Robinson Forest in eastern Kentucky is one of our most
important natural landscapes-and one of the most threatened.
Covering fourteen thousand acres of some of the most diverse forest
region in temperate North America, it is a haven of biological
richness within an ever-expanding desert created by mountaintop
removal mining. Written by two people with deep knowledge of
Robinson Forest, The Embattled Wilderness engagingly
portrays this singular place as it persuasively appeals for its
protection.
The land comprising Robinson Forest was given to the University of
Kentucky in 1923 after it had been clear-cut of old-growth timber.
Over decades, the forest has regrown, and its remarkable ecosystem
has supported both teaching and research. But in the recent past,
as tuition has risen and state support has faltered, the university
has considered selling logging and mining rights to parcels of the
forest, leading to a student-led protest movement and a variety of
other responses.
In The Embattled Wilderness Erik Reece, an environmental
writer, and James J. Krupa, a naturalist and evolutionary
biologist, alternate chapters on the cultural and natural history
of the place. While Reece outlines the threats to the forest and
leads us to new ways of thinking about its value, Krupa assembles
an engaging record of the woodrats and darters, lichens and maples,
centipedes and salamanders that make up the forest's ecosystem. It
is a readable yet rigorous, passionate yet reasoned summation of
what can be found, or lost, in Robinson Forest and other
irreplaceable places.
eISBN: 978-0-8203-4569-7
Subjects: Environmental Science
Table of Contents
You are viewing the table of contents
You do not have access to this
book
on JSTOR. Try logging in through your institution for access.