On the western border of Poland stands an ancient forest, the only primeval forest left in Europe. Today, the people of Poland must decide its future and reconcile its past. Thousands of years old, the Bialowieża Forest is a region of outstanding biodiversity, boasting centuries-old oak trees; endangered animals such as wolves, woodpeckers, and bison; and thousands of species of insects and fungi. Situated in a country seeking to reconcile its communist past with its modern European future, the forest is the subject of debate among villagers, biologists, foresters, environmentalists, and politicians determining what a modern country does with its primeval forest. Should the forest support a flagging economy by providing jobs and renewable natural resources through logging? Or does modernity mean environmental protection and ecotourism? And if so, what version of Poland's history would ecotourists encounter on their trip to the Bialowieża Forest? In Foresters, Peasants, and Beetles, Eunice Blavascunas provides a moving and surprising portrait of the collision of traditional peasant farming, conservation work, and commercial logging in the Bialowieża Forest. As it is simultaneously logged and protected, ancient and modern, Polish and global, the stakes could not be higher as Poles must decide both what the Bialowieża Forest has been and what it will become.
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