The Way of the Woods: Journeys Through American Forests by Linda Underhill

Abstract

 OHQ vol. 111, no. 1 stories function in a culture, the power they have over reality, and the responsibility every story-teller has to his or her subject — particularly when that subject is nonhuman. Thisbookfulfillsthepromiseof ecocriticism by deftly including interdisciplinary information so that the real wolf corrects“our assumptions and fantasies about it,” thus helping us reconcile our imagined wolves with both the wolves themselves and our behaviors towards them (p. i). As Robisch writes,“when we put a wolf in a story, the story at that point must be responsible to the wolf” (p. 11). The real wolf. Marybeth Holleman Anchorage, Alaska The Way of the Woods: Journeys Through American Forests by Linda Underhill Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2009. Index. 160 pages. $18.95 paper. Forests stand as one of the most ubiquitous ecosystems in the world. They have long been recognized for their ecological, commercial, and spiritual values. Linda Underhill sampled a variety of the nation’s temperate forests in an effort to more fully understand their historic and contemporary significance. The result is her anecdotal account of visits to specific forests in the Northeast, the Smoky Mountains, and the Olympic Peninsula. Although she acknowledges the need for forest products,The Way of theWoods offers unabashed support for preservation and expresses the author’s love of forested places. Visiting these sites, she writes, “affirmed my kinship with all that is wild, all that is real” (p. xiii). Each chapter takes readers to a different forest and highlights particular themes of contemporary concern. Most of the locations represent preserves in public forests and parks managed by state and federal agencies. Some groves are quite small, as in the case of the ten-acre DeVeauxWoods State Park in western New York, presented as an example of urban old-growth forest. Others represent broad, regional ecosystems. All are temperate forests, most in the Northeast. A single chapter on Great Smoky National Park and two chapters on the coastal Northwest are the only exceptions .Thematically,the book focuses on threats to forests from development, disease, habitat loss, and climate change. Underhill, a professor of English and humanities, brings readers along on walks through each of the forests she visits. In most cases, she is guided by a local person involved in the study or management of the site. These guides include environmental activists, scientists , and maple sugar producers. In Oregon, her visit is not to a specific forest but to the Cascades Raptor Center in Eugene. There, staff and resident owls help her understand the issues of the northern spotted owl and Douglas fir forests. Her hikes are often family outings, and her descriptions focus on the personal emotions raised by the experience. Historians will likely be disappointed by the lack of depth applied to explaining changing land use and the historical context of her discussions. Most chapters refer briefly to the history of each area, though the book contains no citations to document sources. Some references to historical progression are presented out of order. The chapter on the spotted owl provides a very brief overview of the political and judicial stages of the issue since the 1980s.Indigenous,pre-contact forest use is mentioned, most notably in a chapter on the Alleghany National Forest in Pennsylvania , where she senses “the silent presence of the Seneca people” (p. 77). Seneca land use, however, is portrayed only briefly as an outdated caricature with no effort to document the people’s history there. Nonetheless, Underhill concludes her one paragraph on the  Book Notes book notes Oregon Historical Quarterly volunteers and staff created these Book Notes by drawing on publishers ’ descriptions. Slick as a Mitten: Ezra Meeker’s Klondike Enterprise by Dennis M. Larsen Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2009. Bibliography, index. 128 pages. $24.95 paper. After braving the Oregon Trail in 1852, Ezra Meeker built a fortune in hop farming and brokering in the Puget Sound country. He platted Puyallup and served as the town’s first mayor and businessman. In the 1890s, hop aphids and an economic depression swept away his assets, but the Klondike gold stampede of 1898 renewed his prospects. In his late sixties, he ventured north four times...