In his famous book Man and Nature, the US diplomat George Perkins Marsh, dedicated a whole chapter to Italian forests. Inspiration for his book, considered one of the cornerstones of environmentalist thought, came from his stay in the Italian peninsula and the acknowledgement of its high level of anthropisation, mentioned many times in the book. About forests, in particular, he stated that: Nothing but the permanent union of all the Italian States under a single government can render practicable the establishment of such arrangements for the conservation and restoration of the forests, and the regulation of the flow of the waters, as are necessary for the full development of the yet unexhausted resources of that fairest of lands, and even for the maintenance of the present condition of its physical geography.