Land Protection Books

 The purpose of this post is to create a single connection to several books relevant to the protection of land -- especially in New England -- that have been part of my course GEOG 332: Land Protection. I have been teaching the course since 1998, when it still had its original title of Management and Protection of the Natural Environment. I have done my best to build on the legacy of Dr. Reed Stewart, who initially developed the course as a way to convey the lessons he had learned through years of involvement with land trusts and conservation commissions.

For each title mentioned here, I provide a link to the Goodreads entry for the book and to my own Goodreads review of the book -- these are not detailed reviews, but rather brief recommendations that explain the connection of the books to this course.

I could spend an entire year teaching this class, and if I did, I would assign all of these books and more. That being unrealistic, I have always assigned the first two (Foster and Gustanski) and occasionally one additional book at a time. With this post, I am encouraging GEOG 332 students to consider these books for their own reading. 

CURRENTLY REQUIRED

Thoreau's Country: Journey through a Transformed Landscape. 1997. David R. Foster 
Goodreads entry -- My review

Protecting the Land: Conservation Easements Past, Present, and Future. 2000. Julie Ann Gustanski, Roderick H. Squires, and Jean Hocker (Foreword)
Goodreads entry -- My review

PREVIOUSLY REQUIRED OR STRONGLY CONSIDERED

Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England. 2002. Diana Muir
Goodreads entry

Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. 1997. Tom Wessels, Brian D. Cohen, and Ann H. Zwinger
Goodreads entry -- My review 

The Journeys of Trees. 2020. Zach St. George
Goodreads entry -- NPR Story

LAGNIAPPE: ORGANIZATIONS AND LOCATIONS

In addition to these books, two Massachusetts organizations have been essential to this class: the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition and the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissioners. Both are excellent sources of continuing education for students who may have been introduced to these topics through this course.

Finally, the course has included field trips to two sites that former students tell me have been highlights of their education. Each has a claim to fame as being among the very earliest managed and studied forests in the United States. 

The most ambitious of these outings is Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont. It makes for rather an arduous day trip, but the combination of science and art makes it very worthwhile. We have sometimes included a visit to Billings Farm, which is surrounded by the park and was once part of the property. It operates as an independent non-profit organization and shares some programming and resources with the national park. 

Because all federal web sites should be considered unreliable at this time (2025), I am including several extra links about the park: a description on the Billings Farm site, a Wikipedia article, and my own 2000 encyclopedia entry

The other major field trip in the course is a visit to Harvard Forest, of which author David Foster (see above) was the director for many years. I never met Foster, but his colleague John O'Keefe hosted many of my early visits with students before his retirement. I am able to lead reasonably effective visits there because of the combination of his teaching over many visits and the material he published for the Forest. 

In the 25+ years I have been visiting these sites, I have been able to see some ecological change in particular forest areas. More importantly, I have noticed that the organizations managing each of these properties have been building collaborations with researchers, neighbors, and indigenous communities.