Children of the Northern Forest: Wild New England's History from Glaciers to Global Warming (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)

BThis no-holds-barred narrative of the failure of conservation in northern New England's forests envisions a wilder, more equitable, lower-carbon future for forest-dependent communities/BBR / BR / Jamie Sayen approaches the story of northern New England's undeveloped forests from the viewpoints of the previously unheard: the forest and the nonhuman species it sustains, the First Peoples, and, in more recent times, the disenfranchised human voices of the forest, including those of loggers, mill workers, and citizens who, like Henry David Thoreau, wish to speak a kind word for nature.BR / BR / From 1988 to 2016 paper companies sold their timberlands and closed seventeen paper mills in northern New England. Policy makers ceded veto power to large absentee landowners, who tried to preserve the status quo by demanding additional tax cuts and other subsidies for economic elites. They vetoed measures designed to restore and preserve forest health; at present, about half of the former industrial forests are classified as degraded, and the regional economy continues to be trapped in low-value commodity markets.BR / BR / This book operates as a case study of how a rural resource region can respond to a global economy responsible for climate change, habitat loss and degradation, and environmental injustice. Sayen offers a blueprint for restoring vast wildlands and transitioning to a lower-carbon, high-value-adding, local economy, while protecting the natural rights of humans, nonhumans, and unborn generations Contents 9 Preface 11 One. The Education of a Tree-Hugger 17 Two. A Force Not Bound to Be Kind to Man 30 Three. Over the Hump 46 Four. A Marriage of Morality and Capability 61 Five. The Paper Plantation 76 Six. The Budworm Made Me Do It 88 Seven. The Sum of the Parts 98 Eight. Ignoring the Problem Will Not Make It Go Away 110 Nine. Intellectually Valid but Not Very Use 122 Ten. Government-Financed Lobbyist Group 134 Eleven. A Fork in the Road 151 Twelve. No Jobs on a Healthy Planet 159 Thirteen. Alternative to Federal Ownership 169 Fourteen. Uncontrollables 183 Fifteen. Nightmare of the North 196 Sixteen. Bid the Tree Unfix His Earthbound Root 210 Seventeen. Fierce Green Fire 219 Eighteen. Frugal Prosperity 228 Nineteen. The Future Matters 238 Epilogue. Natural Democracy 254 Timeline of Events 261 Notes 269 Acknowledgments 299 Index 307