The Dying of the Trees

I may not have not read a more important book in the last decade than this little collection of reports from the woods. It confirms what any more than casual observer of trees must have long suspected: there is not much hope -- for the forests or for us. Little talked to experts across the continent, and walked with them amidst the failing giants. From the sugarbush maples of New England, to Florida's palms, to desert saguaro's, to western Douglas Firs, to Alaskan spruce, to midwestern oaks, to butternuts, beeches, birches, dogwoods, pines, hophornbeam, and hickory: they are dying. Together with the amphibians, the mushrooms, the bacteria and the birds that inhabit forest ecosystems: they are dying. If there is any hope whatever, it may lie in radical rethinking of the human endeavor. Can we halt all logging on all national lands? Can the automotive addiction segue to a bicycle economy? Can we stop making babies and restabilize at the 1950 world population? Or is the game up? I guess I'm gonna try. A powerful and powerfully sad book, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Little painted vived portraits of the death of America's most precious and valuable forests. This book will bring you to tears as you learn about the plight of the woodlands that we brought on them ourselves. This story is not sugar-coated in the least.

hEY, THIS IS A GOOD, NUTRITIOUS READ SPANNING THE MALADIES OF THE AMERICAN FORESTS, DON'T GET ME WRONG, BUT THE UNBALANCED, CATHARTIC ANECDOTES FROM SIMILAR THINKING CRONIES WEARS ON THE READER AS DOES LITTLE'S DOOMMSDAY DIRGE AND PARANOID ASSESSMENTS OF GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS AS FEAR-WROUGHT STOOGES OF SOME AMERICAN KGB. hE COMES JUST SHORT OF OLIVER STONE IN SPINNING ACID RAIN, FOREST FIRE SUPPRESSION,TEARY EYED STORIES OF , THE DOOMED HEMLOCKS, THE DOOMED MAPLES,CRITICAL MASS DOOING THE REST OF HIS TREE FRIENDS--AND, OH YES, PEOPLE TOO. HIS ONLY CONCESSION TO HALF-FULL GLASS IS IN THE PENULTIMATE CHAPTER ON THE TREE SAVERS AND THEIR EFFORTS (WHICH HE DISSASSEMBLES AS FAULTED, OF COURSE) TO RESSURECT THE FOREST .lITTLE FINISHES ON FAMILIAR GROUND, DONNING RACHEL CARSON'S MOURNING ROBES AND DRIVING OFF INTO THE SUNSET IN HIS CO2 BURNING AUTO JUST LIKE THE REST OF US HEATHENS.

This book has vital information that we need to take into considerstion as we look at today's environmental situation. He is rather pessimistic, understandibly so, and sad about the state of the forests in America let alone the rest of the world. Things look grim and he gives a very good case for seeing it that way. It is strange and kind of eerie that Little gives almost no solution to this problem and that any solution is almost hopeless. Everyone likes to think that they have all the answers a lot of times. Like Rachel Carson having all these nice solutions to the problem of pesticides at the end of her book. Some of them were definately helpful but despite her warnings there is over twice the pesticide use as there was in 1962. I guess Little is telling us to get real. There is no simple answer to these problems and any complex answer is almost never put into action. The corporate world isn't about to do anything for the environment unless it is economically profitable and what's the chance of that happening? Unless we come up with energy which doesn't pollute a lot faster than what people are forcasting soon, we are in trouble. That is basically what he is saying. I think he got a little too upset about the government's denial and corporate denial about the issues. It doesn't seem to help much by getting ourselves all upset by others problems and obstacles in our fight to save the trees. In this regard I thought he should have remained a bit more objective and not let them get to him the way he did.

Everyone has heard about "Waldsterben" (dying forest syndrome) in Germany and we all assume that the forests are relatively healthy here. Charles Little shows that this is not the case at all! From coast to coast and border to border, from western forests to New England forests, the forests everywhere are dying due to weakened immune systems (!) and the resulting susceptibility to disease, pollution, bacteria, insects. It's a sad and frightening story.Everyone should know about this book and the state of the forests. Some of the most interesting points that are raised: almost every acre of old growth that once existed in this country has been cut. The total surviving old-growth would fit in a square 49 miles on each side! It wasn't just in the West that there were big trees: the forests of Michigan were made up of huge trees. Those forests are gone and therein lies the biggest problem: in cutting the original forests so thoroughly we destroyed a balanced eco-system: the state of the trees today is most likely the result of the relentless destructions of one and two hundred years ago. This means there are no easy answers since we can't easily bring back the big trees. The same is true of the suppression of forest fires and the ensuing build-up in undergrowth that results in catastrophic fires: there is just too much undergrowth to even think of manual removal of it as an option. This is a very sobering book and one that we all need to share with our concerned friends. There may not be any answers now--but we need to know how serious the situation is.