Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees
Winner of the 2021 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing

"This deeply nourishing book invites us to reclaim reciprocity with the living world." —Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

Once, farmers knew how to make a living hedge and fed their flocks on tree-branch hay. Rural people knew how to prune hazel to foster abundance: both of edible nuts, and of straight, strong, flexible rods for bridges, walls, and baskets. Townspeople cut their beeches to make charcoal to fuel ironworks. Shipwrights shaped oaks to make hulls. No place could prosper without its inhabitants knowing how to cut their trees so they would sprout again.

Pruning the trees didn’t destroy them. Rather, it created the healthiest, most sustainable and most diverse woodlands that we have ever known. In this journey from the English fens to Spain, Japan, and California, William Bryant Logan rediscovers what was once an everyday ecology. He offers us both practical knowledge about how to live with trees to mutual benefit and hope that humans may again learn what the persistence and generosity of trees can teach.

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Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees
Winner of the 2021 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing

"This deeply nourishing book invites us to reclaim reciprocity with the living world." —Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

Once, farmers knew how to make a living hedge and fed their flocks on tree-branch hay. Rural people knew how to prune hazel to foster abundance: both of edible nuts, and of straight, strong, flexible rods for bridges, walls, and baskets. Townspeople cut their beeches to make charcoal to fuel ironworks. Shipwrights shaped oaks to make hulls. No place could prosper without its inhabitants knowing how to cut their trees so they would sprout again.

Pruning the trees didn’t destroy them. Rather, it created the healthiest, most sustainable and most diverse woodlands that we have ever known. In this journey from the English fens to Spain, Japan, and California, William Bryant Logan rediscovers what was once an everyday ecology. He offers us both practical knowledge about how to live with trees to mutual benefit and hope that humans may again learn what the persistence and generosity of trees can teach.

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Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees

Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees

by William Bryant Logan
Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees

Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees

by William Bryant Logan

Hardcover

$27.95 
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Overview

Winner of the 2021 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing

"This deeply nourishing book invites us to reclaim reciprocity with the living world." —Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass

Once, farmers knew how to make a living hedge and fed their flocks on tree-branch hay. Rural people knew how to prune hazel to foster abundance: both of edible nuts, and of straight, strong, flexible rods for bridges, walls, and baskets. Townspeople cut their beeches to make charcoal to fuel ironworks. Shipwrights shaped oaks to make hulls. No place could prosper without its inhabitants knowing how to cut their trees so they would sprout again.

Pruning the trees didn’t destroy them. Rather, it created the healthiest, most sustainable and most diverse woodlands that we have ever known. In this journey from the English fens to Spain, Japan, and California, William Bryant Logan rediscovers what was once an everyday ecology. He offers us both practical knowledge about how to live with trees to mutual benefit and hope that humans may again learn what the persistence and generosity of trees can teach.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393609417
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 03/26/2019
Pages: 384
Sales rank: 1,008,729
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

William Bryant Logan is a practicing arborist and the author of four acclaimed books on nature: Sprout Lands, Dirt, Oak, and Air. He is on the faculty of the New York Botanical Garden and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

A Tree to Save New York 1

Forgotten Words 7

Remembering 14

The Sprout Lands 31

Favorite Things 41

Branching 55

Spaghetti Forest 60

On the Levels 67

The Invention of the Street 79

The Spring 84

Mother Hazel 92

To Lay a Hedge 95

Can You Handle It? 107

Space Invaders 111

A Walk in the Twelfth Century 118

Boat Wood 125

Hill Girt 142

The Commons 155

Remembering the Future 159

The Rhythm of Trees 167

Standing and Sitting 180

Instrument of Light 198

Making Good Sticks 207

The Paradise of Sprouts 226

When Wood Won't Sprout 238

Sami Pine 243

Harvest of Mast 247

Nagereba 251

Into the Woods 277

Ever More 289

Volunteers 294

What White's Willow Said 303

Bibliography 307

Illustration Credits 319

Index 321

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