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(More customer reviews)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.
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