In a riveting exploration of our connection to all that we cherish and exploit on Earth, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The Seattle Times examines the human side of the struggle that looms as the fate of our forest s is determined.
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From Publishers Weekly
The chief science correspondent for the Seattle Times here examines the many sides of the ongoing debate over the logging of America's last remaining ancient forest, on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. Using the town of Forks as a focal point, Dietrich allows the participants in this drama--loggers, truckers, foresters, timber company representatives, environmentalists and politicians--to speak for their own interests. Exploring a dense thicket of social ? with 'social,' seems unnecessary and economic issues, he discovers a human dilemma at the center? since thickets don't have cores? : the plight of the men and women whose livelihood depends on the woods, tragically caught between big industry and environmentalists. The author contends that the U.S. government's shortsighted policies have led not only to these workers' loss of dignity and self-respect but also to the unnecessary destruction of thousands of acres of old-growth trees. Engrossing and well-written, this is a model of balanced reporting and reasoned analysis.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The local battle scene of this book's subtitle is Washington's Olympic Peninsula, but the conflict raged, and still rages, over the entire Pacific Northwest, Washington, D.C., Alaska, and other locales that face the dilemma of preserving natural resources versus exploiting them. Dietrich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, presents in an easy-to-read narrative style the point of view of various participants in this war, from the logger whose way of life is threatened to a biologist concerned with saving the Northern spotted owl. The chapters on the owl and the biologist provide the best account this reviewer has read of the biology and behavior patterns of this small, inoffensive, but controversial bird and why it should be the center of so much heated debate. No easy solutions to the struggle between the forest industry and environmentalists emerge from this book, but hopeful signs include the increasing awareness on the part of Forest Service personnel and the logging industry that careless, sometimes ruthless, exploitation of the remaining old growth forest is no longer feasible or even possible. Highly recommended for collections on environmental issues.
- Eleanor Maass, Maass Assocs., New Milford, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Eleanor Maass, Maass Assocs., New Milford, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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It is six A.M. and still dark this late September morning when the loggers begin crowding into Jerry's saw shop. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It is six A.M. and still dark this late September morning when the loggers begin crowding into Jerry's saw shop. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I read this book for my research paper on old growth forests. Originally I was going to just try to fly through it and take out the information that I needed for my paper, but as I read it I got really into it and almost forgot about my paper altogether! I think the best thing about this book is that it represents all sides of the issue. William Dietrich talks to cutters, truck drivers, biologists, environmentalists, foresters, and the community itself and tells all sides of the situation in his book. When I originally chose to do my paper on preservation of old growth forests, I was completely against cutting down of trees, and even though I am still not exactly for it, this book really helped me to be more open-minded and understand the different point of views...
By J. Sullivan
Format:Paperback
I gained a deeper understanding of the conflicts surrounding forestry in the Pacific Northwest. The stories told in this book could never be explained or understood in a 30 second television news broadcast. And while much of the news is depressing, this book offers hope for a brighter future where science, conservation, forestry, and consumer interests can meet for the future use of our forest resources.
Format:Paperback
Natural resource management, like abortion, is one of those enormously complex political issues that too often gets reduced to dueling slogans and sound bites. William Dietrich does readers a great service by letting people from all sides of the issue (there are many more than two) speak at length, and by juxtaposing their views in ways that highlight similarities as well as differences. One of the book's running themes is that both loggers and environmentalists love the forests, but that each group has great difficulty seeing that quality in the other. Their mutual incomprehension is rooted in their utterly different ideas of why forests are important, and how humans ought to relate to them.
This deep philosophical difference is at least as old as the 20th century. John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, and Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the US Forest Service, fought battles similar to the ones Dietrich describes back at the (last) turn of the century. Dietrich, a journalist writing about a present-day controversy, says very little about that history, and that choice makes the book less informative (and less helpful as a means to understanding the problem) than it might be.
Still, _The Final Forest_ is a valuable, well-balanced piece of journalism. It's a great resource for open-minded people on either side of the preservation vs. development debate, and a superb introduction for anyone coming to the issue for the first time.
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