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As her subtitle implies, Chris Bolgiano's excellent new book is about the human and biological evolution of our Southern Appalachian landscape. It is about changes, almost always catastrophic, brought about by the historic and modern cultures who have lived here, and live here now. It is the story of both forest exploitation and forest preservation as told through the attitudes, prejudices, emotions, opinions and expectations of our mountain residents through the centuries. As Bolgiano says, "Heartbreak and hope, that is the story of Appalachia." Every chapter of Bolgiano's book is a lesson in both human sociology and forest ecology. She uses the same engaging narrative technique that she used in her previous book, Mountain Lion. Historic portrayals are told through the accounts of people who witnessed events at the time, and modern episodes are related through interviews, often quiet intimate, with the people that are the most closely concerned. Bolgiano passes no judgement on either people or events. She lets her subjects speak for themselves, from loggers to wilderness advocates, and through their conversations and writings the reader soon discerns their relationships with the Appalachian forest. Bolgiano presents wonderful, brief biographical vignettes of a great many people, like Ernie Dickerman, who had major impacts on forest policy through out the Appalachians, and grassroots activists like Karin Heiman, Buzz Williams, and Amy South, each making significant changes in forest practices in their own backyards. The contributions of forest scientists like Lucy Braun, Mike Pelton, and Jane Holt are presented through Bolgiano's sensitive and highly readable style. Bolgiano shows unusual understanding of the mountaineers she interviews, as well as the Cherokees, and even urban newcomers. Her book makes the long transition from Scots-Irish mountain culture, through political establishment of the Appalachian's national forests, to the era of modern clearcutting and the ideals of Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition: from the old Great Forest to the concept of new Great Forest. Chestnut blight, acid rain, strip mining, off-road vehicles, bad politics, songbirds, brook trout, ginseng, black bears, and salamanders all have their day in Bolgiano's book. The author speaks with personal knowledge of all these things. She and her husband live on their 100-acre mountain homestead in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. There, they encounter reminders of the past, setbacks in the present, and obstacles to the future. Bolgiano expands these personal encounters to encompass all of the Southern Appalachian forests. My advice: Read this book. It is the best history lesson you'll ever have on how our mountain landscape came to be. And a tenuous promise of what it may become. |