Overstory: Zero: Real Life in the Timber Country of Oregon

Book by Heilman, Robert Leo

In timber industry parlance, overstory: zero means "clear-cut," or removal of all the trees in a stand of timber. Heilman lives in Douglas County, Oregon, the self-styled "Timber Capital of the Nation," a sparsely populated, economically depressed area. For five winters, he worked with a company reforestation crew, planting seedling trees at the rate of 700 a day. A high school dropout, Heilman had more than 30 occupations?logger, sawmill worker, roofer, house painter?before an on-the-job accident left him unable to do hard physical labor. He writes engagingly and with sensitivity about the life of a laborer, about the struggle of a backwater community to survive. Heilman looks at the blue-collar worker's and the middle-class professional's perceptions and prejudices regarding each other. This is a vivid portrait of a "marginal population" and an area in transition.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Heilman, a resident of rural southwest Oregon, uses this spare first book to explore what life has become in a region largely dependent on logging. His title refers to timber industry slang for a clearcut, and he is well aware of the damage logging has done to the landscape. Often writing about various jobs he or his neighbors have performed, he extols the virtues of blue-collar workers and their importance to their communities. By addressing a number of his vignettes to the concerns of a population marginalized by unemployment or minimum-wage jobs, he recognizes the pain of watching a community disintegrate as it draws up sides and neighbors become enemies. Highly recommended for all regional public and environmental collections.?Tim Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, Wash.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.