The Woodland Homestead: How to Make Your Land More Productive and Live More Self-Sufficiently in the Woods

Put your wooded land to work! This comprehensive manual shows you how to use your woodlands to produce everything from wine and mushrooms to firewood and livestock feed. You’ll learn how to take stock of your woods; use axes, bow saws, chainsaws, and other key tools; create pasture and silvopasture for livestock; prune and coppice trees to make fuel, fodder, and furniture; build living fencing and shelters for animals; grow fruit trees and berries in a woodland orchard; make syrup from birch, walnut, or boxelder trees; and much more. Whether your property is entirely or only partly wooded, this is the guide you need to make the best use of it.

“When you start reading The Woodland Homestead, you’ll learn how to think about your woodland not only as an ecosystem but also as an ‘ecology of possibilities’.” Philip Ackerman-Leist

“A friendly and informative book about a subject that intimidates many folks new to homesteading. McLeod makes a walk in the woods a whole new world.” Jenna Woginrich, author of One-Woman Farm, Barnheart, and Chick Days

Brett McLeod is the author of American Axe and The Woodland Homestead and an avid axe collector and restorer. Before becoming a forestry professor and coach of the woodsmen's team at Paul Smith's College in the Adirondack Park, he was a professional competitive lumberjack in the Stihl Ironjack Series and competed in the Stihl Timbersports Collegiate Series. He lives in Northern New York with his wife and his collection of 200 vintage axes.