The Northern Forest

by David Dobbs, Richard Ober (With)

Overview

The Northern Forest is one of the most resilient and valuable forests in the world. This huge, still largely unspoiled ecosystem lies within a day's drive of a third of the nation's population. Intense pressures are now disrupting centuries-old patterns of land ownership and use, causing economic, ecological, and social upheaval.

Dobbs and Ober closely focus on the lives of Northern Forest residents—a mill worker, a forester, several loggers, a fishing guide, and a Christmas tree-farming family—and discover an extraordinary sense of place that arises in those who have a continuous, working relationship with the land.

The relationships of these people with the forest are too often misunderstood by those hoping to preserve the region. The authors assert that environmentalists must finally reinvent their approach to land conservation by creating meaningful, respectful alliances with residents of the special areas they would save.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780930031817
Publisher:	Chelsea Green Publishing
Publication date:	02/01/1996
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	5.54(w) x 9.14(h) x 1.03(d)

About the Author

David Dobbs is a journalist who has written feature articles on environmental issues and other subjects for many magazines, including Outside, Harrowsmith Country Life, Popular Science, and the Los Angeles Times. For more on Dobbs, please visit his website at daviddobbs.net.

Richard Ober is communications director of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the state's largest conservation organization, and editor of the Society's magazine Forest Notes. To learn more about the Society, please visit their website, www.spnhf.org.

Editorial Reviews

Booklist-
Environmental writers Dobbs and Ober detail the land and people of the Northern Forest, an area of "26 million acres stretching across upper New England and New York." Each chapter covers the forest in a particular state--New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York--with each chapter delving into the people, politics, and economics of the state it covers. The many individuals interviewed here are all tied to the land in some way. Everyone gets his or her say, from loggers and mill workers to farmers and people working in the tourist industries; and these folks are really the center of this book. Their lives are compelling and complex, as is their relationship to the land. Intelligent and objective. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Brian McCombie

Freelance journalist Dobbs and environmentalist Ober here deftly weave the concerns and dreams of loggers, landowners, foresters and resort owners into a rich tapestry demonstrating that people with widely divergent perspectives can share a vision of the land they love-in this case, the forests of New England and New York. The authors argue convincingly that healthy local economies and healthy forests are not mutually exclusive. They then attempt to redefine the environmental debate over these lands by asserting that the real challenge is ``not how to `save the Northern Forest,' but how to protect these woods by using them well.'' A striking conclusion is that even as the forests are being destroyed, very few villains are responsible; rather, misplaced economic and political incentives, not thoughtless individuals, are much more often to blame. The authors believe meaningful progress will be made only when the environmental community forms alliances with local communities. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Dobbs and Ober focus on the lives of several Northern Forest residents--a mill worker, a forester, a logger, a fishing guide, and a third-generation tree-farming family--to illustrate the relationships between these people and the forest. The authors contend that environmentalists must reinvent their approach to land-use questions, and in particular, must create meaningful, respectful alliances with residents of the special areas they want to see protected. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews