Emil Shukurov remembers what the great walnut forest of Central Asia was like. His first memory came in the decade after World War II ended and when the centralized economic expansion plans of the Soviet empire had only barely touched the remote valleys in southern Kyrgyzstan where tens of thousands of acres of Juglans regia grew. It was-and is-a complex ecosystem that also hosts apple, pear, and plum trees-130 species overall-and wild boars, deer, bears, owls, hawks, white woodpeckers, and other wildlife, as well as farmers, herders, and nomads descended from the tribes that roamed the region for centuries.