Clearcut

Library Journal

Though clearcutting (the felling of all trees in a section of forest) has recently become a major social issue, few books have been written on its environmental consequences. This exhibit-format volume uses the talents of 15 leading ecologists and 33 nature photographers, presenting 15 essays and over 176 photographs and maps. This volume doesn't just show the destruction of clearcutting, but offers solutions, which makes it a unique publication. Nevertheless, it has several drawbacks. It is done in the classic ``coffee-table'' style, which is good for the photographs but makes it difficult to use as a research tool. In addition, the lack of an index makes quick look-ups impracticable. Those seeking an essay-style format on this topic might prefer Chris Anderson's Edge Effects: Notes from an Oregon Forest (Univ. of Iowa Pr., 1993), an excellent exploration of the social repercussions of clearcutting. Recommended for libraries with extensive collections in environmental or forestry issues.-Amy L. Paster, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park

Booknews

The volume itself is fit to win a prize for elegant, effective design; the content--excruciatingly ugly-- demonstrates the greed/stupidity/insouciance of the rape-and-run companies that have ignored, or been unable to comprehend, the public interest and public relations. This mob now whines about the successes of the conservation groups. Did they not realize the pressures generated by trashing the forests? Powerful color photos (98) are aerial shots of ravished forests in the western US, the South, Northeast, Alaska, and across Canada--a virtual Brazil in its killing frenzy. A big (12x13.5"), bold, depressing book that will have much influence. Ends with a hopeful plan. Published by Sierra Club Books and David Brower's Earth Island Press. Distributed by Random House. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Mary Carroll

The eye-popping photographs in most Sierra Club books and calendars inspire fascination, respect, even awe at nature's remarkable beauty, variety, and complexity. The photos in "Clearcut", a joint publication of Sierra Club Books and Earth Island Press, are just as startling, but the primary emotion they produce is anger. From air and ground, the 35 photographers whose vivid work is gathered here document the devastation clear-cut forestry has caused across Canada and the U.S.: from Alaska and British Columbia east through the Rockies and Great Plains to Maine and Cape Breton, and south to Alabama, Texas, and California. More than 100 colorplates of the slash-and-burn destruction of "industrial forestry" call up memories of pockmarked bomb sites from London under the Blitz to Baghdad and Sarajevo. But "Clearcut" moves beyond complaint to action: in 15 essays, ecologists and eco-foresters demand recognition of the "intrinsic value" of forests and an "ecosystem-based approach to timber management." Libraries in pictured areas may already have received a donated copy of "Clearcut", but policy decisions about the future of North America's forests are sufficiently important to justify purchase of this pricey but powerful volume by libraries in other areas.