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Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest
Covering 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas, the longleaf pine ecosystem was, in its prime, one of the most extensive and biologically diverse ecosystems in North America. Today these magnificent forests have declined to a fraction of their original extent, threatening such species as the gopher tortoise, the red-cockaded woodpecker, and the Venus fly-trap. Conservationists have proclaimed longleaf restoration a major goal, but has it come too late?
In Looking for Longleaf, Lawrence S. Earley explores the history of these forests and the astonishing biodiversity of the longleaf ecosystem, drawing on extensive research and telling the story through first-person travel accounts and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners. For centuries, these vast grass-covered forests provided pasture for large cattle herds, in addition to serving as the world's greatest source of naval stores. They sustained the exploitative turpentine and lumber industries until nearly all of the virgin longleaf had vanished.
Looking for Longleaf demonstrates how, in the twentieth century, forest managers and ecologists struggled to understand the special demands of longleaf and to halt its overall decline. The compelling story Earley tells here offers hope that with continued human commitment, the longleaf pine might not just survive, but once again thrive.
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Covering 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas, the longleaf pine ecosystem was, in its prime, one of the most extensive and biologically diverse ecosystems in North America. Today these magnificent forests have declined to a fraction of their original extent, threatening such species as the gopher tortoise, the red-cockaded woodpecker, and the Venus fly-trap. Lawrence S. Earley explores the history of these forests and the astonishing biodiversity within them, drawing on extensive research and telling the story through first-person travel accounts and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners. The compelling story Earley tells here offers hope that with continued human commitment, the longleaf pine might not just survive, but once again thrive.
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In Looking for Longleaf, Lawrence S. Earley explores the history of these forests and the astonishing biodiversity of the longleaf ecosystem, drawing on extensive research and telling the story through first-person travel accounts and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners. For centuries, these vast grass-covered forests provided pasture for large cattle herds, in addition to serving as the world's greatest source of naval stores. They sustained the exploitative turpentine and lumber industries until nearly all of the virgin longleaf had vanished.
Looking for Longleaf demonstrates how, in the twentieth century, forest managers and ecologists struggled to understand the special demands of longleaf and to halt its overall decline. The compelling story Earley tells here offers hope that with continued human commitment, the longleaf pine might not just survive, but once again thrive.
<!--copy for pb
Covering 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas, the longleaf pine ecosystem was, in its prime, one of the most extensive and biologically diverse ecosystems in North America. Today these magnificent forests have declined to a fraction of their original extent, threatening such species as the gopher tortoise, the red-cockaded woodpecker, and the Venus fly-trap. Lawrence S. Earley explores the history of these forests and the astonishing biodiversity within them, drawing on extensive research and telling the story through first-person travel accounts and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners. The compelling story Earley tells here offers hope that with continued human commitment, the longleaf pine might not just survive, but once again thrive.
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334 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 17, 2008
As a forester, I found this book to be a good assessment of the longleaf pine ecosystem. It presents the history of the forest along with the projects being implemented to restore longleaf pine to many parts of the southeast. Reading this book gives me faith that the science of forestry is in fact progressing.
June 9, 2013
I approached this book with some trepidation, I will admit. I had no doubt that this book was well-written, well-researched, engaging, and informative (it was). I had flipped through the book before reading it and enjoyed the illustrations that were included. What worried me was that I thought it would be depressing, the author describing a wonderful ecosystem with its fascinating animals and beautiful plants and then how it was systematically destroyed over the centuries until it had practically vanished. THAT I didn’t want to read. There is certainly a place for such literature, both chronicling mankind’s destruction and serving as a call or alarm, to push people into action to save (or restore) what once was. But would it be enjoyable to read? Or just depressing?
The first part (the book was divided into four sections with chapters within each section) was pretty much how I expected it to be. Tagging along with researchers and experiencing the Longleaf Pine forests himself, the author revealed information about the biology of both the tree – Pinus palustris – itself, as well as how the ecosystem as a whole operates and the interesting plants and animals that call this region home. We learn about how truly fire dependent the Longleaf Pine forest is; one Forest Service researcher, a man by the name of Robert Mutch, proposed in 1970 that is not only is this species (and the Longleaf Pine forest as a whole) fire tolerant and fire dependent, but that it may even be pyrogenic, even promoting and creating the conditions for fires to exist (fascinating). We learn that there is more than one type of Longleaf Pine forest, each subtype depending upon a variety of conditions including moisture and soil type, each with different communities of plants and animals associated with the pine. One such regional type, the sandhill community (such as the North Carolina Sandhills), was called by B.W. Wells “Deserts in the Rain;” even though such a region is in an area of high rainfall, it has such deep, coarse sand that it is often bone dry an hour after a rainstorm, presenting such a huge challenge to plants growing that only two tree species can exist there, the Turkey Oak (Quercus laevis) and Longleaf Pine, the author describing why these two trees (especially Longleaf) is able to thrive in such an environment (and then using that to illustrate some of its success throughout the southeast).
I could go on and on about the great natural history in the first section; that despite the monotony tree-wise of Longleaf Pine forests they are extremely diverse in small, herbaceous plants, with some forests having over 400 species of such plants, making them “hands and knees” level rich ecosystems; the reader will learn about the “landlord of the sandhills,” the gopher tortoise, an animal capable of digging burrows 15 feet deep and 47 feet long, burrows that become home to many animals on either a temporary basis, fleeing fires or temporary homes otherwise, such as Indigo Snakes and the Cottontail Rabbit, and animals that pretty much live in the gopher tortoise holes and nowhere else, such as the Gopher Cricket, Gopher Tick, Gopher Frog, and a number of beetles; the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis), unique to the Longleaf Pine ecosystem and quite endangered, the only woodpecker in the world to excavate nesting cavities in living pine trees and how this rather social bird is tied in a tight relationship with both the Longleaf Pine and the Red-heart Fungus (Phellnus pini); the author talked about the Southeastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger), the largest tree squirrel in the Western Hemisphere and almost twice as big as its western cousin, and just why that is; we also learn about pitcher plants, pitcher plant moths, how insect life cycles are tied to fire…a lot of natural history ground is covered. The emphasis was more on animals than on plants but plants are certainly covered.
Ok, you can clearly see where my main interests lie, and I loved that section, but then came what I thought was the hard part; the human element. In the introduction Earley talked about how a forest that once covered 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas by 1996 had declined 98% to only 2.95 million acres. It had once covered 60% of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains; today, only about 1.4%. Wow. This either exceeds or at least equals the decline of other imperiled ecosystems, such as the coastal forests of southeastern Brazil, the North American tall grass prairie, and the old-growth Douglas Fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. That’s awful. Did I want to read about how Longleaf Pine forest almost went extinct (certainly as ecosystem) due to centuries of “need, greed, and mismanagement?”
I was pleasantly surprised that I did enjoy the next three sections (one on the heavy use and subsequent destruction of the forests, one on the evolution of forestry science and the early attempts to save the forest, and a final, shorter section on the forest’s future). These later sections (really the bulk of the book) weren’t a litany of doom and gloom, hand-wringing and tooth-gnashing, decrying the rape of the land or anything. It was actually fascinating! Earley talked about what made the Longleaf Pine so valuable, how it was such a vital part of the American economy and culture, especially in the South. He got into the mechanics of how trees provided rosin, turpentine, and timber, both botanically and in terms of human production of these products from living or dead trees; how they were harvested, what these products were used for, the types of lives the people who depended upon these products lived, even visited himself recreations of how such products were produced in the past using period methods.
One of the things I really admired about the book was its overall sense of balance. Too often those who harvested turpentine, rosin, and timber from the forest were indeed destroyers of their source of income, so wasteful were their practices, but that wasn’t always the case, as the author chronicled even in some of the earliest times how there were those who sustainably harvested their forests again and again, well before the word “sustainable” became a word in the popular culture. He showed how there were many, even before the destruction of the forests became well known to the average person or the politician, that at even great political cost decried wasteful practices. Some of the earliest sources of Longleaf Pine forest protection were rather surprising; hunters of Bobwhite Quail preserved large tracts of virgin timber and when quail numbers declined, commissioned an expert to find out why, thus inadvertently both pioneering wildlife management as a real science and providing still more “fuel” for the “let Longleaf Pine burn fire.”
Much has been written in recent years about how the Forest Service and many experts were wrong in Longleaf Pine forest fire suppression, how the ecosystem needs fire to help produce new Longleaf Pines, keep back invading pines and hardwoods either not native to that ecosystem or that would otherwise take over such a forest, and keep in existence a habitat favored by so many rare plants and animals, as well as to prevent catastrophic later fires that could kill trees, and about how there was much folk wisdom in the South, that knew what the forest needed – low intensity fires ever few years, especially in the growing season – to thrive. All well and good, but as in much of life things aren’t that simple! The Forest Service wasn’t doing this fire suppression merely out of arrogance or ignorance. Earley showed that you had to look at the context of the time, as most foresters were of northern U.S. or European education, where fire played a much more destructive and less desirable role in northern and European forests, about at the time forest management science came to be applied in the South there were a number of hugely destructive fires in the northern United States that killed a lot of people; that all has to be taken into account. He even tackled the folk wisdom aspect; yes, they often did the right thing but he said there were indeed fires set for malice or just plain at the wrong time or for the wrong reason…the people back then weren’t saints!
He even took a balanced approach to discussing those who favored other species of pine in southern pine lands in the 20th century, such as the Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) and Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii) and those who decried their replacement of once magnificent stands of Longleaf. He didn’t bash or berate those who favored the other faster growing pines, exploring why those pines came to be favored, what factors made them both a choice to start with and attractive to use for timber and especially for pulp and paper, and why in the end such pines will probably be replaced in the end by Longleaf purely for economic reasons.
The book ended with a very hopeful note and overall was a very enjoyable read. At times the forestry section got a little technical but I found myself quickly following all the terms used within that science. I think anyone curious at all about the natural history of much of the South and particularly how humans over the centuries interacted with it would greatly enjoy this book.
The first part (the book was divided into four sections with chapters within each section) was pretty much how I expected it to be. Tagging along with researchers and experiencing the Longleaf Pine forests himself, the author revealed information about the biology of both the tree – Pinus palustris – itself, as well as how the ecosystem as a whole operates and the interesting plants and animals that call this region home. We learn about how truly fire dependent the Longleaf Pine forest is; one Forest Service researcher, a man by the name of Robert Mutch, proposed in 1970 that is not only is this species (and the Longleaf Pine forest as a whole) fire tolerant and fire dependent, but that it may even be pyrogenic, even promoting and creating the conditions for fires to exist (fascinating). We learn that there is more than one type of Longleaf Pine forest, each subtype depending upon a variety of conditions including moisture and soil type, each with different communities of plants and animals associated with the pine. One such regional type, the sandhill community (such as the North Carolina Sandhills), was called by B.W. Wells “Deserts in the Rain;” even though such a region is in an area of high rainfall, it has such deep, coarse sand that it is often bone dry an hour after a rainstorm, presenting such a huge challenge to plants growing that only two tree species can exist there, the Turkey Oak (Quercus laevis) and Longleaf Pine, the author describing why these two trees (especially Longleaf) is able to thrive in such an environment (and then using that to illustrate some of its success throughout the southeast).
I could go on and on about the great natural history in the first section; that despite the monotony tree-wise of Longleaf Pine forests they are extremely diverse in small, herbaceous plants, with some forests having over 400 species of such plants, making them “hands and knees” level rich ecosystems; the reader will learn about the “landlord of the sandhills,” the gopher tortoise, an animal capable of digging burrows 15 feet deep and 47 feet long, burrows that become home to many animals on either a temporary basis, fleeing fires or temporary homes otherwise, such as Indigo Snakes and the Cottontail Rabbit, and animals that pretty much live in the gopher tortoise holes and nowhere else, such as the Gopher Cricket, Gopher Tick, Gopher Frog, and a number of beetles; the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis), unique to the Longleaf Pine ecosystem and quite endangered, the only woodpecker in the world to excavate nesting cavities in living pine trees and how this rather social bird is tied in a tight relationship with both the Longleaf Pine and the Red-heart Fungus (Phellnus pini); the author talked about the Southeastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger), the largest tree squirrel in the Western Hemisphere and almost twice as big as its western cousin, and just why that is; we also learn about pitcher plants, pitcher plant moths, how insect life cycles are tied to fire…a lot of natural history ground is covered. The emphasis was more on animals than on plants but plants are certainly covered.
Ok, you can clearly see where my main interests lie, and I loved that section, but then came what I thought was the hard part; the human element. In the introduction Earley talked about how a forest that once covered 92 million acres from Virginia to Texas by 1996 had declined 98% to only 2.95 million acres. It had once covered 60% of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains; today, only about 1.4%. Wow. This either exceeds or at least equals the decline of other imperiled ecosystems, such as the coastal forests of southeastern Brazil, the North American tall grass prairie, and the old-growth Douglas Fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. That’s awful. Did I want to read about how Longleaf Pine forest almost went extinct (certainly as ecosystem) due to centuries of “need, greed, and mismanagement?”
I was pleasantly surprised that I did enjoy the next three sections (one on the heavy use and subsequent destruction of the forests, one on the evolution of forestry science and the early attempts to save the forest, and a final, shorter section on the forest’s future). These later sections (really the bulk of the book) weren’t a litany of doom and gloom, hand-wringing and tooth-gnashing, decrying the rape of the land or anything. It was actually fascinating! Earley talked about what made the Longleaf Pine so valuable, how it was such a vital part of the American economy and culture, especially in the South. He got into the mechanics of how trees provided rosin, turpentine, and timber, both botanically and in terms of human production of these products from living or dead trees; how they were harvested, what these products were used for, the types of lives the people who depended upon these products lived, even visited himself recreations of how such products were produced in the past using period methods.
One of the things I really admired about the book was its overall sense of balance. Too often those who harvested turpentine, rosin, and timber from the forest were indeed destroyers of their source of income, so wasteful were their practices, but that wasn’t always the case, as the author chronicled even in some of the earliest times how there were those who sustainably harvested their forests again and again, well before the word “sustainable” became a word in the popular culture. He showed how there were many, even before the destruction of the forests became well known to the average person or the politician, that at even great political cost decried wasteful practices. Some of the earliest sources of Longleaf Pine forest protection were rather surprising; hunters of Bobwhite Quail preserved large tracts of virgin timber and when quail numbers declined, commissioned an expert to find out why, thus inadvertently both pioneering wildlife management as a real science and providing still more “fuel” for the “let Longleaf Pine burn fire.”
Much has been written in recent years about how the Forest Service and many experts were wrong in Longleaf Pine forest fire suppression, how the ecosystem needs fire to help produce new Longleaf Pines, keep back invading pines and hardwoods either not native to that ecosystem or that would otherwise take over such a forest, and keep in existence a habitat favored by so many rare plants and animals, as well as to prevent catastrophic later fires that could kill trees, and about how there was much folk wisdom in the South, that knew what the forest needed – low intensity fires ever few years, especially in the growing season – to thrive. All well and good, but as in much of life things aren’t that simple! The Forest Service wasn’t doing this fire suppression merely out of arrogance or ignorance. Earley showed that you had to look at the context of the time, as most foresters were of northern U.S. or European education, where fire played a much more destructive and less desirable role in northern and European forests, about at the time forest management science came to be applied in the South there were a number of hugely destructive fires in the northern United States that killed a lot of people; that all has to be taken into account. He even tackled the folk wisdom aspect; yes, they often did the right thing but he said there were indeed fires set for malice or just plain at the wrong time or for the wrong reason…the people back then weren’t saints!
He even took a balanced approach to discussing those who favored other species of pine in southern pine lands in the 20th century, such as the Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) and Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii) and those who decried their replacement of once magnificent stands of Longleaf. He didn’t bash or berate those who favored the other faster growing pines, exploring why those pines came to be favored, what factors made them both a choice to start with and attractive to use for timber and especially for pulp and paper, and why in the end such pines will probably be replaced in the end by Longleaf purely for economic reasons.
The book ended with a very hopeful note and overall was a very enjoyable read. At times the forestry section got a little technical but I found myself quickly following all the terms used within that science. I think anyone curious at all about the natural history of much of the South and particularly how humans over the centuries interacted with it would greatly enjoy this book.
June 1, 2025
For full transparency I stole this book from a previous workplace when I left in 2007 and carried it through several moves. But I'm glad to have waited to read it until becoming a real live forester. Comprehensive yet easy to read book about a truly unique ecosystem
September 22, 2011
Wish I'd been given this book when I first went to work for the Forest Service...
July 28, 2019
Warning—this book may make you fascinated about something you hardly understood before reading!!! Fantastically well-researched book about not only long leaf pine trees and forests, but also the history and culture of all the people who lived amongst them.
Unique to the southeastern United States (Maryland to Texas), longleaf pine ecosystems have long been misunderstood, and now that only about 2% of these forests remain, their value and superiority to quicker growing pines is finally being recognized. Since reading this, I see pine forests with new eyes—how old are they? What kind of pine? Are they using fire or some other means to control undergrowth? What kind of people used to live there? When was it first logged?
Whether you read it for the history or the ecology, I highly recommend it.
Unique to the southeastern United States (Maryland to Texas), longleaf pine ecosystems have long been misunderstood, and now that only about 2% of these forests remain, their value and superiority to quicker growing pines is finally being recognized. Since reading this, I see pine forests with new eyes—how old are they? What kind of pine? Are they using fire or some other means to control undergrowth? What kind of people used to live there? When was it first logged?
Whether you read it for the history or the ecology, I highly recommend it.
December 20, 2023
A highly detailed analysis of the southeast Longleaf forest–from pre-colonial days to present restoration efforts. Much of the history, and many of the lessons learned, are similar to those of other North American habitats (e.g., prairie grasslands, old-growth Douglass firs of the Pacific Northwest).
February 10, 2024
Phenomenal accounting of this history of Longleaf pine in the southern US. Well-researched, well-written, incredibly informative.
February 23, 2016
Earley divides his book into four distinct parts. He first deals with the ecology of the longleaf. For many people, the pine forests are boring. But under their canopy and in their branches, there is a great diversity of life. In the Sandhills, wiregrass covers the ground. In wetter areas, carnivorous species such as pitcher plants and, in a small area of southeastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina, Venus flytraps flourish. Earle also discusses a variety of other animals that like the pine habitat including quail and woodpeckers as well the role fire plays in the ecosystem. He also discusses the pines unique seeding arrangement, of having a bumper crop of seeds every six or seven years. If the trees always produced high numbers of seeds, more animals would depend on them for food. Sporadic concentration of seeds is a strategy that has evolved to help the trees ensure that every so often enough seeds are available to take root.
In the second part, titled “Exploitation,†Earley explores the peoples who used the longleaf habitat. He starts with Native Americans and then with the Anglo-settlers in the 18th Century. These people used the pines for tar and pitch and later timber. Heart pine, with its high rosin content, is extremely strong. In the late 19th century, as the great pine forest of the Upper Midwest was cut, loggers moved south. The logging was mostly clear-cutting and when new trees were planted they were generally loblolly or slash pines. After the timber was cut, the next industry to demand pines was paper mills, which put pressure on the longleaf. It is estimated that when the Spanish arrived in the new world there were approximately 92 million acres of longleaf, stretching from southern Virginia to Florida and across the Gulf States to East Texas. In 1996, there was only 2.95 million acres left.
In part three, “Forest Management,†Earley discusses how the longleaf pines not only faced problems from industry, but also from forest management practices. Throughout much of the early 20th Century, foresters tried to keep landowners from burning the brush under the pines, a practice that hurt the trees ability to reproduce as well as increasing the fuels in the forest which, when fires do strike, cause hotter fires (which damaged the pines). It’s only been in the last 25 years that foresters have successfully been able to grow and reproduce the longleaf.
The final part of Earley’s book is dedicated to "Ecosystem Restoration." Several things have come into the longleaf pine’s favor. The Endangered Species Act has been invoked to protect the red cockaded woodpecker, a bird that depends on old growth pines for its habitat. Also, commercial interest has come back to the pines. Bailing pine straw is a major business in areas with concentrations of longleaf pines (my cousin has a thriving business that employs a host of employees who bail straw). Even the desire for hunting preserves for quail has lead to attempts to protect the longleaf. Although urban growth continues to threaten the longleaf, the author does end with a more hopefully outlook for the pine. After losing the majority of its habitat, maybe a remnant will survive.
In the second part, titled “Exploitation,†Earley explores the peoples who used the longleaf habitat. He starts with Native Americans and then with the Anglo-settlers in the 18th Century. These people used the pines for tar and pitch and later timber. Heart pine, with its high rosin content, is extremely strong. In the late 19th century, as the great pine forest of the Upper Midwest was cut, loggers moved south. The logging was mostly clear-cutting and when new trees were planted they were generally loblolly or slash pines. After the timber was cut, the next industry to demand pines was paper mills, which put pressure on the longleaf. It is estimated that when the Spanish arrived in the new world there were approximately 92 million acres of longleaf, stretching from southern Virginia to Florida and across the Gulf States to East Texas. In 1996, there was only 2.95 million acres left.
In part three, “Forest Management,†Earley discusses how the longleaf pines not only faced problems from industry, but also from forest management practices. Throughout much of the early 20th Century, foresters tried to keep landowners from burning the brush under the pines, a practice that hurt the trees ability to reproduce as well as increasing the fuels in the forest which, when fires do strike, cause hotter fires (which damaged the pines). It’s only been in the last 25 years that foresters have successfully been able to grow and reproduce the longleaf.
The final part of Earley’s book is dedicated to "Ecosystem Restoration." Several things have come into the longleaf pine’s favor. The Endangered Species Act has been invoked to protect the red cockaded woodpecker, a bird that depends on old growth pines for its habitat. Also, commercial interest has come back to the pines. Bailing pine straw is a major business in areas with concentrations of longleaf pines (my cousin has a thriving business that employs a host of employees who bail straw). Even the desire for hunting preserves for quail has lead to attempts to protect the longleaf. Although urban growth continues to threaten the longleaf, the author does end with a more hopefully outlook for the pine. After losing the majority of its habitat, maybe a remnant will survive.
August 26, 2021
Looking for Longleaf by Lawrence Earley will likely only appear on recommended reading lists for people studying forestry or ecology.
I was looking for material on North American forests. While I loved The Hidden Life of Trees, I confess I was put-out to hear the glorious deciduous forests described by Peter Wohlleben are not the general rule for my own continent. His forest sounded a lot like fairy tale forests, but I know there are models for forest ecosystems that vary extensively around the world.
Longleaf Pine is native to a large swath of the American Southeast. There was a time when stands of these massive, centuries old trees (with pine needles over a foot long!) stretched from southern Virginia south to Florida and west to cover portions of Texas. The home range for these magnificent trees is estimated at 90 million acres, though now their range has shrunk to less than 3% of that.
Earley’s book discusses how this happened, and what’s being done to restore the species and the ecosystem it supports.
Effective nonfiction addresses the full picture of the topic. In Looking for Longleaf, history, natural science, economics, and politics exert pressure on the issue of recovering a native ecosystem.
Earley records his experiences visiting heritage sites and private lands that preserve details from eras when people of the region worked the trees for pitch, resin, lumber, cattle, and quail. He describes management techniques, how they appeared, who used them, and how successful or unsuccessful they were for their time.
I do have to admit, this is not a fitting recreational read for everybody. This was just right for me, though.
If you have an interest in North American ecology, saving species, and/or American history, I would definitely recommend having a read of this one. Just settle in for a lot of learning!
I was looking for material on North American forests. While I loved The Hidden Life of Trees, I confess I was put-out to hear the glorious deciduous forests described by Peter Wohlleben are not the general rule for my own continent. His forest sounded a lot like fairy tale forests, but I know there are models for forest ecosystems that vary extensively around the world.
Longleaf Pine is native to a large swath of the American Southeast. There was a time when stands of these massive, centuries old trees (with pine needles over a foot long!) stretched from southern Virginia south to Florida and west to cover portions of Texas. The home range for these magnificent trees is estimated at 90 million acres, though now their range has shrunk to less than 3% of that.
Earley’s book discusses how this happened, and what’s being done to restore the species and the ecosystem it supports.
Effective nonfiction addresses the full picture of the topic. In Looking for Longleaf, history, natural science, economics, and politics exert pressure on the issue of recovering a native ecosystem.
Earley records his experiences visiting heritage sites and private lands that preserve details from eras when people of the region worked the trees for pitch, resin, lumber, cattle, and quail. He describes management techniques, how they appeared, who used them, and how successful or unsuccessful they were for their time.
I do have to admit, this is not a fitting recreational read for everybody. This was just right for me, though.
If you have an interest in North American ecology, saving species, and/or American history, I would definitely recommend having a read of this one. Just settle in for a lot of learning!
November 11, 2012
Considering that I am not an ecologist or a forest manager, this is an excellent book. Earley has a great handle on narration and the story-line was easy to follow and...well...page-turning! I finished this book in a matter of days... Earley provided me with the opportunity to learn about the great Long-leaf forest of the South (which is where I live). The 92 million acres of forest has now been reduced to under 3 million... He goes over the American/global impact on these forests due to the lumber industry and the turpentiners. He alludes to the native handling of the forests -- frequent burnings... And, explores the complexity that forest managers face with a sedentary and expanding US modern culture and yet the need for the Long-leaf pine habitat to burn regularly... A great book -- very informative and a must read for anyone in the Deep South!
August 17, 2013
This book is fascinating overview of the tragic loss of the original longleaf forests of the southeast, which I now see as the botanical equivalent to the passenger pigeon. The early chapters share the rapturous accounts of the first Europeans to travel through these endless towering pine forests. Mixing social & industrial history (the development of the railroads, etc) with environmental history, this book is a delight, and makes me want to visit what little remnants are left, and to plant longleaf when I can-- as I did today.
February 25, 2008
A natural history of the long leaf pine
May 12, 2013
excellent
June 5, 2015
This is an excellent book. Very readable, very informative. I highly recommend it for any interested in nature and the environment.
January 22, 2013
Great natural history and ecology book, especially about southern forests
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews