Reading the forested landscape : a natural history of New England

by Tom Wessels

Paper Book, 1999

Status

2022

Call number

QK121 .W47 1999

Publication

Woodstock, Vt. : New York, N.Y. : Countryman Press ; Distributed by W.W. Norton, [1999]

Description

"Reading the Forested Landscape is a full and original portrait of New England's forests, tracing their evolution from precolonial days to the present through an examination of the patterns we see today." "This book teaches us to read a landscape the way we might solve a mystery. Each chapter addresses a form of forest disturbance common in New England - fire, logging, and blight are examples - and depicts it in an extraordinary, full-page etching. Studying Wessels's descriptions of forest scenes in conjunction with Cohen's visual portraits teaches us to identify disturbance patterns and, in turn, to take our discoveries outside and read the history written in the character of the land."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Bookmarque
I’m so mad that I won’t get a chance to put the observational exercises and information into practice because I will probably never live in New England again and Wisconsin is quite different (no stone walls for example!). The forest has always been a special place for me and learning how to
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read the signs of natural changes and human passage makes it even better. I never feel alienated in the woods, but nothing I've read helped me connect the way this book did. It was amazing to find another person who feels so passionate about the woods. If you're a New England naturalist or photographer or someone who just loves the outdoors; go get this book before it goes out of print!
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LibraryThing member willszal
I loved reading this book! I feel very at home in New England, and this book deepened this sense. I'm an amateur landscape-reader, and found that this book helped me know what's next in building this skill. By becoming more observant, we grow closer to our environment.

Interesting Tidbits

Almost all
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of the stone walls in New England were build between 1810 and 1840, and were a minimum of four-and-a-half feet tall! The traditional method of fencing used split rails, but deforestation led to a shortage of lumber for such use. This period was known as Sheep Fever, as a severe economic bubble formed around merino wool. New England became home to millions of merino sheep during this brief period.

Riparian areas were home to forests similar to the Redwoods in California: four-hundred-plus-year-old white pines over two-hundred feet tall.

Beavers went extinct for a while in New England due to the fur trade. Along with Native Americans, beavers were the other primary keystone species, transforming landscapes with their lifestyles.

New England was covered by a glacier up until 15,000 years ago. And yet we didn't arrive at today's rough forest composition until 3,000 years ago!

Sugar maples are susceptible to crown die-off due to salt. This is quite unfortunate, as the largest and most-accessible sugar maples tent to be adjacent to roads.

Types of disturbance:
*Fire
*Pasturing
*Logging
*Blights
*Beaver activity
*Blowdowns
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Language

Physical description

199 p.; 23 cm

ISBN

0881504203 / 9780881504200

Barcode

34662000821931
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