Introduction

Native habitats are deteriorating everywhere and the rate of decline is accelerating. There is no such thing as a preserved landscape. We dedicate parkland and restrict development from selected natural areas, but this does not eliminate continued impacts from surrounding development on a local scale or from environmental change on a global scale. The eastern deciduous forest, though less renowned than the tropical rainforest or coral reef, is no less imperiled. Reduced to a patchwork of fragments, the remaining forest lands in the eastern United States are afforded almost no regulatory protection at the federal, state, or municipal levels. In our tended landscapes, instead of being simply neglected, the forest is more systematically eliminated, replaced by lawns and clipped shrubs, kept back with herbicides and mowers. It is in our home landscape that we are first introduced to our cultural disdain for the patterns of nature.

The consequences are seen in the accelerating displacement of complex native communities by a few aggressive exotic invasive species, such as Norway maple and Japanese knotweed, and by a host of diseases, such as beech blight and ash yellows, which are decimating the native populations. Climate changes associated with global warming are likely to deal the last blow to many already stressed species that will be unable to move geographically as rapidly as their suitable ranges shift northward. Sustaining even a fraction of the diversity that persists today will be an uphill battle. The only hope is to begin right now to make a habit of restoration. From New England to the south along the East Coast, the fate of our forests is in our hands.