Field guide to Wisconsin streams Plants, fishes, invertebrates, amphibians, and reptiles

Miller, Songer, and Dolen, all affiliated with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, collaborated with numerous ecologists and biologists to produce this well-done field guide filled with an abundance of photographs and line drawings. It covers more than 130 common plants, all 116 known fish, and 70 families of insects, as well as amphibians, reptiles, and other invertebrates. The book is small and lightweight, making it convenient for use in the field. Unfortunately, it is not waterproof. The introduction gives detailed insight into stream ecology without overwhelming amateur audiences. The book is partly organized by taxonomy. The broadest level is color coded and contains seven categories: "Plants," "Invertebrates," "Crayfishes," "Mussels and Clams," "Fish," "Amphibians," and "Reptiles." Each section is organized a bit differently, based upon ease of use in terms of identifying various species and other factors. Each description contains common and scientific names, status, description, look-alikes, notes, photographs, line drawings, and distribution maps. This field guide will benefit any amateur or professional in the field, particularly because of the many helpful images. --Breanna M. Weston, Woodburn Public Library