Positive Impact Forestry: A Sustainable Approach to Managing Woodlands

American Forests, Summer-Autumn, 2004 by Carl Reidel

Positive Impact Forestry: A Sustainable Approach to Managing Woodlands by Thom J. McEvoy.

$25.00. Island Press, 2004. Awarded "Best Forestry Book for 2004" by National Woodlands Owners Association]

The author's goals for this book sound reasonable and not dramatically at odds with current forestry practice: ".. to help readers understand the impacts of deliberate human activities on forests and to effect changes that are capable of providing benefits without damaging ecosystems." Soon, the reader will discover that these goals have far-reaching implications for forestry and land management practices that, for some, seem unreasonable. McEvoy proposes a new way of managing and enhancing forest ecosystems: a way that is at odds with conventional thinking about forests and forestry.

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The first several chapters offer a refreshing revision of the historical bases of forestry, a clear description of forest ecosystem dynamics and new perspectives on the tenets of silviculture, which reduce several common forestry practices and terms to "myths and misconceptions." Chapters on "positive impact harvesting" and managing forests for "wildlife and nontimber products" provide a wealth of guidance for making positive impact forestry far more than mere "low impact" or "ecosystem management forestry."

The final chapter is a concise restatement of the tenets of positive impact forestry developed throughout the book, with emphasis on the centrality of protecting soils and revising the time perspectives of traditional forestry. Like a warm spring breeze over the frozen landscape of traditional forest management, McEvoy presents an enlightened vision of forestry grounded in sound science and seasoned philosophy. Insightful and crisply written, with practical advice to make the vision a reality in the woods, this is an important book for foresters, large and small forest owners, and anyone concerned about the forests of the future.