Looking for Longleaf
The Fall and Rise of an American Forest
Lawrence S. Earley
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 10/2005
Pages: 336
Subject: Nature, Technology and Engineering
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9780807875780
DESCRIPTION
In Looking for Longleaf, Lawrence S. Earley explores the history of these forests and the astonishing biodiversity of the longleaf ecosystem, drawing on extensive research and telling the story through first-person travel accounts and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners. For centuries, these vast grass-covered forests provided pasture for large cattle herds, in addition to serving as the world's greatest source of naval stores. They sustained the exploitative turpentine and lumber industries until nearly all of the virgin longleaf had vanished.
Looking for Longleaf demonstrates how, in the twentieth century, forest managers and ecologists struggled to understand the special demands of longleaf and to halt its overall decline. The compelling story Earley tells here offers hope that with continued human commitment, the longleaf pine might not just survive, but once again thrive.