The Organ Pipe Cactus

The Organ Pipe Cactus
Author: David Yetman
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2006
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780816525416
GET BOOK

Distinguished by its slender vertical branches, which resemble the tubes of a pipe organ, and growing to the imposing height of 15 to more than 30 feet, itÕs obvious how the organ pipe cactus got its name. In the United States, these spectacular and intriguing plants are found exclusively in a small area of the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern corner of Arizona. With a landscape marked by sharp, rocky slopes and daytime highs in the summer reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the region is inhospitable for most ordinary life, whether plant or animal. But the organ pipe cactus is far from ordinary. Although it is the most common columnar cactus, it is so unusual in the United States that it is only one of three cacti to have a national preserve established to protect it. In this regard, it joins a select group of plantsÑincluding Joshua trees, redwoods, and sequoiasÑupon which that honor has been conferred. In this beautifully illustrated, large-format book, David Yetman provides an in-depth and comprehensive look at these intriguing and picturesque plants that most Americans will never have the opportunity to see. Chapters explore their ethnobotanical uses, their habitat, their distribution, and special conditions required for their germination, establishment, growth, and survival. Yetman also places the organ pipe in perspective as a member of a genus with at least twenty-three species, ranging from the prostrate Stenocereus eruca of Baja California to the 50-foot high giant S. chacalapensis of the coast of Oaxaca.

Dry Borders

Dry Borders
Author: Richard Stephen Felger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 850
Release: 2007
Genre: Nature
ISBN:
GET BOOK

Part natural history, part call to conservation, and part love song, this evocative and informative excursion into the Sonoran Desert along the U.S.-Mexico border brings to life the beauty of a sparse and seductive terrain.

The Desert Thieves

The Desert Thieves
Author: Franklin W. Dixon
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2013-01-29
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1442486015
GET BOOK

The Hardy Boys join their father on a trip to Arizona’s magnificent Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument—a trip that becomes dangerous as they set out to find the black marketeers who are stealing rare cacti.

Dead in Their Tracks

Dead in Their Tracks
Author: John Annerino
Publisher:
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2009-02-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:
GET BOOK

It is America’s killing field, and the deaths keep mounting. As the political debate has intensified and demonstrators have taken to the streets, more and more illegal border-crossers die trying to cross the desert on their way to what they hope will be a better life. The Arizona border is the deadliest immigrant trail in America today. For the strong and the lucky, the trail ends at a pick-up on an Interstate highway. For far too many others, it ends terribly—too often violently—not far from where they began. Dead in Their Tracks is a first hand account of the perils associated with crossing the desert on foot. John Annerino recounts his experience making that trek with four illegal immigrants—and his return trips to document the struggles of those who persist in this treacherous journey. In this spellbinding narrative, he takes readers into the “empty quarter” of the Southwest to meet the migrant workers and drug runners, the ranchers and Border Patrol agents, who populate today’s headlines. Other writers have documented the deaths; few have invited readers to share the experience as Annerino does. His feel for the land and his knowledge of surviving in the wilderness combine to make his account every bit as harrowing as it is for the people who risk it every day, and in increasing numbers. Each book includes an In Memorium card recognizing an immigrant, refugee, border agent, local, or humanitarian who has died in America's borderlands." The desert may seem changeless, but there are more bodies now, and Annerino has revised his original text to record some of the compelling stories that have come to light since the book’s first publication and has updated the photographs and written a new introduction and afterword. Dead in Their Tracks is now more timely than ever—and essential reading for the ongoing debate over illegal immigration. For information on First Serial Rights, Book Club, Film, Television, & Options, visit the Author's Web site.

Birding the Southwestern National Parks

Birding the Southwestern National Parks
Author: Roland H. Wauer
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2004-01-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9781585442874
GET BOOK

At the end of the twentieth century roughly 265 million people visited the 374 sites in the American National Park System. These places, designated and protected because of their significance to our nation’s historical and natural heritage, contain some of the most beautiful landscapes in the United States—landscapes that naturally lend themselves to outdoor recreation. In this book, veteran parks interpreter Ro Wauer introduces the pleasures of birding in the national parks of the American Southwest. From California to Texas, from hugely popular destinations such as Arizona’s Grand Canyon to the mostly undiscovered shores of Amistad National Recreation Area, Wauer visits seventeen sites and gives us his advice on what birds to expect to see and where and how to find them. Written by a birder for birders, this book introduces readers to some of the best birding north of the Mexican border, as well as some of the most impressive scenery anywhere. Wauer takes readers on a personal tour, pointing out where to go to see a vast array of each park’s bird life: Le Conte’s Thrashers in Death Valley, Clark’s and Western Grebes at Lake Mead, Phainopeplas at Organ Pipe Cactus, Lucy’s Warblers at Saguaro, Peregrine Falcons in Grand Canyon, Cave Swallows at Carlsbad Caverns, Magnificent Hummingbirds at Guadalupe Mountains, and Colima Warblers in Big Bend. Birding the Southwestern National Parks is written for anyone visiting, planning to visit, or dreaming of visiting the Southwestern national parks. The Southwestern Parks: Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada Joshua Tree National Park, California Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada and Arizona Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona Sunset Crater Volcano, Wupatki, and Walnut Canyon National Monuments, Arizona Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona Tonto National Monument, Arizona Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona Saguaro National Park, Arizona Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks, New Mexico and Texas White Sands National Monument, New Mexico Big Bend National Park, Texas Amistad National Recreation Area, Texas

Cacti of the Desert Southwest

Cacti of the Desert Southwest
Author: Meg Quinn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-11-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781933855370
GET BOOK

Deserts of the American Southwest are home to an incredible diversity of drought-tolerant plants, including many found nowhere else on earth. And no other group says desert quite like cacti. Their prickly nature notwithstanding, cacti are very fragile, as are the arid deserts they inhabit. In Cacti of the Desert Southwest, botanist and educator Meg Quinn describes eighty significant cacti of the Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan deserts, including several which are listed as threatened or endangered. Most are shown in full flower.