Forest dreams, forest nightmares : the paradox of old growth in the Inland West / Nancy Langston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Langston, Nancy.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Forest Service.

Forest policy--Blue Mountains (Or. and Wash.)--History.

Forest policy.

Forest reserves--Blue Mountains (Or. and Wash.)--Management--History.

Forest reserves.

United States. Forest Service--History.

United States.

Forest ecology--Blue Mountains (Or. and Wash.)--History.

Forest ecology.

History.

Management.

Blue Mountains (Or. and Wash.).

Physical Description:

xii, 368 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, 1995.

Summary:

Across the inland West, forests that once seemed like paradise have turned into an ecological nightmare. Fires, insect epidemics, and disease now threaten millions of acres of once-bountiful forests. Yet no one can agree what went wrong. Was it too much management - or not enough - that forced the forests of the inland West to the verge of collapse? Is the solution more logging, or no logging at all? In this gripping work of scientific and historical detection, Nancy Langston unravels the disturbing history of what went wrong with the western forests, despite the best intentions of those involved. Focusing on the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, she explores how the complex landscapes that so impressed settlers in the nineteenth century became an ecological disaster in the late twentieth. Federal foresters, intent on using their scientific training to stop exploitation and waste, suppressed light fires in the ponderosa pinelands. Hoping to save the forests, they could not foresee that their policies would instead destroy what they loved. When light fires were kept out, a series of ecological changes began. Firs grew thickly in forests once dominated by ponderosa pines, and when droughts hit, those firs succumbed to insects, diseases, and eventually catastrophic fires.

Notes:

"Weyerhaeuser environmental books"--Prelim. p.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-357) and index.

ISBN:

0295974567

OCLC:

32590404