Books

New: ART & SCIENCE IN THE SOUTH NATION WATERSHED


In the tradition of the Group of Seven but with the eye of a naturalist, Aleta Karstad paints the Canadian landscape "au plein air". This book showcases nineteen of her jewel-like paintings from the watershed of the South Nation River in easternmost Ontario. Each is accompanied by insightful and lyrical journal entries about the experience of making each painting and about the landscape and its plants and animals. While Aleta paints, her biologist husband, Fred Schueler, makes a scientific survey of the surrounding area, giving special attention to the interactions between native and invasive species. Together, this artist/biologist team works to increase public knowledge of not only the beauty of the landscape but also its biological health and the conservation measures suggested by their observations.   

Published by the Library of One Thing And Another in November, 2011          
Available for online purchase at Lulu.com



Earlier Books:

CANADIAN NATURE NOTEBOOK 


This informal ecology, richly illustrated with watercolours and drawings, was published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson in 1979 and enjoyed a long life in print until 1994. A classic in modern Canadian nature writing, Canadian Nature Notebook holds an important place on the shelves of naturalists all across the country. Although now out of print, it is still in library circulation, and we hope to sometime have it reprinted in soft cover.



OWLS IN NORTH AMERICA 


Part of the Canadian Album Series of nature stories for children, Owls in North America was published by Hyperion Press in 1987. Aleta Karstad and her husband Frederick W. Schueler collaborated with ornithologist and owl specialist Robert Nero in writing and illustrating this educational colouring book. Alongside natural history facts about each species and plausible stories based on personal experience and observations recorded in naturalists' field notes, Karstad's lively and detailed ink drawings bring each owl to life and invite children to colour them.

$7.00 contact us for availability, shipping, & group orders





WILD SEASONS DAYBOOK 


Published in 1985 by Methuen and later carried by Stoddart, the hardcover perpetual diary Wild Seasons Daybook went out of print after over fifteen years of sales in bookstores and gift shops. Many people have returned for more copies and given these little books of delicate watercolours and hand lettered notations to friends and family, even sending them away to other lands as souvenirs of the nature that one sees here at close hand.

$20.00 contact us for availability & shipping




QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS' CUMSHEWA HEAD TRAIL 


Western Canada Wilderness Committee published this charming facsimile of Karstad's original hand lettered and illustrated journal pages from three hikes which she made in 1989 along the Cumshewa Head Trail, on North Moresby Island in Haida Gwaii. With a foreword by Chief Cumshewa, two hand drawn maps, and essay, hiking times & trail instructions by John F. Wood, the hiker is well informed, and the non-hiker is inspired. This little softcover is still playing a part in the ongoing struggle to preserve oldgrowth forest.

$8.00 contact us for availability & shipping





A PLACE TO WALK: A Naturalists' journal of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail 


Written and illustrated during an expedition through the summer of 1994, supported by the Waterfront Trust, and published by Natural Heritage/Natural History in 1995, this book is a lavishly illustrated
account of a journey by foot, bicycle and canoe along a populated, misunderstood, and often surprisingly wild interface between land and water. Candid journal observations in the tradition of Elizabeth Simcoe charm and inform in surprising ways. Here is humour and adventure, but what is really established in a serious way is a detailed picture of time and place in the face of increasingly rapid changes in communities and the environment that supports them.

$25.00 contact us for availability & shipping

To order books please phone (613)258-3107
or e-mail
karstad@pinicola.ca
or mail to Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
RR#2 Oxford Station
Ontario K0G 1T0
Canada

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