The Final Forest
The Battle for the Last Great Trees
of the Pacific Northwest
by William Dietrich
Published June 1992
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My first book began as a journalistic explanation of the political and
environmental battle over the spotted owl and old growth forests of the Pacific
Northwest. Its focus on people as well as nature, and its portraits of
scientists, loggers, environmentalists and politicians has given it consistent
popularity since its first publication in 1992. It has been used as an
undergraduate and high school textbook for environmental, forestry, sociology
and political science classes across the United States.
The book won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award and the
Washington Governor Writer�s award.
A controversy that began over an endangered but obscure bird, the spotted owl,
grew in the late 1980s and early 1990s into a fierce battle for all the owl
represents: an entire ecosystem worth billions of dollars if logged and
virtually priceless as an environmental storehouse of beauty, diversity, and
genetic information. As the environmental reporter for The Seattle Times I
covered this dispute as it developed and became fascinated with the
personalities, political strategies, and the forest that was at stake.
Traditional logging of what had once seemed an inexhaustible supply of ancient
trees was fast disappearing, a victim not only of deforestation but of
automation, globalization and new scientific information about ecosystem
importance. Not only were jobs threatened, but so was an historic and
controversial way of life.
The Final Forest takes the reader to Forks, a logging community on Washington�s
Olympic Peninsula. Not only was the population there particularly outspoken
about the despised owl, but the town�s very name conjures the image of a
dividing point, a decision to be made, where the lives of everyone � not just
loggers � are deeply affected. Going beyond the news broadcast pictures of
environmentalists chaining themselves to trees and logging truck rallies in
state capitals, the book tells the story of this dispute by focusing each
chapter on individuals who explain eloquently, and in sometimes heart-breaking
detail, their love for trees, for a way or life, or for an ecosystem. The people
in this story all appreciate the forest in different ways � as a laboratory, as
a fiefdom, and as a temple � and find themselves caught up in America�s struggle
to reconcile its love for the land with its exploitation of it.
Written with sympathy for both sides, but with a critical eye toward the claims
of each, the book attempts to transcend a regional dispute and say some basic
things about both nature and human nature. This is a book about the nation�s
last great forest, a symbol for all that we cherish and exploit on earth.
Reviews
"William Dietrich has gone to the heart of the greatest
forest left in North America and returned with a clear and compelling story of
why so many people are fighting over it. This is not so much a book about trees
as it is about what great trees mean to people. Like the towering firs of the
Olympic Peninsula, this book will stand the test of time."
--Tim Egan, author of The Good Rain
"In writing as lush as the
threatened forests he describes, William Dietrich captures why the battle isn�t
merely for the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest and California but for
the health of the planet itself."
--Michael L. Fischer, executive director, The Sierra Club
"William Dietrich sympathetically addresses the conflicting views of those
who depend on the forest for a livelihood and those who value the forest for
other reasons, and does so in a balanced way. The Final Forest eloquently
captures the essence of the cultural clash that is so deeply rooted in timber
issues."
--David Thorud, Dean, College of Forest Resources at the University of
Washington
"Engrossing and well-written, this is a model of balanced reporting and
reasoned analysis."
--Publisher�s Weekly
"A remarkably readable and lucid account."
--Audubon Magazine
"The best book about the environment that I�ve read in a year."
--Newsday
"The clash of value systems jumps off the page."
--Eugene Register-Guard
"A moving assessment of an ecological dispute with global implications."
--Kirkus
hardcover / $21.00 / Simon & Schuster / 0671729675 / June 1992
paperback / $15.00 / Penguin USA / 0140177507 /
June 1993 |
