April Bookshelf
♦ DVD
Field Judging Black Bears
By Richard P. Smith, self-produced, 814 Clark St., Marquette, MI 49855, 906-225-1002, www.richardpsmith.com, DVD, 46 minutes, $20.
Produced by veteran bear hunter and freelance hunting, fishing and wildlife writer and photographer Richard P. Smith, the DVD features video and photographs with detailed explanations needed to accurately identify bears in the field. An OWAA member since 1973, Smith shares simple methods hunters of any experience level can use to distinguish between males and females.
♦ BOOKS
A Tribute to Roger Latham
By Ann Jenkins, self-published, 6870 South Section Line Road, Delaware, OH 43015, www.lathamtribute.com, hardcover, 240 pp., color and black and white photos, $20 plus $4.95 for shipping.
Conservation leader Roger Latham served as chief of research at the Pennsylvania Game Commission in the mid-1950s, outdoor editor of The Pittsburgh Press from1957-1979 and OWAA president from 1963-1964. Subtitled “sportsman, conservationist, educator, scientist, author, photographer, naturalist, friend and gentle man,” this book features selections from Latham’s books, special publications and newspaper columns, along with stories and remembrances from friends and admirers like National Wildlife Federation president and CEO Larry Schweiger. Several photographs chronicle Latham’s early years, career achievements and outdoor pursuits. Profits from the sale of this publication will be directed to the Roger M. Latham Memorial Fund at Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology, a master’s degree in wildlife management and a doctorate in zoology.
Trees, Shrubs, and Vines of the Texas Hill Country
By Jan Wrede, Texas A&M University Press, John H. Lindsey Building, 4354 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, 979-458-3982, www.tamu.edu/upress, flexbound, 258 pp., 186 color photos, $24.
The second edition of this field guide to more than 125 plant species of the Texas Hill Country champions the understory, brush, seedlings, bushes and small trees and shrubs that are endangered by the deer population and landowners in the area. Wrede, director of education at the Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne, Texas, discusses the benefits of natural vegetation and landscaping with woody plants. The guide features a color photo and information about the leaves, flowers, fruit and bark of each plant, and offers insight into the species’ range and habits.
A Southern Sportsman: The Hunting Memoirs of Henry Edwards Davis
Edited by Ben Moise, the University of South Carolina Press, 1600 Hampton Street, Fifth floor, Columbia, SC 29208, 803-777-5243, www.sc.edu/uscpress, hardcover, 440 pp., 24 illustrations, $29.95.
Published more than four decades after his death in 1966, this memoir of sportsman, horticulturist and historian Henry Edwards Davis chronicles his hunting adventures through the fields, forests and swamps of South Carolina. As a connoisseur of sporting firearms, Davis details his experiences with a long line of rifles and shotguns from his first 14-gauge, cap-lock muzzleloader to modern American and British shotguns. A historian at heart, Davis’ hunting tales are interspersed with description of the region’s history, including evolving cultural attitudes and economic conditions in post-Reconstruction South Carolina and the practices that gave rise to modern natural conservation and wildlife management efforts.
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