Island Press began with a simple idea: knowledge is power—the power to imagine a better future and find ways for getting us there. Founded in 1984, Island Press’ mission is to provide the best ideas and information to those seeking to understand and protect the environment and create solutions to its complex problems.
My Kind of City
Collected Essays of Hank Dittmar
The range of topics covered in My Kind of City reflects the breadth of Dittmar’s experience in working for better cities for people. Common themes emerge in the engaging prose including Dittmar’s belief that improving our cities should not be left to the “experts”; his appreciation for the beautiful and the messy; and his rare combination of deep expertise and modesty. As Lynn Richards, CEO of Congress for the New Urbanism expresses in the preface, “Hank’s writing is smart without being elitist, witty and poetic, succinct and often surprising.”
My Kind of City captures a visionary planner’s spirit, eye for beauty, and love for the places where we live.
Climate Action Planning
A Guide to Creating Low-Carbon, Resilient Communities
Climate Action Planning is the most comprehensive book on the state of the art, science, and practice of local climate action planning. It should be a first stop for any local government interested in addressing climate change.
True Roots
What Quitting Hair Dye Taught Me about Health and Beauty
So Ronnie decided to ditch the dye and go in search of answers. What are the risks of hair dye? Are there safer alternatives? Will I still feel like me when I have gray hair?
True Roots follows her journey from dark dyes to a silver crown of glory, from fear of aging to embracing natural beauty. Along the way, women of all ages can learn to protect themselves from dangerous products and discover a new hair story—one built on individuality, health, and truth.
The Heart of the City
Creating Vibrant Downtowns for a New Century
This book will help public officials, civic organizations, downtown business property owners, and people who care about cities learn from successful recent actions in downtowns across the country, and expand opportunities facing their downtown. Garvin provides recommendations for continuing actions to help any downtown thrive, ensuring a prosperous and thrilling future for the 21st-century American city.
Vacant to Vibrant
Creating Successful Green Infrastructure Networks
Landscape architects and other professionals whose work involves urban greening will learn new approaches for creating infrastructure networks and facilitating more equitable access to green space.
Corridor Ecology, Second Edition
Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Adaptation
This second edition of Corridor Ecology: Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Adaptation captures advances in the field over the past ten years. It features a new chapter on marine corridors and the effects of climate change on habitat, as well as a discussion of corridors in the air for migrating flying species. Practitioners, land managers, and scholars of ecology will find it an indispensable resource.
Protecting Pollinators
How to Save the Creatures that Feed Our World
Protecting Pollinators breaks down the latest science on environmental threats and takes readers inside the most promising conservation efforts. Efforts range from cities creating butterfly highways to citizen scientists monitoring migration.
Along with inspiring stories of revival and lessons from failed projects, readers will find practical tips to get involved. And they will be reminded of the magic of pollinators—the iconic monarchs, dainty hummingbirds, and homely bats alike who bring food to our tables.
Holistic Management Handbook, Third Edition
Regenerating Your Land and Growing Your Profits
This new edition, thoroughly revised, updated, and streamlined offers step-by-step instructions for running a ranch or farm using a holistic management approach. Ranchers, farmers, and anyone working to address global environmental degradation will find this comprehensive handbook an indispensable guide to putting the holistic management concept into action with tangible results.
The Grand Food Bargain
and the Mindless Drive for More
Through beautifully-told stories from around the world, Kevin Walker reveals the unintended consequences of our myopic focus on quantity over quality. By the end of the journey, we not only understand how the drive to produce ever more food became hardwired into the American psyche, but why shifting our mindset is essential.
Water is for Fighting Over
and Other Myths about Water in the West
"Illuminating." —New York Times
WIRED's Required Science Reading 2016
When we think of water in the West, we think of conflict and crisis. Yet despite decades of headlines warning of mega-droughts, the death of agriculture, and the collapse of cities, the Colorado River basin has thrived in the face of water scarcity. John Fleck shows how western communities, whether farmers and city-dwellers or U.S. environmentalists and Mexican water managers, actually have a promising record of conservation and cooperation. Rather than perpetuate the myth “Whiskey's for drinkin', water's for fightin' over," Fleck urges readers to embrace a new, more optimistic narrative—a future where the Colorado continues to flow.