Welcome to the Spring 2025 issue of From the Ground Up!

This dramatic winter—with snow, rain, ice, and warmer-than-usual temperatures—feels even more alarming against the backdrop of a government that is dismantling and defunding conservation efforts and agencies. As spring dawns, we feel a new sense of urgency to join together to protect the natural places that do so much to protect us. The many contributors to this issue energize us for the work we need to do.

Sugarmaker and forester David Marvin has been working in the woods for decades, managing maples, tapping trees, and boiling sap—a task that comes earlier every year now. In his opening essay, Pondering a Conservation Ethic, he shares with us his views on managing forests. “I believe we need—and can achieve—productive, restorative agriculture and forestry that are in harmony with the living systems that share our place.”

Marvin’s conservation ethic is the essence of ecological forestry, which we explore in-depth by featuring eleven different perspectives. In Putting Forests First, David Foster calls on us to practice humility in managing forests, reminding us of the origins of ecological forestry with the Harvard Forest silviculturists who drew from ecology and forestry to advance practices that “follow nature as far as possible.”

Tony D’Amato, a co-author of Ecological Silviculture, offers the conceptual and historical underpinnings of the topic in Ecological Forestry: Origins and Principles, and Brian Donahue, in Ecological Forestry and Slow Wood, reminds us about the need for balance: to remember where our wood comes from, and to harvest it and use it thoughtfully, while leaving some places to remain wild.

Several other practitioners give us their perspectives on the ethical and theoretical bases of ecological forestry, also called low impact forestry or exemplary forestry. And we hear about on-the-ground practices, with successes and challenges.

In his commentary, The Turning Point, Jamey Fidel of Vermont Natural Resources Council observes a growing divide in conversations about forest management on public lands. He urges us to work together, to seek common ground, and to recognize the many benefits that forests provide, from wilderness to wildlife habitat to wood.

The common thread in this series of articles is the vital role that ecological forestry plays in caring for forests, both Wildlands and managed Woodlands, farmlands, and the individuals and communities who rely on all that nature provides.

Bob Perschel contributes to the ecological forestry series, and also offers a beautiful poem about reindeer, Election Night in Sapmi. His wintry scene yields to a springtime profusion of Rising Red in a poem offered by Sean Prentiss, who spent a year visiting and writing poems about the Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve in Vermont. 

We’ve heard from many of you how much you enjoy the audio recordings of articles, so we’re excited to share that you can now enjoy them all in podcast form. Be sure to check out the From the Ground Up podcast.

As always, we have a wonderful collection of book reviews for you, and several recommendations for videos, podcasts, and articles that are meant to inspire.

May your spring be filled with light and hope. And keep the comments coming. We want to hear from you.

With gratitude,
The Editors of From the Ground Up

Brian Donahue, David Foster, Marissa Latshaw (Publisher), Alex Redfield, and Liz Thompson (Managing Editor)