America's 754 million acres of forest constitute more than a major geographical feature. They are intricately woven into the national economy and culture-providing a fifth of the nation's industrial raw material, protecting and regulating its watersheds, providing grazing range for a sizeable portion of livestock, producing most of its game and much of its nonsport wildlife, and attracting millions of tourists annually.
The Southern Forest: Geography, Ecology, and Silviculture examines in-depth the forests of the South, providing a comprehensive description of the region from which most of the nation's wood for housing and paper will be grown and harvested in the future. Closing the old-growth forests of the Northwest and reduction of harvests in the tropics necessitate the U.S. South intensifying tree growth to accommodate society's requirements. This book provides the information for practicing foresters, researchers, and students to increase forest growth dramatically for the many forest types and in the various subregions without detrimentally affecting soil, species diversity, or long-term aesthetics.
The four factors of site-edaphic, biotic, climatic, and physiographic-are given special attention. Over 200 photographs; an extensive listing of literature citations; and appendixes of tree, insect, and disease agents are included. With files of field notes and photographs, Walker and Oswald revisit-and take the reader along to grasp-the South's rich forests. A land manager will need no other reference to the soils, biotic components, climate or physiology of the region.

First published in 1990, Forests explores the ecological, economic, and human influences on over thirty significant types of woodlands. Laurence Walker focuses especially on the effects of site factors--climate, physiography, biology, and soils--upon the growth of various kinds of trees. Projects for amateur naturalists, reading lists, and a glossary make this the perfect introduction for general readers.

When the first European explorers reached the southern shores of North America in the early seventeenth century, they faced a solid forest that stretched all the way from the Atlantic coast to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. The ways in which they and their descendants used-and abused-the forest over the next nearly four hundred years form the subject of The Southern Forest. In chapters on the explorers, pioneers, lumbermen, boatbuilders, and foresters, Laurence Walker chronicles the constant demands that people have made on forest resources in the South. He shows how the land's very abundance became its greatest liability, as people overhunted the animals, clearcut the forests, and wore out the soil with unwise farming practices-all in a mistaken belief that the forest's bounty (including new ground to be broken) was inexhaustible. With the advent of professional forestry in the twentieth century, however, the southern forest has made a comeback. A professional forester himself, Walker speaks from experience of the difficulties that foresters face in balancing competing interests in the forest. How, for example, does one reconcile the country's growing demand for paper products with the insistence of environmental groups that no trees be cut? Should national forests be strictly recreational areas, or can they support some industrial logging? How do foresters avoid using chemical pesticides when the public protests such natural management practices as prescribed burning and tree cutting? This personal view of the southern forest adds a new dimension to the study of southern history and culture. The primeval southern forest is gone, but, with careful husbandry on the part of all users, the regenerated southern forest may indeed prove to be the inexhaustible resource of which our ancestors dreamed.

The North American Forests: Geography, Ecology, and Silviculture describes where, why, and how the many kinds of trees found on this continent grow in silvical associations - called forest cover types. Thirteen chapters describe more than 100 forest cover types, involving several times that many species. Diverse woodlands discussed include:
o The Arctic tundra
o Florida's tropics
o The Atlantic's coastal pond pines
o The Pacific's Monterey pines
o The summits of Englemann spruce
o Sea-Level swamps of baldcypress

The text acts as a singular guidebook for specialists and students in natural resource disciplines examining the geography, ecology, and silvicultural practices for sustaining North American forests; students in curriculum's involving regional silviculture; and persons examining the goods and services from this varied, fascinating renewable resource. Benefiting from the author's five decades of practicing forestry, the reader will trek into virtually every "neck of the woods" - perusing exceptional field notes and photographs of the continent's forests.


Features
o Offers a summary of forests in North America, ecological positions, and best management approaches for the benefit of mankind
o Contains a readable language for both college students and professionals
o Provides information covering the forests of Canada and the US
o Lists "Further Readings" and "Subjects for Discussion and Essay" at the end of each chapter
o Includes more than 100 photographs
Audience
o Foresters o Ecologists o Natural Resource Managers o Forestry Students
Contents
Foreword Preface The Continent's Forests Conifer Forests of the North Broadleaf Forests of the North, Including Mid-Continent Pine Forests of the South Other Conifer Forests of the South Upland Broadleaf Forests of the South Broadleaf Forests of Southern Wetlands Mixed Conifer-Broadleaf Forests of the East Pine Forests of the West Spruce and Fir Forests of the Wests Other Conifer Forests of the West Broadleaf Forests of the West Tropical Forests of Hawaii, South Florida, and Puerto Rico Appendix Glossary Scientific Names of Trees Mentioned in the Text Index
Catalog no. SL1760 August 1998, c. 4448 pp., 6x9 ISBN: 1-5744-4176-0 $69.95