than simple identification. As a teacher of ecology, I often use this book with my students as superior to our actual ecology textbook, especially when dealing with the eastern American region in specific. So for those interested in patterns and functioning in a forest ecosystem, this book is outstanding. If you are more into identifications, then this is the one field guide to take that will give a comprehensive overview of forest life. Either way, it's an excellent resource for any naturalist.

Anyone who has some field guides should buy this one because it is an overview of the natural world of the Eastern U.S. So many questions are answered in a concise way. I read the book from cover to cover, a new experience as I don't normally read field guides as if they were books. The book is easy to read. An excellent gift for those interested in nature.

The purpose of this guide is not to assist one in identifying species of flora and fauna found in the Eastern Forest--such a tome would be monumental in size--but rather to instill in the reader an understanding of the forest's general dynamics. The book is divided into eight sections; they are:1) How to use this book2) Forest field marks3) Eastern forest communities4) Disturbance and pioneer plants5) Adaptation6) Paterns of spring7) Nature in summer8) Autumn and winterThis book is an excellent beginning point for those who want to develope a better understanding of forest ecology. I highly recommend it.

This is a great field guide that covers many aspects of forests East of the Great Plains. Although it covers many common species of both animal and plant, it is not overly helpful for positively identifying individual species; and if one wants that, you are better off with a more specific field guide (i.e., Eastern Birds). It does, however, detail the workings of a forest and accompanies this fascinating text with 53 color plates, 80 color photos and many black and white drawings. In the first few chapters, it demonstrates the different forest types through indicator species; and it details the process of Old Field succesion, and the animals and plants that come and go as the process progresses. In the last chapters adaptation, and seasonal patterns are covered. I would highly reccommend this field guide for any one who would like to know how a forest works.