Please join author, Trent Preszler, for a lively conversation with Isabel Ashton, Executive Director of Black Rock Forest, to be followed by a Q & A and book signing
Where: Black Rock Forest Lodge Atrium
When: Wednesday, June 24, 2026, 6:30-7:30pm
Tickets: $10 per person
In EVERGREEN: The Trees That Shaped America, Trent Preszler explores how evergreens helped shape America’s rise while revealing the complex relationship between nature, commerce, and human ambition. Blending history, environmental insight, and vivid storytelling, Preszler traces the cultural and ecological impact of trees across centuries and continents—from ancient forests and Roman industry to the modern commercialization of nature—offering a timely and thought-provoking reflection on authenticity, sustainability, and our environmental future.
Drawing on his background as a professor of applied economics at Cornell University, Preszler asks what the American pursuit of progress reveals about the cost of abundance in living ecosystems.
Trent Preszler is a professor of practice at Cornell University and director of the Henry David Thoreau Foundation’s Planetary Solutions Initiative. His memoir, Little and Often, reached #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list and was named a USA Today Best Book of the Year in 2021. His latest book, EVERGREEN: The Trees That Shaped America, was longlisted for the 2026 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Raised on a cattle ranch in South Dakota, Preszler studied at Iowa State University before earning both an MS and PhD from Cornell. A former winemaker and wooden boatbuilder, his life was featured in a documentary that won a New York Emmy Award in 2017.
Books can be preordered through the Good Books bookstore for $29. Friends of the Forest receive a 20% discount by showing their Black Rock Forest Parking Pass when paying for the book. Email them hello@goodbooksny.com to order your copy for pick up at the store 284 Main St. Cornwall, NY or they can be delivered at the lecture. Just let them know what you prefer. There will be limited books available at the lecture. All preorders must be submitted by 6/16/2026
Please visit Trent Preszler’s website for more information on his other work.