Natural history guides from further afield
Cambridge University Botanic Garden
This website comes equipped with maps, photos, and long lists of tree and plant species and their locations. A neat feature on the site provided a winter walking route leading through different species of heavily canopied trees for rain shield. There are many pictures and many links that make this a very attractive looking and ecologically rich place to visit. (Kiry Nelsen)
Campus Natural History of the University of California at Santa Cruz
This site separates out all the life forms, linking to lists, pictures and descriptions. The simple design of the site leads me to believe that it was created by students. They have a nice guide to the campus’s interesting geological sites, with lengthy descriptions. (Johännah Larsen)
Case Western Reserve University- Nature Walk
The actual guide to the nature walk is not available from this website, but can be obtained by request from the university grounds crew. What the site does offer is maps of the campus, with an accompanying tree and shrub list. All the listed plants are identified and numbered, with their corresponding locations shown on the maps. There is also a map with the locations of the campus’s outdoor sculptures, with links to photos. Curiously, this campus also has an Olin Hall. (Johännah Larsen)
Cornell University, Ithaca Campus
This website is for Cornell University’s Ithaca campus and offers a wide variety of virtual tours. The Ornithology Link will lead you to a virtual tour movie. For those more interested in plants, the Botanical Gardens Link brings you to links for all of the gardens on campus. Some, such as the herb garden provide a full list of species accompanied by photos. The different gardens are seasonal and the site provides you with the best time to visit for viewing pleasure. (Kiry Nelsen)
Edith Johnson Carrier Arboretum of James Madison University
The best thing about this site is it offers an interactive map that explains a little about some of the important shrubs and plants in the garden. It provides some background information and some provide information on when and why certain plants were planted. The site also offers a very nice photo gallery, with the picture, common name, and Latin name of different flowers located in the arboretum. (Kiry Nelsen)
Edmonds Community College Tree Walk
This site consists of maps of the campus with the trees numbered. The numbers are identified with corresponding common and Latin names, as well as a few characteristics-fall leaf color, spring/summer flowers, or winter interest. (Lisa Frost)
Field Ecology Guide to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
I found this site to be very user-friendly and thorough. they offer information to help you conduct a self-guided tour of many different park areas. For most of the areas, they include information concerning the environment, how to get there, warnings, and a list of local species with many color photos and links. The site also has a separate, complete list of species, indicating there abundance in each area. (Johännah Larsen)
Hastings Natural History Reservation
This is a site for a natural history reservation run by Berkeley. The University of California has an online site set up and apparently several of these type of reservations set up for research purposes. It is oriented toward research far too much for a campus guide, but it has a cool little quick facts legend on the left hand side with pertinent info on climate, location, and primary contacts. It didn’t have very many specific links from the site to more specific information, just a photo gallery and some species related articles. (Sierra Witte)
Marietta College Tree Tour
This map not only has the trees labeled with numbers, but also a route depicted by arrows for the tourist to walk, in numerical order. Below the map is the list of species (in numerical order) and a short sentence or two about the tree, sometimes including specifics about the particular tree. (Lisa Frost)
Natural History of Colby-Sawyer College
This web page in part of the larger site for the college. I think they did a good job of melding the science aspects with the school’s history. They have a section describing the history of the campus’s growth, and the character of its larger surrounding ecosystem. In two other sections they describe special natural areas of the campus, how they came to be associated with the school, what they are used for, plus photos and ecological descriptions. The page also has an extensive list of the campus’ species, with links to fieldguide-like descriptions. (Johännah Larsen)
Nazareth College Tree Walk
This tour is most thorough in that there are several paragraphs per tree, not just on basic description, but also economic and cultural value, fascinating facts, interesting sites, and then references. There are corresponding photographs for each aspect of the description, but for the north campus the map is not available. (Lisa Frost)
Stanford University
This website allows you to view selected points of interest with pictures identifying various plant species in the area as maps of where to locate specific trees. You can view a list of plants that can be found on campus sorted by the month(s) they are in flower, along with their location on campus. There are also a few walking tours available. (Gretchen Arnason)
UC Berkeley Botanical Garden
This website features a section where you can search for specific species to see if they can be found in the garden. There is also a general summation of the species that can be found in the garden. (Gretchen Arnason)
University of Arizona Arboretum
This website has pictures of trees that can be found on campus along with maps of where to locate the trees. There are virtual tours you can take online as well as directions and maps for walking tours you can do around campus on your own. You can even click a link to see what plants are in bloom by the time of year and see pictures of what each one looks like. (Gretchen Arnason)
University of Washington Tree Tour
This website includes a map as well as a list of tree species you can click on to view a picture of the tree as well as a brief description. (Gretchen Arnason)
University of West Florida Nature Walk
The descriptions in this brochure are short but informative, but there is not room for pictures. There is a map, but it doesn’t look easy to navigate with. This campus looks like it is quite big and has a variety of wetland ecosystems, and is managed differently than the typical campus. (Lisa Frost)
University of Wisconsin-Milaukee Grant Park Field Trip Guide
This guide comes in the form of a downloadable PDF, intended for teachers planning field trips to Grant Park. It includes photos of the park, maps, and driving directions. It offers a self-guided tour to introduce students to the park, as well as possible discussion questions and safety warnings. The guide explains the areas where teachers may point out natural phenomena (erosion, landslides, claybeds..etc.) An appendix includes various lesson plans for instructing young students about geography and biology. (Johännah Larsen)
Wheaton College
This is set up to be a self guided tour of the trees on the Wheaton College campus. The website has really good pictures, depicting the whole tree, leaves/needles, and reproductive components. There are about 20 trees on the list, both native and nonnative species. (Lisa Frost)
