Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional, interactive, playful, learningful
Review: Congratulations Tom on creating a very exciting work. You have developed a way to empower citizens with connecting with and understanding their local landscape. Thanks for making it interactive and playful. I have a bunch of ideas for your consideration before your next edition. Best,
Jimmy
Rating: 
Summary: Heart-felt subject, graceful writing
Review: I am blessed to own some woodland in New England, and my forester recommended this book. The author writes with the same love for the land that I have, but with much more knowledge. He really enjoys the wonderful details that exist in a forest, and he illuminates them with clear explanations of how the landscape has evolved. The general tone of the book is one of guided investigation for the curious, so there is a great deal of warmth in it. I don't know how well it works for those who do not have a basic knowledge of trees. If you are not already familiar with the different kinds of tree, you may want a tree identification book too. I can't give this book five stars because the illustrations were not as helpful as I would have liked. I wanted color and a better sense of the textures. Illustrations of indicator plants would have been a big bonus in the appendix, and I wish they had been provided. For a more technical book, see Working with Your Woodland by Mollie Beattie. It contains more information and is geared to the landowner, but it doesn't have nearly as much soul. For example, Wessels' book describes stumps with a keen loving eye. They barely get a mention in Beattie's book, and their significance is lost.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent speaker of the woods
Review: I recently went to a lecture and slide show by Tom Wessel and must say that it was extraordinary! His detective work is truly amazing and I left with so much new and exciting information. I am sure that his book will be equally fulfilling-particularly because I was thinking that I should have been taking notes!
Rating:
Summary: My questions have been answered!
Review: I'm a Registered Maine Guide and self harvest my forest land in Maine. Needless to say, I spend a fair amount of time in the forest. Tom Wessels book has opened up a whole new world to me: the same woods that I thought I new so well! Incredible book. Thanks Tom
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing arboreal mysteries - solved scientifically.
Review: If you like science, and enjoy mysteries, and appreciate natural beauty and history, this book has it all. I thought, before reading it, it might be a somewhat dry, but useful learning experience. I was very wrong: it was a page turner - every chapter fascinating, and replete with new information and opening up an entire new world.
Rating: 
Summary: A correction to the synopsis.
Review: Reading the Forested Landscape is not really about identifying threats to the forest, but about how to read forest histories and the disturbances that created them. It is an interactive process where we ask questions and the forest answers back
Rating:
Summary: A link between history and science through landscapes.
Review: Reading the Forested Landscape, A Natural History of New England, reminded me that many general biology students will wander through woodlands and prairie perhaps aware of molecular happenings and yet oblivious to what the landscape is saying. This book can add delight to an ordinary stroll through an overgrown pasture or a drive through what at first glance appears to be monotonous countryside. Deducing the past history of a landscape invites more detailed observations than casual hiking even if the landscape is far from New England. This thin volume contains original high quality etchings of different landscapes. Each etching is accompanied by a detailed interpretation of the history of the forest. Human additions to the landscapes are included as a natural and important part of the history. The strength of the book lies in the insights into the reasoning behind conclusions. This reasoning has allowed me to make some transitions to the semiarid portions of Texas where I spend most of my time.
The history of New England is naturally and liberally integrated into the stories of the landscape. This is not a forced history/science link but a very natural and intriguing story that unfolds with each new etching. A glimpse into the future is provided in the last chapter, rounding out a wonderful view of landscapes.
Rating:
Summary: Natural History
Review: Reading the Forested Landscape, first of all, plainly deserves readers outside of New England. While the particular forests the book looks at are in the northeast, Tom Wessels' approach and style won't be lost on anyone with an interest in natural history. Give this as a gift to a birding friend, or for someone to keep in their cabin. The bedrock of the book is patient, graceful storytelling. At the outset of each chapter, Wessels shows us a simple print of a forest. He asks us to wonder what made that forest, and then he leads us, in unaffected voice, through his thinking as he answers that question. Why is this maple here? Are the trees here fire damaged? Wessels describes the outlines from which we can read a larger story. Each chapter is a little mystery, in a sense. Those little puzzles are fun. It's apparent how carefully Forested Landscape was crafted. This isn't just a collection of portraits; the chapters progress from one to the next intelligently. For example, you learn how to recognize a fire in one chapter; at the beginning of the next, Wessels starts by asking whether a similar fire has taken place in this new spot. That's a simple transition, but it really helps you stay in the flow of the writing. The author's smart enough to reinforce what you've learned at the same time that he's establishing continuity in the larger story. This book reads through wonderfully. And there's a bigger picture you're reading toward, too. Each chapter also includes a broader natural history subject related to its particular forest. You've seen a few trees, and you've puzzled out the sort of setting you're looking at; now, by touching on a bigger natural historical theme, you place that forest in the natural world as a whole. Forested Landscape does a wonderful job of drawing you into that big picture. How can we look at an eastern forest without thinking of the Chestnuts that dominated there until early this century? Sure, maybe those trees are gone now, but they're part of this story. (The chestnut blight as told here has real pathos to it. You'll feel like doing something to bring them back.) The patient, graceful, intelligent tone of this book reminded me of Chased By The Light, a collection of Jim Brandenberg photos taken, one shot a day, in the northwoods of Minnesota. I'm from Minnesota, so I took out Brandenberg's photos to look at every once in a while while I read. Buy yourself a collection of local nature photographs, things from your area. Or give the photos and Reading the Forested Landscape together, as a gift. Satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent speaker of the woods
Review: This book is a guide to understanding clues that explain the varied forest patterns of Central New England. Each chapter focuses on a single form of disturbance - either man made or natural - that impacts the region's forests. The chapters focus on logging, pasture abandonment, fire, beaver activity, blow downs, forest blights, topography and substrate and their impact on the plants located near these disturbances. Each chapter discusses the disturbance and then in a section entitled "A Look Back" the disturbance is related to the site's natural history. This new way of seeing a forest and its history adds to my walks in the woods. I feel a connection, a reverence, an enhancement and an inclusion that was not part of my previous walks. Although most of my hikes are in the Green Mountains of Vermont, I am convinced this process of reading the forest can be applied to any woodland in North America.
Rating:
Summary: Adds Understanding to Your Next Walk in the Woods
Review: This book is a guide to understanding clues that explain the varied forest patterns of Central New England. Each chapter focuses on a single form of disturbance - either man made or natural - that impacts the region's forests. The chapters focus on logging, pasture abandonment, fire, beaver activity, blow downs, forest blights, topography and substrate and their impact on the plants located near these disturbances. Each chapter discusses the disturbance and then in a section entitled "A Look Back" the disturbance is related to the site's natural history. This new way of seeing a forest and its history adds to my walks in the woods. I feel a connection, a reverence, an enhancement and an inclusion that was not part of my previous walks. Although most of my hikes are in the Green Mountains of Vermont, I am convinced this process of reading the forest can be applied to any woodland in North America.
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