Customer Reviews

Common Sense Forestry (Books for Wiser Living from Mother Earth News)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased 23 acres of worn out farmland that I wanted to make into a productive forest. Most of the books I found discussed things from a commerical/industrial scale, and seemed to discourage innovation and experimentation. Mr. Morsbach's book discusses the experiences of someone who has 'been and done' over the last thirty years, with notable sucesses and honest appraisal of failures & setbacks. I especially like how he shows how 'experts' can have different opinions and even be quite wrong! His ideas about mixing species and direct seeding are very interesting, and have changed my approach to planting. I would certainly advise anyone who is planning to raise trees and is interested in woodland stewardship.

This is a book for anyone who likes to read about someone's interesting life or observations, for anyone who likes to get a glimpse of a good man's mind and heart, for anyone who enjoys seeing things in a new way, and--of course--for anyone who owns or may buy wooded property. For the latter, it is an indispensable guide. For the rest of us, it is both delightful reading and consciousness-raising.
Hans Morsbach, a Chicago businessman and (for the past 30 years) also a Wisconsin forester, provides all the practical advice to amateur foresters he would have liked to have had 30 years ago. The book is full of practical suggestions and insights; however, it is anything but a dry how-to book. Morsbach is often funny, particularly when he shares his early naivete and many false starts, or, say, when he notes under a picture of a hawk perch that the hawks express their admiration by never perching on it.

He is also deadly serious, offering many insights and suggestions based upon his own intensive research, such as the use of hedgerows to enhance the success of any crop. A new insight for me (with no intention of ever starting a forest or growing any crops) was that lone individuals can do something worthwhile for the environment by buying and cultivating even small wooded properties.

But what is so remarkable is that Morsbach writes with such humility, honesty, and love--of humanity, of nature, and of his own learning experiences. He writes in clear simple candid language with an uncanny ability to let the reader see into the heart and mind of a savvy businessman who loves nature and cares about our environment. He has clearly raised the bar for practical guide books.

An easy and witty prose makes this book a welcome relief from other books on the subject. The extensive Index makes it easy to find subjects scattered across chapters.

A very comprehensive treatment of Direct Seeding, which is the low-cost approach to establishing a forest and very suitable to the small woodland owner.

The Economic Analysis chapter is quite useful and an eye opener.

This book will give you a second opinion on what is recommended by professional foresters and the DNR (Amazing fact: they are not always right !) Required reading for anybody that is looking into starting tree farming on a small scale.

I started my own tree-planting at about the same time the author did, in the early 70s, and I wish I had his insights. (I'm sure he wishes he had them then, too!) Not that it's ever too late. I'm going to gather some nuts this fall and try his direct seeding technique. I generally admire his independent approach. While I don't agree with everything he writes (he's a little too cavalier about the Lord!), I believe this book is one of the best around for the amateur landowner. It made me excited about my land again.

Bless Hans for the oodles of practical hands on advice he offers for the private woodland owner. He has helped me feel less dumb & scared about the 680 acres I own in N.C. Wisconsin. I find that on the one hand the woods is a restoration of my soul & on the other hand a burden of responsibility. For me, Common Sense Forestry has been way better than a university extension short course in forestry.

This is a highly readable book. The author generously shares his considerable knowledge in language that makes the text easy to understand. Everything about it is well done: the book is well-organized and well written, with beautiful illustrations.
It's a pleasure to read, even for someone who will never grow a forest.

"Common Sense Forestry" may be a unique concept on the silviculture shelves. It most certainly is a welcome rarity: both an entertaining read and a mother lode of basic, practical information.
Morsbach has selected with a critical eye items of conventional forestry gospel and subjected them to empirical scrutiny. The survivors of these tests, as well as his own ideas and those gleaned from his "Mavericks of Forestry" circle are included in this common sense (no nonsense) treatise on growing trees.
He seems to have given most ideas a fair look and a field test before he bestows his imprimatur. The many illustrations are well conceived and executed and are a helpful adjunct.
Morsbach offers strong arguments on biodiversity (imperative), clearcutting (a no-no), herbicides (a last resort) and the economics of it all.
I wish I could have read it during my woodland years, but it's here now to enjoy and benefit from. Thanks, Hans.

Don Mulcahy
Buffalo County, Wisconsin

This is a very interesting and informative book. Hans tells you a life story on how he became an amateur forester from a Novice to Expert perspective.

Especially interesting were Hans' experiments with growing forests on old pasture and the frustrations of this method of "starting out". His "very expensive forest" planting method (pictured in glossy after p. 118, 6th picture in glossy section) looks wildly healthy and productive, suppressing competition through it's dense planting. He devotes three chapters to forest establishment methods: succession, planting seedlings, and direct seeding. This guy is a thinker and experimenter. Take note agroforesters and other monocultural stand enthusiasts!!!

Chapter 16 lists some of his forestry heros: Wilhelm Bode, Larry Krotz, and Dave Johnson. One of my own is Hans Morsbach. Thank God there are more foresters everyday concerned about SUSTAINABLE forestry.

His last chapter "An historical perspective" tells the sad tale told from ages past, civilization depends on it's trees for survival. Hans' techniques, learned by hard knocks, could save the world!

If you are interested in the subject, this book is an easy read and will be as hard to put down as your favorite novel.

I'm about half way through and I'm not looking forward to being done. I will definitely use it for future reference.

I usually don't write reviews on books thinking instead that readers should base their opinions of what is written on what they read in the book itself rather than on what a review states. However, on this particular book, the work was so factually wrong and poorly written that I had to say something.
I came looking for a book in order to learn more about the establishment and planting of woodlots. However what I got was a bunch of opinions and false hypothesis from an author who expects his word to be gospel, because he is from Chicago and was able to move out to rural America and make it work. Some many parts of this book were pure garbage. In fact the author even goes so far as to call the human race the worst "invasive species" of all time. What does that have to do with forestry?

Go talk to your local forest office or your local county extension. You will learn more about sound forestry principles in a five minute conversation with them than you ever could by cracking this "book."