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

SECOND PRINTING NOW AVAILABLE!

Hallowell, Maine. The Maine Environmental Policy Institute today announced that their recently published book by forest policy expert Mitch Lansky is now in its second printing. The book was first released in September of 2002. In addition, the book is now being distributed by Chelsea Green publishers and is available for order online.

Mr. Lansky's 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 Lansky. "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 postconsumer recycled, non-chlorine bleached paper. For more information and to order the book visit www.lowimpactforestry.org or call 1-800-639-4099. Chelsea Green is distributing the book nationally. MEPI is on the web at www.meepi.org

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

What others are saying about Low-Impact Forestry: Forestry as if the Future Mattered .....

"Sustainable forestry is right where organic gardening was a generation ago--at the very beginning of working out the techniques and technologies that will let logging thrive at a scale appropriate to both the human and natural communities that depend on the forest. This book is at--if you will pardon the expression--the absolute cutting edge of that process." - Bill McKibben, author

"A very useful guide and overview, at just the right breadth and detail for a woodlot owner like me--and there are a lot of us. [The book gives] plenty of sources for those of us who want more. This is just what was needed. Practical and timely." - Bernd Heinrich, professor, author

"Informed dialogue is the only way to avoid the all-too-common diappointments that arise after a harvest is completed. There are no do-overs in this business. The information needed to help you make these informed decisions and how to communicate them are right here in this book." - Bob Matthews, Maine professional logger

"This book is a must read for all who love the forest for all its values and move products from the stump to market. It well written and crafted in a very understandable way for the average landowner. Loggers and foresters will get a lot of useful information and ideas too." - Ron Locke, Maine forester

"Mitch Lansky has compiled a valuable collection of the latest knowledge available on the subject. If the future really matters, this book may be even more successful than his last." - Wade Prest, Atlantic Forestry Review

"Even those who have nothing to do directly with forestry but are interested in biology will find the book fascinating. [...] 'Something good' is an understatement for the contribution that Lansky and others have made through this book." - Jean English, The Maine Organic Farmer and Gardener

"There is a 'New Forestry' today. A few people see it in every state that I have visited--just a few really understand it. Forest owners need to find this! Mitch Lansky is clearly one of the leaders of this movement. I highly recommend this book." - Jim Birkemeier, Timbergreen Forestry

"This isn't a high-density information reference for the experts nor really a textbook; it's an easy-chair book for people who might be buying a woodlot, or inheriting one. This book is about the re-humanization of forests - and of people - Earthwide. Methinks there are, and will be, other books, from other places; this one graces Lansky and Maine." - David Martin, Ecoforestry Institute

Maine Environmental Policy Institute
220 Water Street, POB 347, Hallowell, Maine 04347. Phone: 207-622-9766
Email: meepi@meepi.org
Web: www.meepi.org