The Catskill Forest: A History - Softcover

Michael Kudish

4.6

5 ratings by Goodreads

9781930098022: The Catskill Forest: A History

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1930098022 ISBN 13: 9781930098022

Publisher: Purple Mountain Pr Ltd, 2000

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Published in August 2000, this book is the result of more than 30 years of research on the Catskill forest. It includes 25 maps showing the distribution of species and forest-products industries in addition to a full-color, large, fold-out map that shows the extent of the first growth forest, second and third growth forest, agricultural lands, burned areas, reforested areas, and landslides. Five sections look at plant migrations to the region following the last glaciation, the impact of people on the forest, the forest regrown, mountain ranges, forest industries. A must for anyone who loves the Catskills.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

When Michael Kudish first began climbing the Catskills peaks in the mid-1960s, he wondered why different summits at the same elevation had vastly different forests, some with spruce-fir, some with fir-northern hardwoods, others with northern hardwoods alone, and still others with oak. To answer this question, he began a life-long study of the history of these forests, beginning with Vegetational History of the Catskill High Peaks, his dissertation at the New York State College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse in 1971. In the intervening 29 years, his study has expanded to include an examination of Catskills soils, climate, ecological personalities of tree species, human disturbance history, and the history recorded in the rings of living and just fallen trees. Such examinations could punch the clock back only 300 to 400 years, the maximum age of the oldest living trees and of the writings of European settlers. In 1994, He realized that tree fossils preserved in high-elevation peat bogs also could be used to reconstruct forest history and that the age of the peat could be determined by radiocarbon dating. Forest history has now been pushed back to 10,000 years. Hopefully, future peat studies will push the clock back even farther--to the end of the Ice Age about 13,000 years.

Michael Kudish is a professor in the Division of Forestry at Paul Smith's College in the Adirondacks. He has written, in addition to numerous articles on both Catskills and Adirondack forests, several books including two on the flora of Paul Smiths, Adirondack Upland Flora, Where did the Tracks go, and Railroads of the Adirondacks: A History, the last published by Purple Mountain Press.

Review:

...both fascinating and indispensable, a marvelous lens which helps us to see clearly what we are looking at... -- Michael Perkins, Woodstock Times, May 17, 2001

Everyone who enjoys the forests of the Catskills...will find a treasure trove of information in this book... -- Chris Olney, Catskill Center News, Spring 2001

The Catskill Forest...is a book that those who know and love the Catskills have been waiting for. -- Richard Parisio,Kaatskill Life, Fall 2000

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.