American Forests: Nature, Culture, and Politics / Edition 1

by Char Miller

Overview

Endangered ecosystem or renewable resource? How we feel about forests has to do with more than trees.

This interdisciplinary collection of essays examines the history of forestry in the United States, exploring the impact of the discipline on natural and human landscapes since the mid-nineteenth century. Through important articles that have helped define the field, it assesses the development of the forestry profession and the U.S. Forest Service, analyzes the political and scientific controversies that have marked forestry's evolution, and discloses the transformations in America's commitment to its forested estate.

American Forests highlights the intersection of the political, social, and environmental forces that have determined the use and abuse of American forests. It examines changes both in the assumptions that have defined forest management and in the scientific approach to—and political justification for—timber harvesting in our national forests. It sheds light on the ongoing debate between utilization and conservation, addressing arguments from environmentalists, the timber industry, sportsmen, and politicians while exploring the interaction between public opinion and public policy. It provides sharp insights into the most important players in the politics of forestry, from George Perkins Marsh and Berhard Fernow to Gifford Pinchot and Teddy Roosevelt. And it addresses issues as wide-ranging as budgeting, clearcutting, and the regulation of livestock grazing on national forest lands.

This multifaceted volume draws on the insights of scholars in conservation and ecology, economics, history, law, and political science to make a definitive contribution to the study and practice of forestry. By both clarifying and extending recent debate about the political purpose, scientific character, and environmental rationales of forestry in America, it will help define the place of forests in our future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700608492
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	10/24/1997
Series:	Development of Western Resources Series
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

List Contributors

Introduction

On Rewriting Forest History, Char Miller

1. Roots of Forestry

-Forests and Conservation, 1865-1890, Donald J. Pisani

-WIldlife, Conservation, and the First Forest Reserve, John F. Reiger

-The Beginning of the National Forest System, Harold K. Steen

2. First Cuts

-Timber Uses, Timber Savers: The Homestake Mining Company and the First Regulated Timber Harvest, Richmond L. Clow

-National Forest Timber Sales and the Legacy of Gifford Pinchot: Managing a Forest and Making it Pay, Robert E. Wolf

3. At Loggerheads

-“A Regular Ding-Dong Fight”: The Dynamics of Park Service-Forest Service Controversy During the 1920s and 1930s, Hal K. Rothman

-Establishing Administrative “Standing”: The Sierra Club and the Forest Service, 1897-1956, Susan R. Schrepfer

-Economic Development and Indian Land Rights in Modern Alaska: The 1947 Tongass Timber Act, Stephen W. Haycox

-The Bitterroot Revisited: “A University [Re]View of the Forest Service”, Arnold W. Bolle

4. Multiple Uses

-From Rule-of-Thumb to Scientific Range Management: The Case of the Intermountain Region of the Forest Service, Thomas G. Alexander

-The Social Context of Forestry: The Pacific Northwest in the Twentieth Century, William G. Robbins

-What Price Sustained Yield? The Forest Service, Community Stability, and Timber Monopoly Under the 1944 Sustained-Yield Act, David A. Clary

-The National Forests and the Campaign for Wilderness Legislation, Dennis Roth

Epilogue

Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares: An Environmental History of a Forest Health Crisis, Nancy Langston

Additional Readings

Index

Editorial Reviews

"There is great value to bringing these peices together. The line-up of authors is impressive indeed."—Thomas Cox, author of The Park Builders and This Well-Wooded Land

From the Publisher