Dr Williams begins by exploring the role of the forest in American culture: the symbols, themes, and concepts - for example, pioneer woodsman, lumberjack, wilderness - generated by contact with the vast land of trees. He considers the Indian use of the forest, describing the ways in which native tribes altered it, primarily through fire, to promote a subsistence economy.

American Indians and National Forests tells the story of how the U.S. Forest Service and tribal nations dealt with sweeping changes in forest use, ownership, and management over the last century and a half. Indians and U.S. foresters came together over a shared conservation ethic on many cooperative endeavors; yet, they often clashed over how the nation’s forests ought to be valued and cared for on matters ranging from huckleberry picking and vision quests to road building and recreation development. Marginalized in American society and long denied a seat at the table of public land stewardship, American Indian tribes have at last taken their rightful place and are making themselves heard. Weighing indigenous perspectives on the environment is an emerging trend in public land management in the United States and around the world. The Forest Service has been a strong partner in that movement over the past quarter century.

In the bestselling tradition of Michael Pollan's "Second Nature," this fascinating and unique historical work tells the remarkable story of the relationship between Americans and trees across the entire span of our nation's history.

"Essential to the fabric of life, trees and forests grace the continent, from sheltering oaks near the edge of the Atlantic to towering redwoods along the Pacific coast. Forests produce the oxygen we breathe. They cool the earth in summer, nurture wildlife of myriad forms, and help alleviate the effects of global warming. Not only useful and necessary but also strikingly beautiful, forests may be the most beloved part of the American landscape. In 'Trees & Forests of America', award-winning author and photographer Tim Palmer has captured 200 exquisite images of wild forests in all their vitality, complexity, and artistry. He shows New England with its brilliant maples in autumn, Appalachian mountains suffused with green, aspen groves enlivening the Rockies, cottonwoods shading streams in the desert, and rainforests that loom large with biological extravagance in the Northwest. Camera in hand, Palmer has found a spectacular array of natural wonders wherever native forests still grow. In his writing he describes the lives of trees, the ecological workings of forest, the importance that these places have for all of us, and the challenges facing woodlands and the people who care about them. Unaltered digitally or by other means, these pictures show forests as Tim Palmer found them -- at sunrise or sunset, in the depths of winter storms and in the balmy comfort of summer, on the beaches of Hawaii as well as the glaciated frontier of Alaska. Seeking out the quintessential forest in each region, and ever watchful for intimate details as well as the overarching view from treetop or mountaintop, Palmer shows America's trees and forests as never before portrayed in one volume of photography and text."--

A complete look at America’s National Forests—their triumphs, challenges, controversies, and vital programs—and the dedicated people who keep them alive.