In this provocative book, author Patrick Grant explores the view that people alone have not been responsible for the destruction of the forests of Hawke's Bay. Dr Grant has undertaken an investigation of the causes of forest depletion, not only in Hawke's Bay, but in much of the eastern North Island, and, by implication, parts of the South Island. This book is his report of a professional lifetime's work, which has involved the use of skills of many disciplines: forestry, ecology, dendochronology, geomorphology, pedology, sedimentology, climatology, and human history. The result is a convincing analysis and synthesis which puts into perspective the relative impacts, on forests and landscapes, of natural and human agencies over the last 700 years.