This Part 3 suggests ways to partially—but significantly—bring back the magnificent old-growth forests that have long been lost.
Read MoreHenry David Thoreau
Forests in the American East, Part 1: A Pandemic of Shifting Baseline Syndrome
Old-growth forests in the American East have been so far gone for so long in the public consciousness that Big Timber (from private corporations to government foresters) has conned conservationists and buffaloed biologists into believing that massive and repeated logging is the only salvation of “wildlife.”
Read MoreWhy Wilderness?
Why wilderness? Why the hell not wilderness?! As Edward Abbey proclaimed in The Journey Home, “The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders.” Unfortunately, the default setting of our Western society is that nature does not have value unless we can dig it up, cut it down, graze it off, plow it under, drain it dry, make it wet, or haul it away. Even wilderness defenders need information and arguments with which to persuade an increasingly online—and out of touch—public about the importance of and threats to wilderness.
Read More