Forests in Our Changing World: New Principles for Conservation and Management

Forests in Our Changing World is a useful primer that will introduce students and the interested public to the field of Forestry. As intended, it is not a dry academic text. The book covers a wide variety of subjects and provides enough background for readers to explore the subject further, without becoming a tome of a text book.

Most of the book is accessible in an academic way, but for certain chapters it helps, as might be expected, to be good at math. Here one will find chapters on forest types around the world, the effects of weather, the consequences of climate change, the value we place on forests, the future of forests, and the economics and practices of forest management. Not a lot of wow and poetry here, despite the attempts on the authors part to make the book more accessible. There is however concern for the forests, the field of forestry, and the role of the engaged public actor. The authors wish to protect the resource, but this book is conservation rather than preservation. They know their subject, but one does not always need to hug a tree.