Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the New England Landscape

Over the past twenty years, development has perforated forests and farms in every New England state, endangering the contiguous landscapes that are the center of our local resource base, cultural heritage, and regional resilience to dramatic environmental change. This volume presents an ecologically salient call to action, grounded in the scholarship of more than a dozen of the region’s leading experts in ecology, forestry, and agriculture. The Wildlands and Woodlands vision seeks to preserve and enhance the many ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural benefits of forested landscapes for everyone in the region, from our most densely settled cities to our most heavily wooded lands. Drawing on the region’s rich history of land conservation and appealing directly to its citizens, this new vision builds a strong case for a collaborative endeavor to conserve 70 percent of the New England landscape in forest in perpetuity.