Richard A. Minnich's Books

Land of Chamise and Pines

Historical Accounts and Current Status of Northern Baja California’s Vegetation

By: Richard A. Minnich,Ernesto Franco Vizcaino

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Land of Chamise and Pines

Historical Accounts and Current Status of Northern Baja California’s Vegetation

By: Richard A. Minnich,Ernesto Franco Vizcaino

In marked contrast to California's landscape of urban sprawl, expansive agriculture, and wildlands altered by protectionist management systems, many landscapes in neighboring Baja California would still be recognizable to the first European explorers. This book shows that the vegetation of present-day Baja California is remarkably similar to that observed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that historical fire and grazing management has done little to alter the region's resilient mediterranean-type shrublands and forests.

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Page Count

190

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520915887

ISBN 13

9780520915886

California’s Fading Wildflowers

Lost Legacy and Biological Invasions

By: Richard A. Minnich

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California’s Fading Wildflowers

Lost Legacy and Biological Invasions

By: Richard A. Minnich

Early Spanish explorers in the late eighteenth century found springtime California covered with spectacular carpets of wildflowers from San Francisco to San Diego. Yet today, invading plant species have devastated this nearly forgotten botanical heritage. In this lively, vividly detailed work, Richard A. Minnich synthesizes a unique and wide-ranging array of sources—from the historic accounts of those early explorers to the writings of early American botanists in the nineteenth century, newspaper accounts in the twentieth century, and modern ecological theory—to give the most comprehensive historical analysis available of the dramatic transformation of California's wildflower prairies. At the same time, his groundbreaking book challenges much current thinking on the subject, critically evaluating the hypothesis that perennial bunchgrasses were once a dominant feature of California's landscape and instead arguing that wildflowers filled this role. As he examines the changes in the state's landscape over the past three centuries, Minnich brings new perspectives to topics including restoration ecology, conservation, and fire management in a book that will change our of view of native California.

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