Woodlands of the Mind

Throughout the eastern United States, hundreds of colleges and universities own acres of forested lands. These holdings range from modest parcels like Virginia Tech’s eleven-acre Stadium Woods to more substantial tracts like Rutgers University’s five-hundred-acre William L. Hutcheson Memorial Forest in New Jersey.

This book features fifteen notable campus forests in eleven states in the eastern United States, stretching from North Georgia, on up through the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic region, into coastal Maine. The schools range from small religious colleges to state land-grant schools and Ivy League universities. The forests represent diverse ecosystems and attitudes on management: Some are left wild, notable for their tracts of old growth, while others are more contained or controlled, intended more for recreation than conservation or research. Many of these woodlands face considerable challenges: While some are protected in perpetuity, others are threatened by money troubles and development. All face ecological threats. But each reflects the various ways it serves its campus and local community: as a place for research, recreation, and preservation.

Woodlands of the Mind serves as a travel book for wanderers and armchair adventurers alike. These fifteen narratives, or “rambles,” guide readers through forests that range from small, hidden parks to vast preserves. Like an engaging travel companion, the essays discuss each forest’s ecology, landscape architecture, and history—especially the history of American universities and the relationship between higher education and land management and protection.