The Woods Stretched for Miles gathers essays about southern landscape and nature from nineteen writers with geographic or ancestral ties to the region. This remarkable group encompasses not only such well-known names as Wendell Berry and Rick Bass but also distinctive new voices, including Christopher Camuto, Susan Cerulean, and Eddy L. Harris. From the savannas of south Florida through the hardwood uplands of Mississippi to the coastal rivers of the Carolinas and the high mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, the range in geography covered is equally broad. With insight and eloquence, these diverse talents take up similar themes: environmental restoration, the interplay between individual and community, the definition of wildness in an area transformed by human activity, and the meaning of our reactions to the natural world. Readers will treasure the passionate and intelligent honorings of land and nature offered by this rich anthology. With the publication of The Woods Stretched for Miles, southern voices establish their abiding place in the ever-popular nature writing genre.

Eighteen-year-old Eva Kaufman is in a quandary about what to do with her life. She is passionate about doing something for the greater good, but has not yet realized what it is she wants to do. One day as Eva joins her mother and sister in some volunteer gardening in Liberty Park, she marvels at the spectacular views of the New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. Here so close to New York City, she also sees the miracle of the spring bird migration. She has no idea that the future of Liberty Park is in danger.Amanda Walters, a local park activist, suggests that Eva should apply for a position in the Park Service. The suggestion appeals to Eva, and she thinks her future looks much brighter. Unfortunately, Amanda also makes her aware of a threat to the green open lawns of the park. The B & L Foundation is eager to build a sports complex, a hotel and a botanical garden in Liberty Park. Now feeling desperate to defend the park from over-development, Eva and her family join Amanda and her friends to save the park. Public hearings turn into intense arguments, propaganda campaigns transform into threats as an entire community struggles to determine the park's future.This is a story about a young woman environmentalist joining forces with an experienced woman activist to save the environment of a national icon.