James F. Parnell – författare

Encompassing habitats as diverse as alpine forests and subtropical swamps, the Mid-Atlantic region has a richly diverse fish fauna. Outside of the important sport and commercial species, however, few are known to the average person. This book provides information on how to identify some 260 species of freshwater fish, from the largemouth bass to the rosyside dace. Illustrated with more than 200 color photographs, most by James Parnell, this guide provides a detailed description of each species as well as notes on its distribution and abundance, habitat, and natural history (diet, spawning habits, growth, and so forth). Range maps show the distribution of each species. Of particular interest in this time of heightened awareness of environmental degradation are the many references to threatened and endangered species and the effects of deteriorating water quality on their survival.

A popular tourist area, North Carolina’s coastal region is the destination of roughly 25 percent of all North Carolina visitors each year, or approximately 12.1 million people. Composed of twenty-eight of the eastern-most counties of North Carolina, the Coastal Plain is the largest and most diverse of the state’s three biogeographical regions. Beginning with an overview of early naturalists who marveled at the region’s natural treasures, Eric G. Bolen and James F. Parnell’s natural history of the Coastal Plain offers a nature-focused walk through the distinctive geological features and plant and animal communities of the area that extends from the Fall Line (delineated approximately by I-95) to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. This richly illustrated volume presents a journey that begins with the Outer Banks and their beaches, dunes, wild horses, and maritime forests, then moves on to describe the form and functions of the region’s extensive salt marshes. The text continues with visits to the mysterious Carolina bays, Lake Waccamaw, dark cypress swamps, the Great Dismal Swamp, and blackwater streams. Along the way, readers will encounter the habitat and concerns for the last remaining wild population of red wolves and the recently established nesting colonies of wood storks. Rivers and sounds, highlighted by seagrasses, bottomland forests, and eel migrations, come next, followed by a tour of uplands, where bogs garnished with carnivorous plants dot wet savannahs; also presented are the Carolina Sandhills with their stately forests of longleaf pine, colorful tree frogs, burrowing snakes, and unique fishes. To conclude, an afterword discusses the motivations for saving endangered species.Infoboxes scattered throughout the text offer stand-alone explorations of historical and cultural topics associated with North Carolina’s Coastal Plain. Subjects such as whaling, waterfowl decoys, the chanteys of menhaden fisherman, fire ecology, and the extinction of Carolina parakeets illustrate the breadth of coverage. For reference, an appendix cites the scientific names of species mentioned in the text, and a list of readings and references appends each chapter.