Zion Canyon: A Storied Land Book

This is a demanding book for a non-scientist like me and the wealth of detail can be a little overwhelming at times. Nevertheless, it is written with a great deal of verve and elegance as well. The author was clearly a man of wide and deep sympathy and understanding, and this work has deservedly become a classic. How extensive were ancient British woodlands? What did they look like? How did human activities affect them over time - such as royal forests for hunting deer, or oak trees for the Royal Navy? Was the Forestry Commission a good thing or a bad thing? None of the answers to these questions were quite what I was expecting, and I found something curious and enlightening on almost every page. No kind of landscape moves me to quite the same extent as a wooded one (why? is it an ancient folk memory of forest dwelling northern European ancestors?) The knowledge I've gained from this has deepened my emotional engagement with woodlands.