A Foundational Conservation Story Revived Ancient writers observed that forests always recede
as civilizations develop and grow. The great Roman poet Ovid wrote that before civilization
began "even the pine tree stood on its own very hills" but when civilization took over "the
mountain oak the pine were felled." This happened for a simple reason: trees have been the
principal fuel and building material of every society over the millennia from the time urban
areas were settled until the middle of the nineteenth century. To this day trees still fulfill
these roles for a good portion of the world's population. Without vast supplies of wood from
forests the great civilizations of Sumer Assyria Egypt Crete Greece Rome the Islamic
World Western Europe and North America would have never emerged. Wood in fact is the unsung
hero of the technological revolution that has brought us from a stone and bone culture to our
present age. Until the ascendancy of fossil fuels wood was the principal fuel and building
material from the dawn of civilization. Its abundance or scarcity greatly shaped as A Forest
Journey ably relates the culture demographics economy internal and external politics and
technology of successive societies over the millennia. The Forest Journey was originally
published in 1989 and updated in 2005. The book's comprehensive coverage of the major role
forests have played in human life -- told with grace fluency imagination and humor -- gained
it recognition as a Harvard Classic in Science and World History and as one of Harvard's "One
Hundred Great Books." Others receiving the honor include such luminaries as Stephen Jay Gould
and E.O. Wilson. This is a foundational conservation story that should not be lost in the
archives. This new updated and revised edition emphasizes the importance of forests in the
fight against global warming and the urgency to protect what remains of the great trees and
forests of the world.
