Sunday, November 23, 2008

Reading List

So they finally created a google group for all of us to get to know each other before we come to NH. Within this group, they posted a reading list for people who want to read more about what they're going to be doing in NH and the history of the conservation movement and the SCA. I'm actually kinda excited about this, because I've been looking for books to read to kinda get me ready for NH, but I didn't really know where to start. In case anybody else is interested in what they recommended for us to read, I'm posting the list here too.

Classics of the Environmental Movement

▪ On Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson
▪ Walden, Henry David Thoreau
▪ Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
▪ A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
▪ The Wilderness Adventure Series, John Muir

Environmental Education and Interpretation

▪ Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv
▪ Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education, David Sobel
▪ Interpreting our Heritage, Freeman Tilden

Trail Work

▪ Lightly on the Land: The SCA Trail-Building and Maintenance Manual
(Everything you could ever want to know about trail work – much more interesting than the title suggests.)

New England Natural History

▪ Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History, Tom Wessels

Other Titles on Conservation, Sustainability and Environmental Ethics

▪ Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, Brower and Leon
▪ Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus
(Rethinking the way we convey messages about the environment: why do we have trouble convincing others about the importance of conservation?)
▪ The Unsettling of America, Wendell Berry
(Discussion on our estrangement from the land as a result of the growth of agribusiness and the decline of small, family owned farms)
▪ The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollen
▪ Crimes Against Nature, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
▪ Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken
▪ A Contract With the Earth, Newt Gingrich
▪ Our Common Future, UN report on Sustainable Development a.k.a. The Bruntland Report, 1987, 1992.