Irland's book is a valuable presentation of the Northeast's forests past, present, and future...Although written from a forester's perspective, offering the view that Northeast forests have been revitalized by regeneration of cut-over land and reforestation of farmland, the book is a complete account of the current state of the regions forests and forestry issues...This clearly written and well-illustrated book is for nonforesters but will greatly interest foresters and other natural resource managers, and will be applicable to other areas of the country.
   --D. L. Richter, Choice

Provides detailed exploration of five forest types: industrial, recreational, suburban, rural, and wild. Contains useful details and statistics for conservationists, but the book comes close to saying, 'we can have our forests and cut them down too.'
   --Wild Earth

A major contribution to the current debate about the future of the northern forest.
   --F. Herbert Bormann, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Emeritus

Irland captures the essence of the forest as perceived from many different perspectives, and the consequences of these perceptions for both the past and the future of the forest resources .... He provides new insights into the complexity of multiple uses, the importance of changing patterns of land ownership, and other direct and indirect forces that mold the forests. The balanced rationale for conserving forests is developed with a clear understanding of the economic, cultural, and political milieu in which decisions are made, as well as an understanding of the forest as only a forester can know it.
   --Emily W. B. Russell, Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, author of People and the Land Through Time: Linking Ecology and History

Lloyd C. Irland is a forestry consultant in Maine and has written extensively on forests and natural resources issues.