The Urban Naturalist Book

Informative, useful field guide reveals the amazing biodiversity within city and suburban landscapes, including trees, insects and other invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Hundreds of fascinating facts.

Publishers Weekly

In a book that should delight amateur scientists, Garber offers a comprehensive guide to the plant and animal kingdoms and their relationship to urban life. Among his subjects: clover, which originates from the pea family, and honey-locust trees, which flourish in many suburban neighborhoods and were used to replace elms that died of Dutch Elm disease. As for fauna, Garber notes that although most snakes can't survive in the city, there are some that thrive in parks and garages, and he retells the story of the New York drug manufacturer who a century ago wanted to hear every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's works and thus imported the starlingto the everlasting regret of many urban dwellers. Garber has written a wonderful and casual book about plants and animals, and if there is a lesson to be learned, it is that humans and nature should learn to live together, even in the city. (September)