forestry

05/01/1992
In the Fatherland of Forestry: Baron Alexander von Elverfeldt and Castle Canstein

This article was published in American Forests, 1992.

The goals and dreams of the Baron of Castle Canstein reflect lessons learned over centuries of forest use and abuse.

“With a huge key, the Baron unlocked the heavy wood door. The room in the tower was cool, dry, and dim, just as an archives should be. The thick stone walls had been built in the 17th century for that very purpose, and now hold metal shelves lined with […]

02/01/2014
In the Fatherland of Forestry: Time Travels through the German Wild

Original essay written in 2014 describing changes in former East Germany since I first visited there in 1991.

“Don’t worry about the land mines,” said Holger Galonska, district forester for the former East German state of Mecklenburg. “They’ve all rusted away by now.”

“He turned the Trabant from the old border road along the Elbe River into an open field that once was a death zone. My German was good enough to understand him, which did not reassure me.

It […]

10/01/2014
Life, Love, and Forestry: Travels in Germany as a Tribute to Carl Alwin Schenk

This article was commissioned by the Society of American Foresters and published in the SAF’s The Forestry Source

“‘It’s the trip of a lifetime!’ everyone said during the SAF-sponsored German Study Tour in August and the two-week excursion was barely half-over. The group had seen Munich and the forests of Bavaria. But the heart of the trip was a remembrance of Dr. Carl Alwin Schenck (CAS), the legendary forester who left his […]