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Our Forest Legacy: Today’s Decisions,
Tomorrow’s Consequences
Chris Maser
Library of Congress
Catalog Number SD143.M36
288 pages
Photos, illustrations
Publication date January
1, 2005
Paperback $19.95 ISBN
0-944624-46-4 or ISBN-13 9780944624463
Our Forest Legacy
answers the question “why native forests are important to our lives?” Maser
provides not the superficial answer about wood products but rather the deep
answer about how forests are connected to both the material and spiritual sides
of our lives. Native forests remind us that a single living thing can exist for
thousands of years, teaching us the valuable lesson that humans as a whole have
a long history and an even longer future. Maser adopts the metaphor of a “living
trust” in order to explore the relationship between humans and forests. We hold
the forests for future generations. If we destroy an 800 year old forest today,
it is not likely that a replacement forest will ever attain 800 years again.
These decisions go to the
heart of our natural environment since, as Maser discusses, forests are the
heart of the cycle of nutrients in the ecosystem and are nature’s thermostat –
controlling weather patterns that include both temperature and rainfall. They
are also the earth’s great air filters, producing most of the oxygen we breathe.
The discussion is built
on sound forest science and more than 35 years as a consultant to the forest
industry. Maser examine the recent rise is catastrophic forest fires and the
federal “Healthy Forests Initiative” measures to deal with fires. He examines
forest policy going back to the early years of the 20th century and the creation
of the US Forest Service.
“This
thoughtful and inspirational book is as much a philosophical
monograph as a scientific text, although the elements of philosophy
and science are nicely blended. . . . [T]he book is devoted to an
examination of biophysical, social and economic principles that
underscore any and all changes, whether intentional or
unintentional, that humans impose upon forests. . . . The book
concludes with the author’s soulful and emotional call for change,
emphasizing the importance of first changing ourselves and the way
we think. . . . Maser presents a unique, possibly visionary, view of
how humans interact with forests and how the author feels this
interaction
should change.”
— Dr. Barbara
J. Bond, Professor, Forest Science, Oregon State University,
Corvallis, OR.
“Sometimes it
takes a little jolt to help one focus on important things. Chris Maser’s
book helped me remember why I became a forester in the first place. . . .
Now, over fifty years later, reading Our Forest Legacy brought those
youthful memories back in a rushing torrent – every bit as beautiful,
mysterious, and compelling
as the first time
thought. It is easy to focus only on the trees of a forest because they
are the most obvious. Maser’s book helped me remember that a forest is a
nearly incomprehensible place of complex actions, reactions, and
interactions and the trees are only part of an interdependent and
independent community. Perhaps asking for too much good fortune isn’t a
good thing but it is my ardent hope that Our Forest Legacy will help our
culture, our society, our people refocus on the values of a forest rather
than the commodities of a forest and my grandchildren will see the forests
of my dreams.”
—Clint Trammel,
Forest Manager, Pioneer Forest, Salem, MO
“Chris
Maser’s Our Forest Legacy throbs with the heartbeat of one who has
not lost that childlike fascination with the natural world. . . . It
made me think, hard, and made me aware of how deeply we are a part
of forests, and how much we are diminished by our loss of native
forests due to our greed. . . . Might this book be another Silent
Spring?”
—Jim Furnish,
Deputy Chief (ret.), National Forest Service
Click here to see the
Table of Contents
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