Reddit mentions of The Cedar Choppers: Life On the Edge of Nothing

Yes, you're right about juniper not having been as prolific in the past. I recently read a book called Cedar Choppers: Life On the Edge of Nothing by Ken Roberts that talked briefly about how before Ashe Juniper took over, something called "Heart Cedar" was much more common. It was supposed to be much larger in size than the "cedar" trees we see today and didn't grow in clumps but instead individually. The change seemed to have happened gradually in the early 20th century but I don't know enough about it to know the reasons why it happened. My best uneducated guess is that it might have had something to do with a critical mass of overgrazed/overfarmed land in the area creating a perfect environment for a runaway population explosion.

Great post. I read The Cedar Choppers: Life on The Edge of Nothing last year, and it was an excellent read. Highly recommended.

I was reading from the recently-released "Texas Cedar Choppers" book (about the Scot-Irish that settled in The Texas Hill Country — via SE Tennessee — two of the most beautiful places in the americas!) about how the kids used to stir up local bee hives and catch swarms and then release them into the sunday congregations in their one-room schoolhouse / church combination building.

Made me smile what people choose to recollect about their childhoods (and being little bastards). Glad you could share such a positive, mostly pain-free memory — glad you're not allergic.