On June 20, University of Oklahoma ecologist and author Priscilla H.C. Crawford, Ph.D., will visit Oxley Nature Center for a nature walk, book signing and presentation about her newest project, “A Naturalist’s Guide to Oklahoma.” Currently available through OU Press or at Magic City Books, the book tours Oklahoma’s twelve ecoregions and explores the wide variety of flora and fauna living across the state.
Drawing from her research with the Oklahoma Biological Survey, Crawford celebrates natural diversity — which includes over 2,000 species of plants and 450 different birds — and summarizes how each landscape’s climatological and geological features inform the types of species found there. More than 150 color photographs immerse the reader into Oklahoma’s unique ecological regions, and each chapter includes a list of public lands you can visit to experience the environments firsthand.
The book also offers advice and tools for those looking to make their cities, backyards or local parks a home for native species as a means of celebrating and protecting the state’s ecological beauty…