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Christopher McGrory Klyza
| Christopher McGrory Klyza |
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Christopher McGrory Klyza is Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College. After graduating with an M.S. in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Duke University in 1983, he received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota in 1990. Klyza is the co-founder and member of the Board of Directors for the Watershed Center, a non-profit group that works locally for sustainable natural and human communities. He also sits on the Board of Advisors for Vermont Family Forests. An avid hiker, Klyza makes his home in Bristol, Vermont, with his wife, Sheila, and daughters, Isabel and Caroline. |
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The Northern Forest, a 26-million-acre expanse that stretches from Lake Ontario through upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, has already become a flash point in the ongoing debate between advocates of economic growth and environmental protection. It is an area shaped by complex forces: unlike the sprawling public forests of the American West, eighty percent of the Northern Forest is privately owned, and the area's myriad towns and villages have established overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities. This land of matchless mountains, waterways, and wildlife is also within easy access of the large population centers of the Northeast. As a result, the region's primary economic activities–forest products, tourism, and recreation–have in the last decade clashed with demands to prevent further degradation to the forest and restore its biological integrity.
The Future of the Northern Forest presents the viewpoints of sixteen foresters, public officials, environmentalists, economists, Native Americans, and scientists who speak out on intertwined questions of ecology, economy, ethics, and politics. The editors suggest these issues can be framed to find long-term solutions that balance a healthy economy and a healthy environment.
"This is the first real account of the most important environmental story in America today. If you want to know what 21st-century conservation will be like, you'd better read it closely." –Bill McKibben
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"Landscape history or natural history without humans is incomplete history," write authors Christopher McGrory Klyza and Stephen C. Trombulak. In their very readable portrayal of geological, biological, and cultural forces that produced the Vermont of today, they use interconnectedness as a lens to view the changing landscape. Sections such as "From Forestland to Farmland to Funland" describe reciprocal influences of ecosystems, humans, and topography over time. Sections on specific bioregions explain unique interactions of climate and the living world.
Klyza and Trombulak describe the pre-human evolution of the area and its development into distinct biophysical regions, and then show how pre-Columbian inhabitants engaged and altered the landscape. They trace the enormous effects of European settlement, as well as how the ecosystem influenced human habitation and activity. Finally, they examine Vermont's three natural communities: forest, open terrestrial, and aquatic. Throughout, they impart much specific information about Vermont, speculate on its future, and foster an appreciation of the complex synergy of forces that produced this region.
"This is a truly contemporary account of Vermont's human and natural history which reveals the synergy and interconnectedness of people and their landscapes."
Carl Reidel, University of Vermont
To Read a Bit About the Book
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