Overview

Tanoak ( N. densiflorus ) is a resilient and common hardwood tree native to California and southwestern Oregon. Paradoxically, people's radically different perceptions of the tree have ranged from cash crop to treasured food plant to trash tree. Having studied the patterns of tanoak use and abuse for nearly twenty years, botanist Frederica Bowcutt uncovers a complex history of sociopolitical and economic factors affecting the tree's fate.This common associate of coast redwood was known by many indigenous names, including in the Kashaya Pomo language, chishkale, which translates to beautiful tree. As the source of nutritious acorns, tanoak remains important to Native Americans committed to maintaining traditional cultural practices. Many are working to revive indigenous burning practices that foster tanoak wellness.From the mid-19th to early 20th centuries, tanoak bark was a lucrative source of the vegetable tannin used in leather production. However, resource depletion and increased global competition led to a tapering of bark harvesting by the 1920s and to its end in the early 21st century. Despite protests since the 1980s, tanoaks continue to be killed in industrial forests to favor reforestation with the currently more commercially valuable coast redwood and Douglas fir. As one nontoxic alternative, many foresters and northern California communities promote locally controlled and smaller-scale hardwood production using tanoak, which doesn't depend on clearcutting and herbicide use.Today tanoak is experiencing massive die-offs due to sudden oak death despite more than a hundred years of plant quarantine laws and scientific forestry as well as decades of environmental regulations designed to safeguard our forests. Bowcutt examines the complex set of factors that set the stage for the tree's current ecological crisis. However, the appearance of some disease resistance in tanoak offers hope for the future, as does the emerging army of tanoak defenders, from plant pathologists and foresters to concerned citizens, including Native Americans. This well-researched book will appeal to readers interested in how economics and ecology intersect in tangible ways and how the resulting impacts on the land in turn impact local communities.

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9780295805931

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Frederica Bowcutt teaches botany in interdisciplinary programs at The Evergreen State College. She specializes in floristics, field plant ecology, and plant-centric environmental history.

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