Description

For more than a century, Americans have carried on a debate about their forests, and the sometimes-heated discussions continue today. In American Forests, Douglas MacCleery traces this debate from the time that forest management first came to the United States and became the center of the Conservation Movement.

Included are the extent of U.S. forests prior to European settlement; Native American peoples’ effects on the forest for fuel, ironmaking, transportation, and expanded lumber production; and early conservation efforts. Forests on logged lands have regenerated, either through natural processes or human effort, unless converted to agricultural or urban use

MacCleery’s history of recovery establishes that the “timber famine” that Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot so stridently forecast in the early twentieth century never occurred. He shows that logged lands have come back, either through natural processes or human effort, unless converted to agricultural or urban use. Also, many species of wildlife—once dwindled—are again abundant, forested watersheds are better protected, and the number of forest acres that burn each year has been dramatically reduced. Nonetheless, as MacCleery points out, the new forests are different from the original forests, which had evolved according to natures rhythms and in response to native peoples’ significant manipulation. And while some wildlife species thrive under the new conditions, other do not. Appreciation of the forest as an ecosystem increases, but the debate is not over.

Douglas W. MacCleery is a professional forester who has worked in natural resource management and policy for his entire career. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in forestry from Michigan State University.