This profusely illustrated and invaluable guide by Azaria Alon, Israel's "Mr. Nature," helps you to navigate through the tranquil and idyllic oases in otherwise busy and bustling Israel.,

National parks are one of the most important and successful institutions in global environmentalism. Since their first designation in the United States in the 1860s and 1870s they have become a global phenomenon. The development of these ecological and political systems cannot be understood as a simple reaction to mounting environmental problems, nor can it be explained by the spread of environmental sensibilities. Shifting the focus from the usual emphasis on national parks in the United States, this volume adopts an historical and transnational perspective on the global geography of protected areas and its changes over time. It focuses especially on the actors, networks, mechanisms, arenas, and institutions responsible for the global spread of the national park and the associated utilization and mobilization of asymmetrical relationships of power and knowledge, contributing to scholarly discussions of globalization and the emergence of global environmental institutions and governance.

“With the twinned calamities of climate change and mass extinction weighing heavier and heavier on my nature-besotted soul, here were concrete, affordable actions that I could take, that anyone could take, to help our wild neighbors thrive in the built human environment. And it all starts with nothing more than a seed. Bringing Nature Home is a miracle: a book that summons butterflies." —Margaret Renkl, The Washington Post As development and habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. In his groundbreaking book Bringing Nature Home, Douglas W. Tallamy reveals the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife—native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. Luckily, there is an important and simple step we can all take to help reverse this alarming trend: everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity by simply choosing native plants. By acting on Douglas Tallamy's practical and achievable recommendations, we can all make a difference.

Historians of wilderness have shown that nature reserves are used ideologically in the construction of American national identity. But the contemporary problem of wilderness demands examination of how profoundly nature-in-reserve influences something more fundamental, namely what counts as being well, having a life, and having a future. What is wellness for the citizens to whom the parks are said to democratically belong? And how does the presence of foreigners threaten this wellness? Recent critiques of the Wilderness Act focus exclusively on its ecological effects, ignoring the extent to which wilderness policy affects our contemporary collective experience and political imagination. Tracing the challenges that migration and indigenousness currently pose to the national park system and the Wilderness Act, Grebowicz foregrounds concerns with social justice against the ecological and aesthetic ones that have created and continue to shape these environments. With photographs by Jacqueline Schlossman.

Stuart's Field Guide to National Parks and Nature Reserves of South Africa is an indispensable guide to the country's best and most accessible conservation areas. Written by two prominent conservationists, this new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. The 43 featured reserves are arranged by province. -Information details the history, location, landscape, geology, vegetation (with maps) and wildlife (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects) of each reserve -Text panels list the highlights and provide key facts about each park's wildlife, climate, facilities and activities, as well as critical warnings for visitors. -More than 900 color photographs support the text. -Details park maps indicate places of interest, including where to view particular animals. -At the back of the book is a concise pictorial ID guide featuring the birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, flowers and trees most commonly seen in the reserves. This is a handy and informative guide to South Africa's famously diverse and richly populated parks and reserves.

Photographer, author and adventurer Scott Ramsay's tribute to South Africa's national parks and nature reserves. "These wild places and their animals have become part of who I am. They have taught me that wilderness is far more important than I ever imagined, and that we must not only protect Africa's wild places at all costs, but also celebrate them for what they are: the greatest source of wonder and inspiration in a modern, materialistic world depleted of soul and spirit."

National parks have always been an emotive and iconic symbol, ever since the first parks of the modern era were created in the mid-nineteenth century. This book, based on original research, delves deeply into their character and significance, and the larger context in which they developed. The book celebrates the deserved attractiveness of the parks as wilderness or 'spectacle' to millions of visitors, but also emphasises how there was nothing inevitable, self-sustaining or without cost in their magnificence and accessibility. Those early parks were a powerful unifying force as national 'playgrounds', especially as motor transport democratised their use. However they also provoked bitter conflict in their dispossession of local communities and perhaps deliberate segregation of people from scenery and wildlife. That first century of national parks, which concluded with the significant break of the Second World War and the subsequent development of more international approaches to conservation, left an uncertain legacy. It was a fragile foundation from which to build what became an integral part of today's conservation movement.