Beyond the Beauty Strip.

While the nation's political attention is fixed on the fate of the country's remaining 10 percent of old-growth forests, by far the most important question is how we will manage second- and third-growth forests. A subsidiary question is "Who is a better manager--public or private owners, industry or individuals?" Nowhere are these questions better tested than in Maine, the state with the nation's largest private-forest holdings.

Lansky, a native of affluent Scarsdale, New York, and a back-to-the-land immigrant to Maine, achieves two things: He shows that this book needs to be done, and it needs to be done by a more scientific observer. "This book is, unapologetically, a polemic," he says in his introduction. It is also an angry book, and like most angry books, it is not a fair one.

Perhaps because he has worked for industrial forest companies, Lansky is capable of understanding the practical challenges to business even if he fails to incorporate them into his solutions. He can condemn industrial corporations for shortsightedness and also recognize that "they must make sizable capital expenditures for projects that take years to develop, |and~ must make long-range plans."

Angry as he is, Lansky recognizes that open minds and sensitive people exist in both government and industry. Despite its flaws, Beyond the Beauty Strip is a polemic that can't be ignored.