A new tree identification book has just been released by the Arbor Day Foundation. I’ve had my copy for a few days and have been very pleased with this handy little book, What Tree Is That?: A Guide to More Common Trees of North America. This tree book is comprehensive enough to help users identify over 250 trees but small enough to fit in many pockets and in any pack or bag without taking much space (something very important to hikers).

The step-by-step approach to identifying trees is really cool and reminds of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a kid. This tree book is as much fun now as those books were then, except that you never fall into an endless, black pit with the Arbor Day book. To identify a tree you follow various paths based on questions until you’ve narrowed the search down to your tree.

Other tree books I own use photographs as illustrations. While photographs have value they usually don’t show texture or other identifiable characteristics of a particular tree making identification difficult. What Tree is That? uses illustrations hand-drawn by artist Karina Helm. Helm has extensive experience creating natural history and scientific illustrations and her experience and talent shows in the beautiful and detailed images, images that make identification easy.

I read several books per month and own dozens of outdoor manuals, travel guides, and nature identification guides and I rate this book among the best. I highly recommend getting your own copy of What Tree Is That? as it will become a treasured part of your collection and a family heirloom as well.