permaculture

[tom <tom@honeychrome.com>]

lbsaltzman wrote:
I just finished a brilliant book by an ethno-ecologist a woman named  
M. Kat Anderson from U.C. Davis. The book is called Tending the  
Wild.  It is an in depth look at the horticultural and animal  
management practices of the native peoples of California.  Burning  
was one of the their favorite techniques for interrupting succession  
and increasing the biodiversity of plants that were useful to them  
and to  the animals that were also useful to the people. Can't  
recommend this book to highly.

Thanks for that book recommendation.  A while back I read a book  
called 'Changes to the Land' by William Cronon, published in '83.  It  
sounds like Tending the Wild is a west coast version of that book!   
It's out of print and hard to find, but really great- and after  
reading it you won't look at the landscape the same way!