Living in the Appalachian Forest [Paperback]

Chris Bolgiano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2002

A thought-provoking look at how man and nature coexist, somewhat uneasily, within the Appalachian Forest, the world's most diverse temperate woodlands, 80 percent of which is privately owned-by the ancestors of homesteaders, outsiders who've bought large and small tracts, absentee landlords and landowners, private groups and institutions, and giant corporations. Interviews with a diverse group of landowners-a horse logger, a selective cutter, a ginseng grower, a clear cutter, a forest steward, a summer-camp owner, and others-and the author's own experiences as a landowner illustrate the private forest's past, present, and future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Bolgiano, author of "The Appalachian Forest" (0811701263) and "Mountain Lion" (0811728676), owns 112 acres of Appalachian woodlands near Fulks Run, Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books; 1 edition (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811728455
• ISBN-13: 978-0811728454
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,382,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sustainable Forestry from the Roots Up, August 20, 2002

By 

Paul Salstrom (St. Mary of the Woods, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living in the Appalachian Forest (Paperback)

Those of us who own and/or treasure portions of Appalachia's forest will find in Chris Bolgiano's concise 200 pages a wealth of useful information. She interviews a wide spectrum of foresters, loggers, strip-miners, nature lovers, and other "shareholders"---bringing us up-to-date about the use (and too often the abuse) of what might be the most diverse temperate forest in the world. When Bolgiano visited mountaintop- removal stripmine sites, she found that over 99 percent of the natural diversity had been destroyed---but that western elk had been imported to the stripmined land as a sort of fig leaf to cover the devastation. She describes ways that land can be put in trust and legally protected against such abuse--including against abuse by future owners. One of the book's main themes is sustainable logging---which can best be done with horses rather than machines, and which increasingly now rejects the "high-grading" system of timber selection in favor of "low-grading"---thereby leaving the best trees in place to reproduce. These practices are spreading fast in Appalachia with the help of Smartwood certification and also thanks to professional forestry consultants such as Appalachian Sustainable Development, based in southwestern Virginia. In first-person prose that often sparkles, Bolgiano relates her adventures while visiting all sorts of people whose lives and livelihoods revolve around the forest. She embeds a major delivery of crucial history and current facts in a light-hearted telling of her personal adventures. Her book is not only a pleasure to read but highly informative. It's a major resource for anyone who wants to pitch in and try to save some special part of the Appalachian region from becoming a national sacrifice area. -Paul Salstrom

5.0 out of 5 stars One of The Top Three, August 23, 2003

By 

The Trickster (Belly Button, NM, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living in the Appalachian Forest (Paperback)

...Ms Bolgiano is both a skilled researcher and a talented writer.

The newest of Ms Bolgiano's books, Living in the Appalachian Forest, zeros in on relationships between man and the wooded lands of our eastern mountains. In its pages, the reader meets people who care enough about the trees to dedicate their lives and often to risk their livelihoods to develop sustainable ways for humans to live with the forests, to use them wisely and in ways that keep the woods growing more and more healthy instead of descending into destruction. Of course, the folks who care about nothing but a quick profit appear here and there. The emphasis of Living in the Appalachian Forest, however, is on the conscientious, caring people who love the forest and the hope their activities inspire.

There's some interesting history in this book. Though I grew up in West Virginia, I had never before heard the real stories of the 1920 Matewan Massacre or the famous feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. Ms Bolgiano shares well written accounts of both these incidents, and many more.

In the pages of Living in the Appalachians, I learned quite a bit about forestry. I also became aware of several government and private organizations that involve themselves in the forest industries. Some are harmful, while many others are working diligently for sustainability.

There is a fine account with a lot of excellent description of the odious practice of mountaintop removal. This mining technique, a giant step beyond the destructiveness of even poorly managed strip mining, is used widely in the Appalachians by supposedly legitimate mining companies under the watch of supposedly honest government agencies.

Living in the Appalachian Forest is truly a fine book. It is a work of considerable insight and love and of hard research and fine writing. It holds the reader's interest like a really good novel...

5.0 out of 5 stars Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable, March 19, 2003

By 

"avillage" (Lynchburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living in the Appalachian Forest (Paperback)

Fun, serious, and thoroughly readable. Chris Bolgiano weaves grounded environmentalism and ecological awareness with history and stories/case studies to bring our awareness to a complex subject. This book presents solid Appalachian forest information to the reader in a manner that keeps one reading. Forests are complex, there are many approaches and techniques to sustainability, and Ms. Bolgiano seems to get to most. Simply, I found this book a delight to read and I learned so much from it.