Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares The Paradox of Old Growth in the Inland West
| Author/creator | Langston, Nancy Author |
| Other author | American Council of Learned Societies. |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | Seattle : University of Washington Press |
| Description | 384 p. ill 09.000 x 06.050 in. |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from ACLS Humanities E-Book |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from Ebook Central - Academic Complete |
| Subjects |
| Series | Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics Ser. |
| Summary | Annotation 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. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| ISBN | 9780295975504 |
| ISBN | 0295975504 (Trade Paper) Active Record |
| Standard identifier# | 9780295975504 |
| Stock number | 00027464 |