The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and Renewal by Chris Bolgiano (review)

NEW APPALACHIAN BOOKS Opinions and Reviews Chris Bolgiano. The Appalachian Forest: A Searchfor Roots and Renewal. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1998. 280 pages. $25.00. The key to understanding this interesting book is the word "search" in the title. Chris Bolgiano has sought to understand the Southern Appalachian forest by combining library research with the willingness to travel throughout the region. In these travels, she visits many of the unique places and meets many of the key people who are involved in the use and conservation of this important resource. To her considerable credit, Bolgiano comes to recognize that assessing the past, present, and future of the forest is a complex task that often leads to uncertainty rather than resolution. The author divides her text into three approximately equal parts. The first section is a description of the original forest and its exploitation. This and the other segments of the book are greatly enhanced by some outstanding photographs that provide a sense of what has been lost in the Southern woodlands. Bolgiano focuses attention on the Cherokee heritage, the coming of commercial logging, and the development of the Biltmore school of forestry. There is little new here for readers familiar with studies of economic expansion in western North Carolina, but it is useful to have it all brought together in one place. Two points that emerge from these chapters are worth noting. The first is that the sale of timber allowed many communities and families to retain ownership of their land or to gain sufficient capital to try a variety of alternative economic strategies. The introduction of the National Forest Service through the 1911 Weeks Act is the second point developed in this section. The author continues to make comments about the role that the Forest Service has played since that time in Appalachia throughout the remainder of the book. The second section of the book provides a great deal of information about selected ecological controversies that have erupted in the mountains recently. Each of the national forests and national parks in Southern Appalachia is described in considerable detail. In particular, their relationships with surrounding landowners are explored in some depth. The economic and ecological impact of tourism is explored in 58 this part of the book and some of the inherent contradictions between commercial log harvesting and tourism are explored. Bolgiano also introduces a large number of activists who are seeking ways to conserve this natural resource. Among those presented are people as diverse as Father Al Fristch of Appalachia—Science in the Public Interest and Hugh Morton of the Grandfather Mountain resort complex. The author is careful to point out that both natives of the region and those who have moved into the area are activists. At the same time, Bolgiano is careful to note that there are many local people and communities that favor continued exploitation of the forest resources of Southern Appalachia. She, herself, is an enthusiastic off-highway-vehicle enthusiast and describes the extensive trail networks found in many parts of the region. She rejects the economic impact of reduced timber harvests on selected communities with much less empathy and understanding. For many remote villages-particularly in non-coal areas of the Southern mountains-the forest is one of the few economic resources available to them. On the other hand, her depiction of strip mining as a completely destructive form of mineral extraction seems right on target. The concluding section of the book attempts to chart the future of efforts to save the forests. There are two very good chapters here. The first tells the tragic story of the mighty chestnut trees. These giants of the forest were the backbone of a highly efficient ecosystem that supported a balanced and abundant life for many plant and animal species. The introduction of a related tree from another continent into the northeast United States produced the blight that virtually eliminated this bulwark of the Southern mountains. An effort is being made to engineer a chestnut tree that will withstand the blight, and, if all goes well, there will be a viable hybrid produced three hundred years from now! The recovery of the black bear in Appalachia is...