Landscape Book Published!

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Announcing a new book from the Library of One Thing And Another!

 LANDSCAPE, Progress Toward a Philosophy of Sustainable Occupancy is a collection of essays and other documents written by Fred Schueler and Aleta Karstad over the course of 25 years in the process of trying to understand human occupancy of a rural municipality in Eastern Ontario.  

 Decorated with ink sketches from Aleta's journals and graced by Fred's and Aleta's poems and songs relevant to the chapters, this black and white book of a little over 200 pages is a quiet revolution in itself - a challenge to people who long for a change in socio-ecological thinking, that paradigm shift that we've all heard about and are still waiting for, to think again from a fresh perspective about the Landscape in which they live.

The first essay explicitly deals with local land-use planning, the next with two local species that indicate the need for such planning, and the middle seven with reflections on the current Ontario system of land-use and ecological principles relevant to particular organisms or habitats. Then The Lawn Care Manual draws lessons from government strictures on ecological planning, and applies them to the immediate surroundings of a homesite. Next is an ecology of the Kemptville Creek drainage basin, a philosophical essay, and the book concludes with a critique of a Counties' sustainability study, and a hymn of praise to mud.
We hope that this collection will be useful to residents, municipal Councils, agencies, and non-governmental organizations. We dedicate it to all those with the fortitude to challenge the “system” on behalf of ecological integrity. You can order this book online.

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