 | The Great Lakes Forest: An Environmental and Social History Subjects: Forests and forestry -- Great Lakes Region; Forest ecology -- Great Lakes Region; Man -- Influence on nature -- Great Lakes Region; The 18 papers in this book were written in an effort to understand the relation between social and environmental change in the Great Lakes forest, a region that includes northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota and adjacent parts of Ontario. Contributors from the biological and social sciences, the humanities, and the management professions view the forest as a dynamic ecosystem that includes people, with their attitudes and institutions, as well as forest vegetation, waters, and wildlife. This multidisciplinary approach provides fresh and provocative insights into the history of the region. An introductory chapter by Susan Flader explores the concept of the dynamic ecosystem, contrasting it with earlier notions of human-environmental relations and showing how the concept serves as the bookOCOs organizing principles. The first if five major sections describes the Great Lakes forest from the perspective of the biological sciences and examines processes of change in vegetation and wildlife over time. These authors agree that human disturbance of the forest has had irreversible effects that now lock us into continued management in order to avoid even more costly and destructive changes in the ecosystem. Papers in the second section deal with the relationship of the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin to their forest homeland. The Indians have tenaciously protected this forest from dismemberment and exploitative logging, and today it remains the largest block of old-growth timber in the Lake States. The economic, social, and public policy implications of the logging era and its aftermath are examined in a section which also points to the contrast between land-use and resource policy in the U.S. and Canadian portions of the forest. OC Status and ProspectsOCO looks at present and future land use in the forest, and a final section, OC Perceptions and Values, OCO is a fascinating evaluation of human attitudes towards the forest." |
