California Trees

California now has more trees than at any time since the late Pleistocene. This green landscape, however, is not the work of nature. It’s the work of history. In the years after the Gold Rush, American settlers remade the California landscape, harnessing nature to their vision of the good life. Horticulturists, boosters, and civic reformers began to "improve" the bare, brown countryside, planting millions of trees to create groves, wooded suburbs, and landscaped cities.

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER "Only national treasure Steven Rowley could blur the otherworldly with the everyday and turn all of it into heartache-flavored comedy." —Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich and Wreck We are all alien, even to the people who know us...

Enjoy this collection of eight Magic Tree House audiobooks #33: Narwhal on a Sunny Night When the magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie to Greenland, they're not sure what time they've landed in, but they immediately know what their mission is: save a narwhal! Then they meet a young hunter...

Hidden away in foggy, uncharted rain forest valleys in Northern California are the largest and tallest organisms the world has ever sustained -- the coast redwood trees, Sequoia sempervirens. The biggest redwoods are over a thousand years old, rising more than thirty-five stories in what's left...

The #1 bestselling Magic Tree House series is ready to whisk you away through time with Jack and Annie! Magic Tree House #35: Camp Time in California The magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie to the Yosemite National Park in 1903. They are surprised to join John Muir and President Theodore...

The #1 bestselling Magic Tree House series is ready to whisk you away through time with Jack and Annie--this time to the Yosemite National Park! The magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie to the Yosemite National Park in 1903. They are surprised to join John Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt...

A retired heart surgeon falls to his death from a remote desert peak. What was he doing there, and what was he desperately trying to tell Chemehuevi Joe in his final garbled whisper? As Joe tries to decipher that final message, long-time readers of the Smoke Tree series will discover a side of the enigmatic Native American they have never seen before.

It's January of 1974, and relentless winter winds on the Mojave Desert bring trouble to Smoke Tree. The trouble includes the brutal murder of a man in the witness protection program, the shooting of a sheriff's deputy, and the arson-fueled destruction of Smoke Tree City Hall. Hauke Hunter, a lateral transfer from the San Diego Sheriff's Department also arrives with the north winds, as does a troubled and troublesome orphan from the Big Smoky Valley in Nevada, As one of his deputies lies near death, Captain Carlos Caballo, known as Horse throughout the Lower Colorado River Basin, has his ...

A thrill-seeking, deceitful, devious woman who wields her beauty as a weapon arrives in the isolated Mojave Desert town of Smoke Tree on a sweltering hot day in July of 1974 with her overmatched boyfriend. A Black family fleeing the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi arrives at the same time. Their confluence leads to a murder and a kidnapping. Captain Carlos Caballo of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, known as "Horse" throughout the Lower Colorado River Basin, must sort through the pieces to protect his town.

It’s the 1950s. Thousands of people every day pass through Smoke Tree, California, on Route 66. The Mother Road. The two-lane blacktop that stretches from Chicago to LA. A few make a quick stop in the isolated, Mojave Desert town. Some stay. Some are dangerous. And a few are downright deadly. Burke Henry is deadly. He drives into Smoke Tree on a motorcycle on a cold, windy, winter day. His panniers are stuffed with cash. Lots of cash. Who is he? What does he want? Why a tiny town like Smoke Tree? Nobody knows, but they’re all dying to find out. And so are some men from Oklahoma. Members...

In her latest novel, Pura Belpré Award–winning author Carolina Ixta weaves a tender story about love and hope, following a teen as she works to protect her family and community from a major corporation taking over her town. Paloma Vistamontes is heartbroken. A year ago, her ex-boyfriend...

After eight years in the United States Army, Johnny Quentin, who joined in 1961 on the buddy system with his friend Charlie Merriman, has returned to Smoke Tree without Charlie. Johnny intends to stop only long enough to pay his respects to Charlie's widow and his mother, but Webster Charles, the oldest man in the Mojave Village and the strongest link to the tribe's cultural heritage, has other plans for Johnny. Once those plans are revealed, Johnny stays to honor Charlie Merriman's last request: that Johnny be more than a godfather to the slain soldier's twin sons. Nothing is easy for ...

A gripping account of the billion-dollar timber black market—and how it intersects with environmentalism, class, and culture. In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree...

Things are getting complicated in Smoke Tree, the dusty Mojave Desert town hard by Highway 66 and the Santa Fe Rail Line on the banks of the Colorado River. In June of 1964, three men descend on the town: one puts down roots, one finds the light, and one descends into deeply twisted evil. Captain Carlos Caballo, commander of the Smoke Tree Substation of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, is responsible for policing an area larger than many states. He has to deal simultaneously with a joint Army-Air Force exercise that has flung 100,000 military personnel across his area, a ...

“Insanely big-hearted.” —The Washington Post “Electric.” —The New York Times “Tender, immersive, and thrilling." —Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow "One of the best novels I’ve ever read about friendship.” —Stephen King, #1 bestselling author...

A MAN SHOULD NOT DROWN IN A DESERT! BUT ONE HAS. TWICE! Teenage outsiders from the desert town of Smoke Tree find a body floating in a cistern beneath a desert moon, but an autopsy shows the man drowned elsewhere. Why move a drowned man and stage a false drowning? As Deputy Johnny Quentin, investigates, he discovers that the man's wife is also missing. Johnny must find her before the killer claims another victim. Find her in a section of open desert larger than some states. The new deputy, haunted his his tours as a Ranger in Vietnam and the death of his best friend there, must put his ...

Emmy‑nominated filmmaker and University of Cambridge Environmental Psychologist Lindsay Branham invites readers into an embodied, reciprocal relationship with trees to heal our severed connections to ourselves and the earth, returning home to the living world. In the midst of the California...

Discover the strange side of Southern California, where a simple drive from Los Angeles can lead to haunted ships, giant dinosaurs, Danish windmills, desert prophets, alien architecture, ghost towns, and an island filled with bison. Weird Day Trips from Los Angeles is a funny, story-packed travel guide to the region’s most unusual destinations. Explore Catalina Island, Solvang, Joshua Tree, Palm Springs, Pasadena, Long Beach, Laguna Beach, the Salton Sea, Calico Ghost Town, Route 66, and many more wonderfully odd places. Along the way, you’ll uncover bizarre history, local legends, ...

Aside from crowds of hikers, campers, and general tourists, there's a dark side to these three locations in California; the famous Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Mount Shasta. From strange disappearances, grisly murders, and bone-chilling paranormal hauntings to ghost sightings, these pristine locales have a lot more to offer than just serene hiking trails or camping. In this second installment of National Park Mysteries & Disappearances, Steve Stockton, along with Bill Melder, presents the listener with a side to these locations you've never heard before.

Discover one of America's most unforgettable road trips, where the trees are taller than skyscrapers, the roadside attractions are wonderfully weird, and even the elk seem to think they own the highway. Weird Pacific Redwoods Stories takes you on an entertaining journey along California's legendary Highway 101 through the world's tallest forests. Along the way you'll drive through giant living redwoods, meet talking lumberjacks, wander Victorian towns that look frozen in time, explore foggy coastlines, discover hidden beaches, visit quirky roadside attractions, and learn the surprising true...