Pocket Tree Finders By Nature Study Guild

As woodworkers, identifying trees is a wonderful way to connect with the craft. Nature Study Guild Pocket Finders are a great, portable way to identify trees, flowers, constellations, and animal tracks. They’re easy to slip into a backpack or breast pocket, and they never run out of battery. Whether you’re a newbie or a flummoxed expert, Finders are the perfect way to identify flora without the need to leaf through an endless lineup of identical looking pictures.

The Finders lead you step by step through the identification process, using a key and well defined criteria such as shape, texture, or orientation and pattern. Keep one of the guides in the pocket of your favorite jacket, and after a few weeks of use, even a walk around the block will be as exciting as a trip to the lumber yard.

Nature Study Guild has been publishing pocket guides to the natural world for over 50 years. Begun by Naturalist May Theilgaard Watts, Nature Study Guild remains an independent, third generation family business. The wonderful scientific illustrations, are hand drawn with skill, and even a little bit of humor.

Winter Tree Finder Covers Trees that have shed their leaves in the US and Canada East of the Rocky Mountains.
Authors: May Theilgaard Watts and Tom Watts

Pacific Coast Tree Finder Covers the West Coast of North American From Southern British Columbia, down to the Northern portion of the Baja Peninsula.
Author: Tom Watts

Redwood Region Flower Finder Covers flowers along the range of Sequoia Sempervirens, otherwise known as the Redwood. Central California to South-Western Oregon.
Author: Phoebe Watts Illustration: Sarah Watts

In general, the Pocket Finders cover native plants, with the exception of a few widely planted, introduced species.

Please Note that Pocket Finders are currently (and possibly indefinitely) out of print. We will not be able to order more once we sell out – so get yours while they’re still available!!

Nature Study Guild Pocket Finders are Printed in the USA on recycled paper containing at least 30 percent post-consumer waste

My grandfather was a woodworker, and naturalist. In the basement next to his workshop in northern California, stacked high on wonderfully overbuilt redwood and masonite shelving, sat the family’s stock in trade: pocket sized books, each one containing an intuitive yet sophisticated key to identifying species of a specific Phylum, Class, region, or eco-system.

Nature Study Guild, was begun by my Great Grandmother, May Theilgaard Watts. Over The last 5 decades, Nature Study Guild has published a small library of titles, many of them researched, written, and illustrated May Watts herself. The publishing business along with May’s love of disambiguating flora and fauna were passed along to my Grandparents, who in turn passed it along to their children.

Despite the technical nature of the Pocket Finders, the books have a human touch, and humor that goes beyond the old-fashioned layout, and hand inked illustrations. In my mind the spirit of the pocket finders is encapsulated by a pair of illustrations and captions in the Winter Tree finder. On the lower half of page five, my Grandmother and Grandfather’s initials appear carved into the smooth bark of a tree surrounded by a heart. The illustration and caption to the right, of a cookie cutter housing tract, strikes a different tone, typical of my Grandfather’s dry humor:

In a ticky-tacky tract? Try:

Thornless Honey Locust
Pin Oak
Magnolia
Birch
Chinese Elm
Moving

– Ben