Two Books on Forest Conservation in Review

I really enjoyed the organization of this book, which looks at different geographic regions of the forest that circles the Northern reaches of Europe, Asia, and North America. Each section focused in on one specific type of tree that is abundant in each region’s forest. I felt like this focused approach helped me retain more information as I read. The book also included some incredible facts about the way forests benefit the world. My two favorite fun facts were learning that at least some trees release anti-inflammatory particles and that many nutrients necessary for the growth of phytoplankton come from trees. Both of these facts were in my favorite section of the book, focusing on a fascinating scientist, Diana Beresford Kreoger, who was the inspiration for a character in The Overstory. I also appreciate how much respect the author showed to indigenous beliefs, especially since there are many examples in the book of those beliefs matching the science. The were only two things I didn’t like about this book. One was that the nature writing sometimes got a little too flowery. The other is that the descriptions of landscapes, geography, and scientific terms were all occasionally unclear. Still, a great intro to a fascinating topic.

Title: Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet
Author: John W. Reid, Thomas E. Lovejoy
Source: from publisher for review
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:

I liked this book even better than the previous one! It was a better balance for me of science and nature writing. I also found the nature writing beautifully descriptive without being over-the-top. I think the way the authors presented their experiences as informative rather than transcendental communing with nature was part of the difference there. Like the previous book, this book does a great job highlighting the work of indigenous people. In this case, many of the best, most hopeful examples of successful efforts to both protect the environment and to sustain communities came from efforts lead by indigenous people. This book was also more optimistic and action-oriented than the previous book, which focused exclusively on the Northern boreal forests because the author had written off the tropical ones. This book discussed all five major remaining forests and gave some great guidelines for the sort of programs that might allow us to save them. This book was also full of tons of cool sociology and science concepts with clearer descriptions than the previous book. I enjoyed both of these immensely and learned all sorts of cool things from reading them. If I had it do over though, I’d start with this one. It was the better book if you’re only going to read one and I think starting with this big picture, than zooming in with the other book would be a good way to go if reading both.

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