This book tells the story of the hopeful science and trusting art offorestry. It is a story about the hopes of foresters and other scientiststo understand the forests more deeply, and about their unspoken trustthat their knowledge could ensure an enduring sylvan future. Muchhas been written on the origins and development of modern forestry invarious countries, and on the people and institutions involved, but thereis little in the forest history literature that explains what the scienceactually is. Forest knowledge has an ancient history documented sinceclassical times and applied within the intricate social and legal systemsof medieval Europe. This volume is concerned with the modern form offorest science, founded in Europe early in the nineteenth century, whenregimes for managing the forests, that could be traced to the ancientworld and had flourished in the Middle Ages, were disrupted. Newways had to be found.Foresters have tried to know their forests scientifically for over threecenturies and have hoped to apply their knowledge to good effect, eventhough they could not live to see the futures they envisioned. How fardid their scientific understanding enable a sylvan future? What, overthe three centuries discussed in this book, were their successes andfailures? And now what might the future hold for forest science andits application? This is no tale of triumph: the outlook for the world'sforests is too bleak for that. While many forests are flourishing, theclimate is changing, tropical forests are disappearing, others aredegrading, species are being lost, governments dither, internationalconferences fail. This is another, longer story - one of inquiry, ofscience and persistent endeavour to find a better future for the forests.