Tom Wessels is a terrestrial ecologist and Antioch University New England professor emeritus. He has authored a number of books. If you've read "Reading the Forested Landscape" and "Forest Forensics", you know how skilled he is at interpreting the past land use history clues abounding in central New England's changing forests. Learning to apply the knowledge you gained from those books can be time consuming, however, and you probably find yourself returning to the books often.

In this 3-part series, you'll go into the woods with Tom as he covers many of the topics in detail, providing another opportunity for you to enhance your own "forest forensics" skills.

Some of the topics covered in the three parts: New England's stone walls; pillows and cradles; merino sheep craze ("sheep fever"); forests arising on abandoned agricultural land (past hay field vs crop field vs pasture); signs of past wind, logging and fire damage; reading tree stumps; white pine weevils and multi-trunked pines .

In Part 1, Tom covers the topics of New England's maze of woodland stone fences, abandoned agricultural lands, pillow-and-cradle topography, and storm damage.

Part 2 is at    • Tom Wessels: Reading the Forested Lan...  

Part 3 is at    • Tom Wessels: Reading the Forested Lan...  

Also, see this story and others at our blog, www.neforests.com

And be sure to watch "The Ecology of Coevolved Species", featuring Tom, at
   • Tom Wessels: The Ecology of Coevolved...  

To see more about the white pine weevil, see "The White Pine Weevil's Life Cycle" on this channel at    • The White Pine Weevil's Life Cycle  

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