It contains 13 photographs and 18 figures and graphs. He shows that logged lands have come back, either through natural processes or human effort, unless converted to agricultural or urban use. Nonetheless, as MacCleery points out, the new forests are different from the original forests, which had evolved according to nature's rhythms and in response to native people's significant manipulation. And while some wildlife species thrive under the new conditions, others do not. Appreciation of the forest as an ecosystem increases, but the debate is not over.
Fire is at the heart of many forest health and sustainability issues being discussed today.
Written by the authoritative expert on the subject, this booklet documents the extraordinarily successful twentieth century campaign to prevent and suppress wildland and forest fires. Ironically, this fire exclusion has altered ecosystems in ways that increase forest susceptibility to fires and also to insect attacks. Healthy forests in America require fire. At the same time urban expansion into wildland areas has caused logistical nightmares in fighting wild fires. The result, in some cases, has been saving individual homes while fires rage on to destroy valuable timber and recreational resources.