Social Forestry
Tending the Land as People of Place
Published on 8. June 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
456 pages
978-1-957869-06-3 (ISBN)
Description
Social Forestry: Tending the Land as People of Place is a must-have for anyone wanting to have a reciprocating relationship with their communities, themselves, and most importantly their awe-inspiring forests and landscapes.
Social Forestry connects villages and communities to their forests and adjoining bodies of water. It includes forest management, protection, and regeneration of deforested lands with the objective of improving the rural, environmental, and social development. Through ecological assessment, carbon sequestration, and generating wildcrafts, people re-establish their wonder in the woods.
Author Tomi Hazel Vaarde, collaborator of Siskiyou Permaculture, uses poetry, photographs, drawings, and data to outline philosophies and concepts of Social Forestry. By weaving culturally sensitive stories, myths, and lessons from a range of customs and traditions including North American Indigenous communities and Vaarde's own Quaker upbringing, Vaarde explores how holistic land and community management approaches can facilitate resolution of some of our most dire local and global crises. The writer's work is critical to overcoming eco-grief while instilling necessary changes to the West Coast landscape for fire mitigation and restoration of complex forest systems for generations to come.
Many indigenous peoples have learned regenerative management by living for generations in and with a sense of place, but few examples of whole-system planning and participation are evident in modern society. Climate adaptation, human survival, and conservation efforts to maintain biodiversity that supports life on Earth require radical, back-to-the-roots grounding and intentional dedication. Social Forestry helps readers remember the ways of the wild while implementing local food production, collaboration with conservation efforts, forest management, and stabilization of headwaters to build resilience for the long term. To live in harmony with our surroundings, we need to re-skill, always remembering those who came before us and acting in ways that honor traditional wisdom of people and place.
Social Forestry includes 31 4-color posters and 54 images.
Social Forestry connects villages and communities to their forests and adjoining bodies of water. It includes forest management, protection, and regeneration of deforested lands with the objective of improving the rural, environmental, and social development. Through ecological assessment, carbon sequestration, and generating wildcrafts, people re-establish their wonder in the woods.
Author Tomi Hazel Vaarde, collaborator of Siskiyou Permaculture, uses poetry, photographs, drawings, and data to outline philosophies and concepts of Social Forestry. By weaving culturally sensitive stories, myths, and lessons from a range of customs and traditions including North American Indigenous communities and Vaarde's own Quaker upbringing, Vaarde explores how holistic land and community management approaches can facilitate resolution of some of our most dire local and global crises. The writer's work is critical to overcoming eco-grief while instilling necessary changes to the West Coast landscape for fire mitigation and restoration of complex forest systems for generations to come.
Many indigenous peoples have learned regenerative management by living for generations in and with a sense of place, but few examples of whole-system planning and participation are evident in modern society. Climate adaptation, human survival, and conservation efforts to maintain biodiversity that supports life on Earth require radical, back-to-the-roots grounding and intentional dedication. Social Forestry helps readers remember the ways of the wild while implementing local food production, collaboration with conservation efforts, forest management, and stabilization of headwaters to build resilience for the long term. To live in harmony with our surroundings, we need to re-skill, always remembering those who came before us and acting in ways that honor traditional wisdom of people and place.
Social Forestry includes 31 4-color posters and 54 images.
Reviews / Votes
Vaarde delivers a guide to forging reciprocal, regenerative relationships between nature and communities.The author has been advising farms, stewarding forests, and teaching environmental sciences for more than 50 years since earning degrees in forestry and systematic botany from Syracuse University and SUNY College of Forestry. Vaarde's book is a collection of data, prose, poems, photographs, drawings, and posters that explain the philosophies of social forestry and land ethics. Forests and bodies of water are often considered as essential only in relation to their benefits to human beings; the author challenges that idea by connecting nature to communities and emphasizing nature's ; forestry work and ecology; cultures of place (shared values, belief systems, or ways of life within a specific geographical region); and visioning (picturing what one wants to happen and how a story might unfold). Vaarde recognizes that reading does not replace action when it comes to environmentalism: "This book is not merely a recipe collection, where the reader can pick and choose their indulgences; rather, we want to suggest that all skills and opportunities are embedded in cultural contexts that shape action and involvement in complex ways that a book cannot fully enfold." The author encourages conservation efforts, forest management, local food production, and the promotion of environmental resiliency, among other practices, and includes myths, anecdotes, and lessons from many North American Indigenous communities' customs and traditions. The book is brimming with well-researched information on every aspect of social forestry-readers should be warned that a surfeit of data and academic jargon can make it read like a textbook. Despite that, Vaarde does their due diligence to honor the traditional wisdom of communities and help human beings live in harmony with their surroundings. The book is a must-read for anyone curious to learn more about ethical land practices.
A complex and informative all-in-one manual on social forestry.
-- Kirkus Review
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Santa Fe, NM
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
31 4 color posters
Dimensions
Height: 253 mm
Width: 201 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
1222 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-957869-06-3 (9781957869063)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2023
Synergetic Press
€17.49
Available for download
Persons
Hazel is a long time resident of the Southern Oregon/Mount Shasta bioregion first settling here in the early 70's. Their current focus topics are Social Forestry, restoring Oak/Pine Savannah, fuel hazard management, wildcrafting, wildlife conservation and desert forest water management.
They have been advising farms, stewarding forests, and teaching Environmental Sciences for more than fifty years.
After having earned degrees in Forestry and Systematic Botany from Syracuse University and SUNY College of Forestry, 1969, Hazel taught Wild Edible Plants and Woods-lore at Laney College in Oakland CA in the early 70's. After helping Bill Mollison teach the first Permaculture Design Course at Evergreen State College in 1982, they have been instrumental in teaching and spreading Permaculture practices.
Hazel has taught dozens of Permaculture courses over the last 37 years, primarily in Southern Oregon and Northern California. These include the PDC, Permaculture Teachers Training, and advanced courses in Optical Surveying, Social Forestry and Farm Planning. They were a frequent guest instructor for Toby Hemenway PDC's offered in the Northwest.
Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author of thirteen books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess and the ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing, and its sequel City of Refuge.
Her most recent non-fiction book is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, on group dynamics, power, conflict and communications.
Starhawk founded Earth Activist Training, teaching permaculture design grounded in spirituality and with a focus on activism. She travels internationally, lecturing and teaching on earth-based spirituality, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism.
They have been advising farms, stewarding forests, and teaching Environmental Sciences for more than fifty years.
After having earned degrees in Forestry and Systematic Botany from Syracuse University and SUNY College of Forestry, 1969, Hazel taught Wild Edible Plants and Woods-lore at Laney College in Oakland CA in the early 70's. After helping Bill Mollison teach the first Permaculture Design Course at Evergreen State College in 1982, they have been instrumental in teaching and spreading Permaculture practices.
Hazel has taught dozens of Permaculture courses over the last 37 years, primarily in Southern Oregon and Northern California. These include the PDC, Permaculture Teachers Training, and advanced courses in Optical Surveying, Social Forestry and Farm Planning. They were a frequent guest instructor for Toby Hemenway PDC's offered in the Northwest.
Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author of thirteen books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess and the ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing, and its sequel City of Refuge.
Her most recent non-fiction book is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, on group dynamics, power, conflict and communications.
Starhawk founded Earth Activist Training, teaching permaculture design grounded in spirituality and with a focus on activism. She travels internationally, lecturing and teaching on earth-based spirituality, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism.
Content
Social Forestry: Table of Contents
Acknowledgments by Hazel
Foreword by Starhawk
How to Read Hazel by Megan Fehrman
Principles Clipboard
Introduction to Social Forestry
Part I Foundations
Chapter 1 Peoples of the Forest
Chapter 2 The Lineage
Chapter 3 The Nest-Home
Chapter 4 Relationships
Part II In the Forest
Chapter 5 Forest Ecologies
Chapter 6 Forestry Work
Chapter 7 Fire
Chapter 8 Charcoal
Chapter 9 Treasures from the Thickets
Chapter 10 Forest Shelters
Part III Toward Culture of Place
Chapter 11 Starting from Here
Chapter 12 Transition Cultures
Chapter 13 ??A Place for Humans
Chapter 14 Social Order
Chapter 15 Carrying the Bundle
Part IV Visioning
Chapter 16 A Year in Wagner County
Index
Bibliography
Acknowledgments by Hazel
Foreword by Starhawk
How to Read Hazel by Megan Fehrman
Principles Clipboard
Introduction to Social Forestry
Part I Foundations
Chapter 1 Peoples of the Forest
Chapter 2 The Lineage
Chapter 3 The Nest-Home
Chapter 4 Relationships
Part II In the Forest
Chapter 5 Forest Ecologies
Chapter 6 Forestry Work
Chapter 7 Fire
Chapter 8 Charcoal
Chapter 9 Treasures from the Thickets
Chapter 10 Forest Shelters
Part III Toward Culture of Place
Chapter 11 Starting from Here
Chapter 12 Transition Cultures
Chapter 13 ??A Place for Humans
Chapter 14 Social Order
Chapter 15 Carrying the Bundle
Part IV Visioning
Chapter 16 A Year in Wagner County
Index
Bibliography