Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges

The state of California, which comprises more ecosystems than most nations of the world, contains nearly three dozen national wildlife refuges, from the seal-dotted Farallon Islands to the sidewinder-friendly Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge in the heart of the Mojave Desert. Of these refuges, 19 are open to the public. Hawaii, which has suffered so much ecological devastation in the last century, has a vast complex of public and closed reserves taking in the tropical rainforest of Mauna Kea and far-flung, remote coral atolls. Naturalist Loren MacArthur guides his readers through these all-too-uncommon places, providing notes on the reserves' histories and rosters of inhabitants, from the rare Hawaiian duck to the abundant bald eagles of the Klamath Basin. Nature aficionados planning a journey to the Far West will want to have this eminently useful guidebook close at hand--and you could do far worse than to plan a vacation around the places about which MacArthur writes.