Joan Maloof is the founder and Executive Director of the Old-Growth Forest Network. Formerly on the faculty of Salisbury University, She spends her time lecturing, writing, visiting forests, assisting private landowners, and supporting local groups trying to protect community forests from development. She began her journey into the American forest as a scientist, studying the natural workings of the planet – the systems that enable the trees and flowers and animals to subsist on their own with no help from humans. But when she looked around for natural places to study she found that almost everything had been affected by humans. Joan realized that as a scientist she could do very little to ensure that at least some of the forests would be left alone, but that as a writer she could share what other scientists had learned about the importance of ancient forests. So Joan made the transition from scientist to writer, and wrote several books, including, Nature’s Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests and her latest, The Living Forest: A Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods.
Joan Maloof
