Books in Conservation Heroes series

At the young age of 14, Ansel Adams found his life's work. Growing up in San Francisco in the early 1900s, Adams traveled with his family to Yosemite National Park in 1916 and fell in love with the breathtaking scenery. After exploring the natural wonders of the park, Adams began to study the art of photography thereby influencing generations of people who would view his work. His striking images of the American West, including Yosemite's mountains, valleys, and waters, raised awareness of the natural beauty of America and the need to conserve and protect it. In this new volume, readers will explore the beautiful images of this photographer that encouraged a nation to cherish the natural wonders it possessed.

Jacques Cousteau was an underwater explorer, inventor, filmmaker, author, and world-renowned environmentalist. He was the first to photograph and, later, film underwater life. He, his family, and his crew traveled the world on his famous ship, Calypso, to film never-before-seen sea creatures, shipwrecks, and other wonders. His photos and films inspired generations of marine biologists, undersea diver enthusiasts, and environmentalists. Jacques Cousteau delves into the life and work of this underwater navigator whose name became synonymous with the ocean and the ways he introduced the world to the mysteries of the deep.

Artist, writer, naturalist, and frontiersman John James Audubon explored America's wilderness during the early 19th century, observing and recording the wonders he found there. From the Kentucky frontier to the Mississippi bayou to the icy coast of Labrador, he took his sketchbook and journal with him wherever he went. His collected paintings, Birds of America, became one of the nation's greatest works of art and natural history. His journals document an era when American's forests still teemed with ivory-billed woodpeckers, Carolina parrots, passenger pigeons, and other species now extinct. Audubon was the first to sound the alarm over the destruction of the wilderness. Today, the Audubon Society, founded in his name, serves as his legacy, educating people about the value of biological diversity throughout the world. Readers will explore the illustrated world of John James Audubon in this colorful new volume.

Theodore Roosevelt did more to conserve America's natural resources than any other U.S. president before him. As one of the most accomplished and most colorful characters to ever serve as president, Roosevelt was admired for being a war hero, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a rancher, and a fearless champion of the working class. He was an avid outdoorsman and hunter and had a deep appreciation for nature. After he became president in 1901, he placed 230 million acres of American wilderness under government protection and established new laws that would limit the use of resources within these lands. In this brand-new volume, learn how Theodore Roosevelt had the foresight to protect America's natural resources and the impact that decision has had on the America of today.

Rachel Carson was a nature lover since childhood. As an adult, she became a marine biologist and wrote award-winning books about the ocean, capturing the imagination of her readers with her poetic descriptions of the sea and its inhabitants. But it was her book Silent Spring that thrust Carson and the hazards of using pesticides into the national consciousness. Silent Spring sounded the alarm about the threat chemical pesticides posed to wildlife and made people sensitive to the ways they impacted the earth. Carson and her book are often credited with inspiring the modern environmental movement. Rachel Carson shows how this writer was able to bring national attention to a growing environmental crisis.