Sustaining the Forest, the People, and the Spirit

Documents and describes the Menominee Indians' tribal practice of sustainable environmental development.

Sustaining the Forest, the People, and the Spirit tells the story of the Menominee Indian Tribe and how they have sustained their 230,000 acre forest in ways that have enhanced, rather than degraded, the environment in the face of development pressures. Through a careful look at Menominee history, politics, institutions, economy, culture, spirituality, science, and technology, Thomas Davis provides insight into how this case study of sustainable environmental development can offer a rough road map for other communities to follow.

"The Menominee forest may, as the author suggests, be unique. It may be the only forest in North America that is at once productive and whole. I have been to this forest many times, and, as Davis notes, as one enters it, the change in the general character of the landscape is dramatic. It's like forest primeval--not only the tallest forest in the Great Lakes region, but also the most productive in terms of lumber per hectare. The Menominee forest proves that sustainable forestry is possible. We can have our forests and cut them, too. Why here and not elsewhere? is the interesting question, and the question that this book undertakes to answer. This is an important book." -- J. Baird Callicott, author of Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy