A Field Guide to Field Guides

No. 4

Trees & Forest

What to carry on the trail — and what to read by the fire

Northwest Trees cover

If You Can Only Pick One

Northwest Trees

Arno & Hammerly's classic does what no other guide manages: it identifies every native tree in the region and tells you why each one matters. Species accounts that read like natural history essays. The book you take to the trailhead and then can't put down when you get home.

Buy from Port Book and News

Find your Guide

Pick the line that sounds like you. The first book is where to start; the second is where to go when you want more.

On the Trail

In the Field
At Home
Northwest Trees cover

Northwest Trees

Arno & Hammerly

Arno & Hammerly's classic does what no other guide manages: it identifies every native tree in the region and tells you why each one matters. Species accounts that read like natural history essays. The book you take to the trailhead and then can't put down when you get home.

At Port Book & News

In the Yard

In the Field
At Home
The Hidden Life of Trees cover

The Hidden Life of Trees

Peter Wohlleben

The book that changed how we see forests

At Port Book & News

PNW Conifers

In the Field
At Home

Getting Started

In the Field
Field Guide to Trees of the PNW cover

Field Guide to Trees of the PNW

Philippa Hudson

Photographic, compact, affordable

At Port Book & News
At Home
Finding the Mother Tree cover

Finding the Mother Tree

Suzanne Simard

How trees talk to each other underground

At Port Book & News

Two ways in

Mac's NW Trees coverNW Know-How: Trees cover

First-Timer Pack

Mac's NW Trees + NW Know-How: Trees

One for the trail, one for the kitchen table. You'll be naming trees by the weekend.

Mac's NW TreesNW Know-How: Trees

The Hidden Life of Trees coverThe Golden Spruce cover

Nature Reader Pack

The Hidden Life of Trees + The Golden Spruce

How forests think, and the true story of a sacred tree and the man who destroyed it. You'll never walk through woods the same way.

The Hidden Life of TreesThe Golden Spruce

More Field Guides

Sibley Guide to Trees cover

Sibley Guide to Trees

David Allen Sibley

The gold-standard national tree guide

At Port Book & News
Sibley Trees of Pacific NW cover

Sibley Trees of Pacific NW

David Allen Sibley

FoldingHis plates, for exactly our trees

At Port Book & News
Trees of Western North America cover

Trees of Western North America

Richard Spellenberg

Comprehensive, packed with info

At Port Book & News
Street Trees of Seattle cover

Street Trees of Seattle

Taha Ebrahimi

The city's trees, one walk at a time

At Port Book & News

Forest Ecology & Science 5 books

The Hidden Life of Trees cover

The Hidden Life of Trees

Peter Wohlleben

The gateway book. Forest communication.

At Port Book & News
Finding the Mother Tree cover

Finding the Mother Tree

Suzanne Simard

The scientist who proved trees talk.

At Port Book & News
The Forest Unseen cover

The Forest Unseen

David George Haskell

A year on one square meter. Pulitzer finalist.

At Port Book & News
American Canopy cover

American Canopy

Eric Rutkow

How forests built America. Science meets national history.

At Port Book & News
Dead Wood: Afterlife of Trees cover

Dead Wood: Afterlife of Trees

Ellen Wohl

What happens after the tree falls.

At Port Book & News

↑ All shelves

Walking the Woods 5 books

How to Read a Tree cover

How to Read a Tree

Tristan Gooley

Shape, lean, bark, moss — what trees are telling you.

At Port Book & News
Trees in My Forest cover

Trees in My Forest

Bernd Heinrich

Patient, obsessive, brilliant observation.

At Port Book & News
Witness Tree cover

Witness Tree

Lynda V. Mapes

A year with one tree, tracking climate change.

At Port Book & News
Forest Walking cover

Forest Walking

Peter & Wohllleben, Carina Wohlleben

A practical companion for walks in the woods.

At Port Book & News
How to Love a Forest cover

How to Love a Forest

Ethan Tapper

Tending a changing forest with love and a chainsaw.

At Port Book & News

↑ All shelves

Northwest Timber History 5 books

The Final Forest cover

The Final Forest

William Dietrich

Forks, spotted owls, and the fight that defined us.

At Port Book & News

Timber: Toil and Trouble in the Big Woods

Ralph W. Andrews

Loggers' own stories. The bestseller of this shelf.

Making of the NW Forest Plan cover

Making of the NW Forest Plan

K. Norman Johnson

The policy that shaped these forests.

At Port Book & News
Logging in Grays Harbor cover

Logging in Grays Harbor

Brian Woodwick

Local industry history in photographs.

At Port Book & News
Deep River cover

Deep River

Karl Marlantes

Finnish loggers in southwest WA. Reads like Steinbeck.

At Port Book & News

↑ All shelves

Tree Lit & Philosophy 6 books

The Golden Spruce cover

The Golden Spruce

John Vaillant

Our all-time #1. A sacred tree and a madman's chainsaw.

At Port Book & News
The Overstory cover

The Overstory

Richard Powers

Pulitzer-winning novel. Trees as characters.

At Port Book & News
The Man Who Planted Trees cover

The Man Who Planted Trees

Jean Giono

The reforestation fable. Slim and perfect.

At Port Book & News

↑ All shelves

The Olympic Peninsula Shelf 4 books

Trees Are Speaking cover

Trees Are Speaking

Lynda V. Mapes

Salmon forests, forest policy, the Elwha. Local and urgent.

At Port Book & News
Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain cover

Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain

Tim McNulty

The essential Olympic Peninsula natural history.

At Port Book & News
Cedar: Tree of Life cover

Cedar: Tree of Life

Hilary Stewart

The tree at the center of Northwest Coast cultures.

At Port Book & News
Canopy of Titans cover

Canopy of Titans

Paul Koberstein

The global importance of the Pacific coastal rainforest.

At Port Book & News

↑ All shelves

For Young & New Readers 3 books

NW Know-How: Trees cover

NW Know-How: Trees

Karen Gaudette Brewer

Friendly, illustrated, no jargon. The place to start.

At Port Book & News
Trees: An Illustrated Field Guide cover

Trees: An Illustrated Field Guide

Sina Varshaneh

Small, illustrated, for visual learners of any age.

At Port Book & News

↑ All shelves

We sell these because we use them. Ask us what we'd bring to your specific trail.

These are the ones we reach for most often — the shelf keeps going. Ethnobotany, fire ecology, that book about the German forester — just ask. That's what we're here for.