Low-Impact Forestry: Forestry As If the Future Mattered

[Will Sugg]

PRESS RELEASE                               September 16, 2002

Contact: William Sugg, MEPI. Phone: 207-622-9766 
         Email: meepi at meepi.org
         Mitch Lansky. Phone: 207-456-7018 
         Email: mlansky at nci2.net
         More info at http://www.lowimpactforestry.org 

              Maine Environmental Policy Institute 
               Publishes Mitch Lanksy's New Book 
    Low-Impact Forestry: Forestry As If the Future Mattered

Hallowell, Maine. The Maine Environmental Policy Institute today
announced the release of an important new book by forest policy
expert Mitch Lansky. His 1992 book Beyond the Beauty Strip:
Saving What's Left of Our Forests is widely considered a ‘must
read' for anyone interested in northern forest issues, and has
served as the bedrock of the forest protection movement in New
England and around the country. If Beyond the Beauty Strip is a
forestry "how-not-to" manual, then Low-Impact Forestry: Forestry
as if the Future Mattered could be considered a "how-to" manual.

How would forests be managed if the future really mattered?
Low-Impact Forestry gives historical, ecological, social, and
economic views of forest management, using Maine as a case study.
The book is for landowners, foresters, loggers and anyone who
wants to gain a common understanding of goals for excellent
forest management and ways to measure progress towards those
goals. There are in-depth discussions on logging techniques,
contracts, landowner associations, and longterm land protection,
as well as poignant interviews with scientists, loggers, and
foresters. Low-Impact Forestry points the way towards an
economically-viable forestry system that conserves biodiversity
and community for the long term.

"We have been heartened to discover that in a forestry atmosphere
that has been heavily polarized, Low-Impact Forestry has been a
source of common ground," notes Lanksy. "Environmentalists,
foresters, and loggers have enthusiastically discussed how to
make this concept work. We are on to something good and want to
share it."

The book has practical nuts and bolts discussions on everything
from wood harvesting technologies to writing a logger-landowner
contract. Low-Impact Forestry can be an important tool for
helping landowners figure out what they want to happen in their
woods and how to make it happen. 

"It is our hope that this book will serve as the foundation of a
forestry system that is attractive for small and large landowners
who are committed to maintaining ecosystem integrity in forests
where profitable timber extraction is also a primary objective,"
said William Sugg, director of MEPI.

The 172-page book is printed on 100% postconsumer recycled,
non-chlorine bleached paper. For more information and to order
the book visit http://www.lowimpactforestry.org or call
1-800-639-4099. Chelsea Green will distribute the book
nationally. MEPI is on the web at http://www.meepi.org

To receive a copy of the book for review in your publication,
please submit a request by email to meepi at meepi.org.

This press release is available online at
http://www.meepi.org/lif/press.htm