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Wanted! Mountain Cedars: Dead and Alive
Wanted! Mountain Cedars, Dead and Alive tells the story of Mountain Cedar trees that grow in the Texas Hill Country. Over the last 100 years, these trees have been characterized as non-native, water-hogging, grass-killing, toxic, useless species to justify their removal. The result has been a glut of Mountain Cedar tall tales and anti-cedar sentiments.
Inside this ambitious, well-researched book, natural resources planner and ecologist Elizabeth McGreevy presents another perspective of these trees, also known as Ashe Junipers or Blueberry Junipers. While digging into Texas Hill Country politics, history, economics, culture, and ecology, McGreevy tracks down the origins of each tall tale to determine what is true, what is false, and what lies somewhere in between. She also explains why people respected Mountain Cedars before the 1900s, and what events led to the trees' downfall and the landscape we see today.
Through a series of arguments, this book serves to replace anti-cedar sentiments with a more constructive, less emotional approach to Hill Country land management and a perspective that not all Mountain Cedars are bad.
Inside this ambitious, well-researched book, natural resources planner and ecologist Elizabeth McGreevy presents another perspective of these trees, also known as Ashe Junipers or Blueberry Junipers. While digging into Texas Hill Country politics, history, economics, culture, and ecology, McGreevy tracks down the origins of each tall tale to determine what is true, what is false, and what lies somewhere in between. She also explains why people respected Mountain Cedars before the 1900s, and what events led to the trees' downfall and the landscape we see today.
Through a series of arguments, this book serves to replace anti-cedar sentiments with a more constructive, less emotional approach to Hill Country land management and a perspective that not all Mountain Cedars are bad.
608 pages, Paperback
Published May 6, 2021
About the author
Elizabeth McGreevy
1 book2 followersElizabeth McGreevy is a natural resources planner, writer, and public speaker. A sixth-generation Texan, McGreevy has produced ecology-based development and management plans in the Texas Hill Country for more than twenty years.
McGreevy obtained a master’s degree from Texas A&M University in landscape architecture with a focus on environmental planning, landscape ecology, and cultural geography. She also holds an undergraduate degree in biology from Randolph College in Virginia and is a certified permaculture planner.
McGreevy obtained a master’s degree from Texas A&M University in landscape architecture with a focus on environmental planning, landscape ecology, and cultural geography. She also holds an undergraduate degree in biology from Randolph College in Virginia and is a certified permaculture planner.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 29, 2026
In a region that, for so long and only until recently, has suffered from either antipathy or general disregard from a scientific standpoint - this book by McGreevy stands to firmly establish ecological context for one of the most maligned and misunderstood trees in all of North America.
Long considered the devil by many, McGreevy thoroughly and methodically dismantles the numerous myths, misconceptions, and misgivings that surround the Ashe Juniper. In doing so, she also reveals deeper issues that face the region known as the Texas Hill Country and how the Ashe Juniper and its (incorrectly) perceived threat is actual symptomatic of deeper lying issues.
Beyond even this, in these arguments and teardowns, she also helps illuminate that this region and the perception we have around it in the modern day are often not based on either reality or historical fact. They are based in post 1950's, post modernization (of that region) hearsay.
Anyone even remotely interested in ecology, Texan or not, should read this book just to see how far science and ecological management can stray from the eventual 'correct' path when it's either intentionally or unintentionally based on an inherently flawed foundation.
Long considered the devil by many, McGreevy thoroughly and methodically dismantles the numerous myths, misconceptions, and misgivings that surround the Ashe Juniper. In doing so, she also reveals deeper issues that face the region known as the Texas Hill Country and how the Ashe Juniper and its (incorrectly) perceived threat is actual symptomatic of deeper lying issues.
Beyond even this, in these arguments and teardowns, she also helps illuminate that this region and the perception we have around it in the modern day are often not based on either reality or historical fact. They are based in post 1950's, post modernization (of that region) hearsay.
Anyone even remotely interested in ecology, Texan or not, should read this book just to see how far science and ecological management can stray from the eventual 'correct' path when it's either intentionally or unintentionally based on an inherently flawed foundation.
May 5, 2024
Incredibly interesting and educational book. This is very well-researched and approachable with so much important information for our ecosystem. A must read for anyone in the Texas Hill Country.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews