From Booklist
The longleaf pine once comprised the largest ecosystem in North America, extending from Texas to Virginia and south to Florida. The forest was so vast that one early traveler, finding the landscape monotonous, summarized the woodlands as "entirely too immense." Part of the geographic success of the pine resided in its flammable resins; seasonal fires triggered seed production of the longleaf and its plant associates, enabling them to propagate over wide areas. These same resins, however, led to the forest's downfall, because they were sought-after ingredients in the manufacture of tar and turpentine. Out of the original 92 million acres of longleaf, fewer than 3 million remain. Recently, however, collaborations between ecologists and foresters have brought new hope to the beleaguered ecosystem, and painstaking effort may bring back not only the longleaf but also the forest-dwelling gopher tortoise and the red-cockaded woodpecker. Earley's enthusiasm for the forest's restoration doesn't quite make up for his uninspired prose, but green-minded readers will be drawn to this ode to the piney woods. Rebecca Maksel
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Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2004, starred review
"Richly detailed, impeccably researched . . . at times controversial: this merits a place alongside Bartram in the library devoted to the South."
Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest FROM THE PUBLISHER
"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 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 by weaving together extensive research, first-person travel accounts, and interviews with foresters, ecologists, biologists, botanists, and landowners. Taking a broad ecological view, Earley places humans in the story as characters whose actions interrelate in complex ways with other life in the ecosystem.
FROM THE CRITICS
Kirkus Reviews
A learned stroll through the shady groves of the South, past and present, where the longleaf pine once flourished and may yet rise again. North Carolinian journalist and debut author Earley assembles an impressive sweep of knowledge in these pages, which open with a startling observation: where forests of longleaf pine once "sprawled over nearly 150,000 square miles, covering a wide swath of every coastal state from the James River in southeastern Virginia to the shores of Lake Okeechobee in the Florida peninsula and west to southeastern Texas," its numbers had fallen by some 98 percent by the end of the 20th century-and only 12,000 acres of old-growth forest remain, scattered across the South. Where did the trees go? In times past, writes Earley, the longleaf formed the basis of a thriving pitch and tar industry, which was vital to the navies of Europe in those days of ocean-crossing wooden ships; not for nothing are North Carolinians called "Tarheels." The industry emerged slowly at the beginning of the 18th century but quickly became of major importance, so that in the 1720s, "120 vessels were engaged in the coastwise and transatlantic trade of colonial tar, pitch, and raw gum." The tree faced a new enemy long after the wooden ships disappeared: the US Forest Service, which embraced a policy of fire suppression and aggressive logging until very recently, but now finds itself in the position of retooling from being "the worst land managers in the world" to being champions of environmental restraint. Blending journalism with natural and human history and a keen appreciation for the land, Earley offers persuasive advocacy for a tree little known outside of its immediate region-but one ofobvious importance, and one whose ongoing restoration can show other regions how to bring their old ecosystems back to life. Richly detailed, impeccably researched, and at times controversial: this merits a place alongside Bartram in the library devoted to the South.
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