This was my first Bryson book, even though A Short History has been sitting on my bedside bookshelf for the last two Christmases. Listening to it while hiking across Ireland was wonderful, Bryson is clearly a good author and his popularity is not undeserved. But I have to say I was astonished and enraged at Bryson's irresponsible, one-sided presentation of all public silviculture policy in the US. As someone who spent a reasonable amount of their undergrad reading and analyzing the scientific and political influences on US silviculture policy and practice, I know it's a mixed bag. The US has had to create most of these practices from theory and test them before the world can know what practices are successful and which aren't. And when you're talking about trial forestry practices you're talking about 40-100 year dedicated studies that run across entire states.
We still don't know how to foster forests the ideal way, and Bryson doesn't help the matter by informing the public of his single opinion, and suggesting that we all just do it his way. It's so socially irresponsible I could spit.
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