Title: The Twilight Forest: An Elegy for Ponderosa in a Changing West
Author: Gary FergusonMy Rating: 👍👍👍👍👍
My Review: I have many fond memories of hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains and Southern California mountains where Ponderosa Pine forests are common. I love their rugged beauty and sweet vanilla smell. This book has been an revelation to me on how human caused climate change, fire, insects, disease, habitat destruction and over harvesting are contributing to the loss of not only Ponderosa Pines but also many other tree species in the United States. According to the author, only a small percent of Ponderosa Pines will remain by mid century. Sadly, considering the current administrations stance on the environment, I would say that's a conservative estimate.
Description (Audible): With their towering, cinnamon-colored trunks and dusky green canopies, ponderosa pine has long been a charismatic icon of the American West. Yet a quiet unraveling has begun: in the past decade, in a vast area from Santa Fe to the Sierras, more than two hundred million ponderosa have died. While some trees will survive in cooler places, scientists estimate that by mid-century less than five percent of the ponderosa in the American Southwest may remain. As the very character of this vast region shifts, what will be left behind? And how can we come to terms with such profound loss?
In The Twilight Forest, Gary Ferguson brings listeners on an expansive journey through the ponderosa forests of the Southwest both to mourn—and to celebrate—the forests that nurtured him. In warm and luminous storytelling, Ferguson weaves together the human and natural history of ponderosa, from its march across the West more than 10,000 years ago, to centuries of artists inspired by its dazzling stature and shady passageways. Both wildfire and climate change are constant presences on this journey. Fire is necessary for healthy forests but has turned deadly, while climate change stresses even the hardiest beings of the natural world. Yet the story of ponderosa reminds us that loss can be a gateway to connection—to nature and each other.
