Forests in Time The Environmental Consequences of 1000 Years of Change in New England

The Eastern Hemlock, massive and majestic, has played a unique role in structuring northeastern forest environments, from Nova Scotia to Wisconsin and through the Appalachian Mountains to North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. A “foundation species” influencing all the species in the ecosystem surrounding it, this iconic North American tree has long inspired poets and artists as well as naturalists and scientists.

Five thousand years ago, the hemlock collapsed as a result of abrupt global climate change.  Now this iconic tree faces extinction once again because of an invasive insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid. Drawing from a century of studies at Harvard Universitys Harvard Forest, one of the most well-regarded long-term ecological research programs in North America, the authors explore what hemlocks modern decline can tell us about the challenges facing nature and society in an era of habitat changes and fragmentation, as well as global change.

This seminal book, based on innovative research at Harvard Forest, describes the dramatic natural and human-induced changes in the land and environment of New England over the past 1,000 years.

“An important and timely addition to a growing literature that documents change and, by implication, underlines our responsibilities to that thing out there that we call ‘nature.”—Michael Williams, Science

“A must-read for anyone interested in the study of historical forest ecology and anthropogenic impacts on ecosystem dynamics.”—Marc D. Abrams, BioScience

David R. Foster is director of the Harvard Forest at Harvard University and principal investigator of its Long Term Ecological Research program. John D. Aber is a professor in the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space and the Department of Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire.