Brian Donahue

“Wildlands and Woodlands” is about the history, ecology, and conservation of the Eastern Forest of the United States—300 million acres of woodland that is home to over 100 million people. An interdisciplinary synthesis, it distills recent work in ecology, environmental history, and conservation biology. The study moves from the ecological dynamics of the pre-European forest, to the social and economic forces that drove widespread clearing and regrowth, to the conflicted history of the conservation movement. It closes by exploring the implication of ubiquitous past ecological disturbance and change for traditional ideas of conservation, and examining the potential for a new approach in the twenty-first century that reconciles wilderness preservation and sustainable productive management.