Books

Vast, mysterious and for centuries inaccessible, the Everglades’ fame is worldwide. Much of this unique landscape is protected within Everglades National Park, as are places with such exotic names as Flamingo, Ten Thousand Islands, Florida Bay, Anhinga Trail, Shark Valley, and Pahayokee. Dedicated in 1947, the park receives nearly a million annual visitors to experience the Everglades and its alligators, crocodiles, Florida panthers, anhingas, roseate spoonbills, and egrets. It was egrets, or rather their courtship plumes decorating lady’s hats, that jump-started the movement to save their wetlands as a park. The Everglades was home to indigenous people for thousands of years and holds the stories of these archaic peoples, the indigenous Tequesta, Spanish and British colonialists, Mikasuki-speaking Indians and the soldiers who sought their expulsion, pioneer settlers, activists who created the park, south Florida’s residents, and generations of visitors to the tropical wilderness of Everglades National Park.    

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South Florida has been a magnet for naturalists since Juan Ponce de León opened it to European attention in 1513, although difficulty of access and the inhospitable swampy landscape hindered its exploration until the European age of discovery was past. Coming of the railroads in the late 1800s finally opened the southern part of the state to naturalists, and well as to drainers and developers. Seeking the American Tropics tells the tales of those who attempted to venture into South Florida to discover the character of its nature from the Spanish era through the mid-1920s, by which time its natural environment had been compromised beyond recognition. Naturalists and scientists, residents and visitors, conservationists and not, South Florida’s naturalist explorers are revealed in this ground-breaking book on South Florida’s history.

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In their isolation some 60 miles west of Key West, the islands of Dry Tortugas National Park appear to arise as if by magic, floating atop the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Discovered by Juan Ponce de León over 500 years ago, Tortugas is North America’s second-oldest persistent place name, following that of Florida itself. The adjacent Florida Strait provided an essential passageway for navies, ships of commerce, pirates, and privateers. The Florida reefs claimed hundreds of ships over the centuries. The nation’s largest masonry fort, Fort Jefferson, secured Union control of the Florida Strait during the Civil War and served infamously as the prison for Dr. Samuel Mudd and other convicted as Lincoln conspirators. Its waters, coral reefs, and aquatic life remain among the most biologically intact in North America. Seabird species breed there that nest nowhere else on the continent. The Tortugas has attracted generations of visitors – naturalists, scientists, boaters, fishermen, divers, birders, and day trippers. Remote, historic, and biologically pristine, the islands and waters, protected within Dry Tortugas National Park, continue to inspire visitors today.

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Biscayne National Park protects the larger portion of South Florida’s Biscayne Bay, a uniquely tropical lagoon harboring crocodiles and manatees, dolphins and Caribbean fish, and a place in South Florida’s history. Tropical trees cover its islands and the world’s fourth-longest coral reef sits offshore. Native Americans lived here thousands of years ago; the Spanish held it for 200 years; hardy homesteaders created an agricultural and fishing community during the 1800s; and, in the 1920s and 1930s, it became a playground for the rich and famous. Bracketed by Miami and Key Biscayne to the north and Key Largo to the south, its nearby population eventually grew to number in the millions. To protect these unique natural and historical resources and to assure its enjoyment by future generations, a half century ago the federal government created what is now Biscayne National Park. This book tells the stories of southern Biscayne Bay’s history as enhanced by archival photographs and shares its sense of place and its nature through contemporary photography. 

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Recognized as the best Florida garden book of 2015 by the Florida Authors and Publishers Association, Attracting Birds to South Florida Garden is a completely illustrated practical guide to South Florida gardens, yards and landscaping for the benefit birds and other native wildlife. It provides advice on nearly 400 plants to plant, over 200 birds to attract, and garden design and management, all specifically for the unique environment of South Florida. This is the first such gardening book aimed to accommodate South Florida’s unique environmental conditions and its mix of tropical and temperate plants and birds.

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Birds of Fairchild celebrates the birds and bird-friendly plants of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the world-renowned public garden in Coral Gables, Florida. This exciting book takes the reader on a journey through the garden, its birds, its plants, their interactions, and their conservation through the words of James A. Kushlan and striking nature photography of Kirsten Hines. Birds of Fairchild is a must-have book for all who appreciate Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; for birders, gardeners, landscapers, visitors, and conservationists; and for all those who appreciate South Florida and its birds.

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The Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden Bird Trail Guide, written to accompany the Birds of Fairchild coffee table book, provides details of a walking tour of the bird trail at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. It guides readers between specific observation points, many marked by memorial benches honoring South Florida’s famous historic ornithologists, and discusses what birds and bird-friendly plants may be seen along the way. It also contains a checklist of the birds of Fairchild.

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Recipient of the Best Nonfiction Book Award from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association Key Biscayne tells the story of an island paradise connected to Miami by a three-and-a-half-mile-long causeway. Its recorded history is one of the longest in North America, starting five centuries ago with Juan Ponce de León’s arrival, the second official landing of Europeans in North America. For centuries, Key Biscayne was an important landmark for Gulf Stream mariners. The Cape Florida Lighthouse, built in 1825, is the oldest remaining structure in the region. The island was the site of an infamous Indian attack, a Second Seminole War military base, scientific expeditions, a Civil War raid, a tropical plantation, and finally a residential village. When the island served as Richard Nixon’s vacation White House, its worldwide fame grew. Key Biscayne now hosts a multinational community, hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, and well loved  county, state, and national parks.

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James A. Kushlan, marshalling the knowledge of the world’s experts on herons, has provided a conservation action plan for the herons of the world. The book sets forth strategic principles for heron conservation including populations, habitat, sites, and flyways. It also identifies priority conservation and research needs for the species and populations of the world’s herons.

Herons, egrets and bitterns comprise sixty species and are found over much of the world, often in human settings. Although a diverse group, they are easily recognized by their long legs, necks and bills. Many are a strikingly beautiful symbol of the wetlands they inhabit; their plumes historically fueling the feather trade that led to the modern conservation movement.  Many species are notable for their sociality as they feed, roost, and nest together in single or mixed species assemblages. The authors share their decades of experience in studying and observing these birds around the world. This book provides an up to date comprehensive review of the herons of the world, covering their biology, distribution, description, systematics, breeding, feeding, and conservation, complemented by illustrations especially painted for the book, color photographs, and distribution maps. In The Herons, James Hancock and James Kushlan have distilled a thorough review of the literature and their lifetimes’ experiences into one volume.

Heron Conservation provides a comprehensive update of the conservation of the herons of the world. Founders and co-chairs of the IUCN Herons Specialist Group, James A. Kushlan and Heinz Hafner engaged leading heron biologists and conservationists in preparation of this book. The status and conservation needs of herons are first presented on a regional and continental scales, appropriate to the wide ranges of many species. Chapters the follow discuss the several most critical issues in heron conservation focusing on the international nature of concerns herons face. A fascinating group in their own right, herons also provide a model for multi-species conservation of wetland birds.

Some of the world’s largest, most spectacular and most loved birds and a few of world’s most endangered are to be found among the species covered in this book. The authors, with decades of observational and research experience among them, joined with artists Alan Harris and David Quinn to provide the definitive coffee-table sized monograph of these birds. The paintings illustrating the book stand out for their exceptional beauty and discerning environmental context. While some species, such as the European White stork, live alongside humans and are cherished members of their community, others live secluded lives in the remote corners of the globe of years, and some are poised on the verge of extinction. The text opens with complete syntheses of taxonomy, feeding, and breeding followed by detailed species accounts. Among them, the authors have personal experience with nearly all the species in five continents providing unique insights of birds they know well.

James Hancock and James Kushlan distill their detailed knowledge to provide a complete review of the world’s herons in an admirably compact volume. The text comprises a thumbnail sketch, including descriptions of the appearance, distribution, conservation status, feeding, and breeding ecology of each species. It is illustrated by the outstanding paintings of Robert Gilmore that capture each species and uniquely compare species posing identification difficulties. The book has served as the crucial foundation for subsequent advances in knowledge of herons. 

This book is the first definitive synthesis of the status and distribution of the freshwater fishes of South Florida. Based on years of detailed survey and a through review of previous specimens this book defined the ichthyofauna of the region before the invasion of non-native species changed it forever.