no tree books, but...

[abe]

I went into a Borders book store today to see if they had any field guides for trees in my area. I found nothing about trees, but there was 2 shelves of books on Marijuanna. Everything from the best seeds to the best harvesting. What gives, I thought this stuff was illegal! No tree books.

[LowKey]

Ha, ha. I saw that too at a Barnes & Noble. I think you can get a license to grow, minimally, for medicinal purposes in some states. There's also a resurgence in interest in hemp products, not just the smoke, and you can get licenses for that too (security is a pain though). Hemp used to be a very versatile crop. Excellent for rope and weaving.

For tree books, try a local arboretum or nature garden. Or even the public library. Seriously, you will find that there just aren't that many tree species in any given area. You can usually learn those pretty quickly. It's all the understory shrubs and plants that'll give you headaches.

Edit, I just looked up the law on the medicinal thing and even though some states are leniant, the source said that it is still a Federal Offense to possess it.

[abe]

Oh yea, I've heard the stories about hemp rope when I was in the navy. We were constantly being drilled and one of the drills was a fuel oil line leak, and we used rope to slow or stop the imaginary leaks. Many of the vet squids said the rope used to be made of hemp, but they also used it for other reasons therefore that rope was discontinued. Party Poopers.

[rwc1969]

No, it's not illegal anymore. You can grow it, sell it, and smoke it legally. Just gotta pay the man for the medical visit, annual fee, etc.etc.

You can even buy it from an illegal drug dealer and there's nothing they can do about it, just show em your card and they have to let you go pot in hand, can't even hold you or confiscate anything related to it.

[Rick]

Hemp is actually used in car upholstery today. It's grown in Canada and imported into the U.S. because it's not allowed to be grown here. Industrial hemp doesn't contain the same level of THC as marijuana so if you smoke it you'd probably get...smoke.

http://www.agmrc.org/commodities__pr...mp_profile.cfm

[LowKey]

"But officer, really, there's no THC...I'm just using it for cordage..."
Think it'll fly?

[your_comforting_company]

I have a hat and a wallet made of hemp
My wife has lotion made of hemp oil.

Seed oil can be refined into fuel.
It could replace pine trees in paper production. 1 acre supposedly produces as much paper as 10 acres of pine trees that takes 60 years to grow, while pot can be grown every year.. That's one heck of a step toward going "green"

I think as an agricultural product, hemp would greatly benefit our country, simply because it is so easy to grow, and so productive and versatile. I'm sure I didn't list all the uses.

I think it should still be illegal to smoke it. Lethargy, lack of motivation, increased appetite, distorted sense of reality... all bad things. 10 times as much tar and carcinogens as cigarettes...
When I want to escape from reality, I go fishing, or hiking... just sayin'.

Back to the subject at hand. I ordered my "Audobon Society" tree book from amazon. I think there is a link in the "forum support" section to go to amazon. Seems a decent book for the eastern half of the US. Most everything that is in the woods around here I've found in my NAS field guide. Marijuana is not listed although it is in my "weeds" book LOL

[letslearntogether47]

Odd I was just at Barnes & Noble yesterday and they had several on trees.
Almost bought the Trees of North America guide.
But,opted for buying Tom Browns Wilderness Survival for now.

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble....20of%20n&pos=0

[rwc1969]

While looking at the wildflower book you mentioned YCC I came upon an old book from the fifties with B and W photos. The Tree Identification Book by George W.D. Symonds. It looks like a real good tree ID book and has endless rave reviews. It uses a pictorial key based on leaves. floweres, fruit, bark, etc. and covers most trees ranging from Maine west into Canada to North Dakota, south to Texas and east to Florida. He aalso has a similarly named and arreanged shrub ID book. It ain't pretty and they're both 8.5X11"x1" or so thick, kinda big for a field guide, both books are about 15 bucks each.

The only negative reviews I saw were from the western part of the country and even they said it was a good book, just not good for their area.

[your_comforting_company]

My mom is looking for some shrub ID books. I'll pass along the info and might grab a copy myself. Thanks for the heads-up!