America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery [Hardcover]

Thomas M. Bonnicksen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471136220 | ISBN-13: 978-0471136224 | Publication Date: January 24, 2000 | Edition: 1

At the time of European discovery, the ancient North American forests stretched across nearly half the continent. And while today little remains of this past glory, efforts are underway to bring back some of the diverse ecosystems of that era. America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery provides scientists and professionals with essential information for forest restoration and conservation projects, while presenting a compelling and far-reaching account of how the North American landscape has evolved over the past 18,000 years.

The book weaves historical accounts and scientific knowledge into a dynamic narrative about the ancient forests and the events that shaped them. Divided into two major parts, it covers first the glaciers and forests of the Ice Age and the influences of native peoples, and then provides an in-depth look at these majestic forests through the eyes of the first European explorers. Changes in climate and elevation, the movement of trees northward, the assembly of modern forests, and qualities that all ancient forests shared are also thoroughly examined.

A special feature of this book is its self-contained introduction to the early history of Native American peoples and their environment. The author draws on his roots in the Osage nation as well as painstaking research through the historical record, offering a complete discussion of how the cultural practices of hunting, agriculture, and fire helped form the ancient forests.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Despite these misgivings, I think America's Ancient Forests is a much needed text, written by a skilled forest ecologist and his historian. It deserves a place in every restorationist's library alongside Gordon Whitney's From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain and Michael Willams' comprehensive Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography." (Ecological Restoration, Vol. 19, No. 4, 11/01)

"What a wonderful synthesis of information from fields as widely varied as botany, ecology, geology, archaeology, anthropology, and history! Thomas Bonnicksen has produced a work that will capture the imagination of anyone interested in the grandeur and beauty of the forests of North America."(Botanical Research Institute of Texas, March 2002)

From the Author

I wrote this book for anyone who loves forests. My love of forests began when I first dipped a canoe paddle into a northern Wisconsin river as a boy. A time that now seems very long ago. I knew little about the forests I saw back then. I owe part of my enthusiasm for forests to my father who seemed to love being outdoors more than anything. Native Americans were part of my mother's ancestry. So a little Native American blood flows through my veins. I like to think it is enough to make me keenly aware of my natural surroundings and deeply appreciative of this land. Therefore, I went to the University of California-Berkeley to study forests and became a professor of forest science at Texas A & M University. This book represents a lifelong enthusiasm for ancient forests and over thirty-years of study. The book "America's Ancient Forests" ends where most books on forests begin. It sweeps across vast reaches of time and space to tell the story of America's forests from the Ice Age to the age of European discovery. It tells how the earth's climate affected the disassembly and assembly of forests. But this saga is not just about climate and trees. Native Americans were an integral part of America's forests. The forests and the people who lived there formed an inseparable whole that developed together over millennia. The book describes this relationship and shows how Native Americans helped to create the ancient forests that Europeans found beautiful enough to set aside in national parks. Although thoroughly documented, the book reads like a story. Glaciers snap trees and scrape the landscape clean, trees retreat southward and form Ice Age forests, and then they separate and migrate northward to form modern forests when the ice sheets melt. Paleoindians wander through Ice Age forests as the trees head northward in a warming climate. They brave awesome floods, wildfires, dust storms, volcanic eruptions, and great beasts as they spread out and settle two continents. They hunt, gather wild plants, and burn forests and grasslands, and their descendants develop agriculture and great cities. Then European adventurers arrive and risk their lives exploring America's forests. They were rewarded with a spectacle of unrivaled beauty and diversity. Many of them wrote about what they saw, experienced, and thought as they traveled through these forests. The book weaves their words together with the work of scientists to tell this story of America's Ancient Forests and the native peoples that helped to shape them. I hope the reader feels the same excitement and sense of discovery that I felt when I read their accounts and wrote this book.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471136220
• ISBN-13: 978-0471136224
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Thomas Bonnicksen's America's Ancient Forests, January 19, 2001

By 

Robert W. Wernerehl (Barneveld, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery (Hardcover)

This book could have been titled America's Ancient Landscapes. One of the pleasant surprises about this book is that it deals with all types of landscapes: prairies, barrens, savannas, and all types of wetlands, as well as forests. For those of us in the Midwest, who deal with all of those types, this is a great bonus. Bonnicksen gives us the needed background, through the tremendous changes of the ice age and the plant migrations that followed, to the landscape affects of the Native Americans, to be able to knowledgeably manage natural areas, and restorations. The background on the Indians is so very thorough. You can't help but acquire a new impression of how important and ubiquitous their influence was. What I really like about this book is the complete documentation, done in the old fashioned way, with footnotes! The chapter on fire had 317 footnotes, all of which can be looked up in first the Notes and Citations, then in the extensive Bibliography, which alone covers 75 pages! This is a great reference work. If you can't afford it, get your local library to purchase a copy. I did!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thomas M. Bonnicksen Brilliant Paen to our Ancient Forests, September 27, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Swarthmore, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery (Hardcover)

Professor Bonnicksen has devoted his career to the care and protection of the forests. Where public relations folks talk the talk, Professor Bonnicksen walks the walk. Ancient Forests is a tour through history, a tour de forest that takes us from ancient lands and brings us to the present day, making us realize that from the forest we came and from the forests we shall go. A member of the Congressional Commission charged with oversight of American forest and land use and a devoted conservationist, Professor Bonnicksen in this brilliant volume brings many of his themes expounded in shorter articles and books together in a densely forested wood of pine and deciduous scented brilliance. After reading this book, no one will pass a tree and look at it the same, ever, again. Kudos to Professor Bonnicksen of Texas A & M University.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, February 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery (Hardcover)

I found this book to be very well researched and written. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the natural history of our great nation.