The Dying of the Trees: The Pandemic in America's Forests.

This is a very scary book, and the first about forest decline written for a general audience. But Charles Little is neither a sensationalist writer nor a doomsayer environmentalist. His credentials as a policy analyst include experience as head of the natural resources-policy research office of the Congressional Research Service in the Library of Congress, senior associate at the Conservation Foundation, executive director of the Open Space Institute, and president of the American Land Forum. Nevertheless, this book presents a very dismal view of our nation's forests - a view not likely shared by many government forestry agencies.

Little admits "despair" is the one word that describes his personal response to the research findings he reports. Those findings report on forest decline in the Green Mountains of Vermont, dying dogwoods throughout the Middle Atlantic States, deadly effects of acid rain in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the impact of diseases and pests in the Sierra Nevada, and many other incidents of tree death. According to Little, "trees are dying everywhere, including everywhere in the United States of America."

An early reviewer, Wilderness Magazine editor T.H. Watkins, says that this book "is the most important environmental book since Silent Spring [by Rachel Carson]. . . written with equal grace, with the same relentless dedication to truth . . ." For me, such plaudits seem premature given that the book was just released in August. Its importance will be judged by its ability to sustain credibility in the face of challenges by those who claim scientific evidence to the contrary.

If Little is right in his assessments, a change will be required in the way we manage and protect our forests that is equal in magnitude to that which Carson's book caused in the use of pesticides. Clearly, this book demands thoughtful, careful study by all who value our forests.