New Book Reveals Just How Close Pacific NW Forests Came to Extinction
WSU PressGifford Pinchot, chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS) from 1905 to 1910, marveled at the Cascades’ old growth forests—yet today it is difficult to find one like those Pinchot saw. Instead, by mid-century the USFS dramatically increased allowable timber industry logging for all national forests and began replacing ancient forests with younger, faster-growing trees. By 1990 less than 13% of the Pacific Northwest’s original old growth remained, and projected USFS plans were to log most of the unprotected remnant by 2023. A new book, Forest Under Siege: The Story of Old Growth After Gifford Pinchot, by longtime environmental activist Rand Schenck, offers an account of old growth in the Pacific Northwest, told primarily through the lens of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (GPNF).
Schenck owns a GPNF recreation cabin located in one of the best-preserved low elevation old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. “I began to ponder why the old growth was preserved around my cabin, yet so little remained everywhere else. I realized that by focusing on one particular national forest, I could tell a story that would make concrete what for many is very abstract: how old growth was viewed by foresters, why they cut almost all of it down, and now what can be and is being done to restore it,” he says. In order to trace 100 years of Pacific Northwest forestry, the author reviewed numerous USFS documents and reports. He also interviewed industry leaders, timber war stakeholders, and prominent environmentalists. What he found reveals just how close regional forests came to extinction. He describes why the USFS moved away from decades of stewardship to relentless and unsustainable harvest, the consequences of intensive management, and why attempts to replant trees failed. He explores how laws like the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act, surprise discoveries following a volcanic eruption, and the Northwest Forest Plan slowly initiated change. He explains how gradually, a new ecological approach to forest management—one that has the potential to set a strong foundation for forests in the next century to again be dominated by old growth—evolved. As part of this realigned perspective, scientists discovered that on a per acre basis, Pacific Northwest forests sequester and store more carbon than any other forests in the world.
Schenck also provides a much-needed corrective on the environmental community’s understanding of Gifford Pinchot. Many wrongly assume that he approved the singular emphasis on “getting the cut out,” but as a lifelong Progressive, Pinchot cared deeply about small, rural communities close to national forests and wanted sustainable logging practices that those populations could depend on to provide jobs far into the future. Finally, Schenck reviews efforts to restore the damage and offers hope for old growth rebirth.
About the author:
Rand Schenck began his forestry focused environmental activism in the late 1970s at the Sierra Club, where over the next 15 years he served in a variety of leadership roles. While there, his major objective was increasing the amount of public lands designated as wilderness. After moving to Oregon in 1996, he joined the Board of Oregon Natural Resources Council (now Oregon Wild) and continued his dedication to environmental causes, working to protect Oregon’s forests, wild waters, and wildlife. Over the past decade, Rand has shifted his involvement to concentrate on climate change. He helped found the grassroots nonprofit, 350PDX, and then Mobilizing Climate Action Together (MCAT), an all-volunteer group sponsored by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters that focuses on climate change policy with the Oregon Legislature and the Executive Branch. Rand leads MCAT’s Forestry and Natural Lands branch. His team seeks to implement climate smart forestry that optimizes carbon sequestration and storage by protecting mature and old growth trees, growing trees longer, and ensuring a diversity of species, ages and structures.
Professionally, Rand spent much of his career focused on helping large organizations be more humane and successful through executive coaching, building beneficial cultures, managing organizational change, and developing effective leadership. He has a BA in History an MA in Recreation Administration, and a Masters of Social Work. Now retired, he has even more time to spend hiking and backpacking in the forests he loves, as well as enjoying many other benefits of Pacific Northwest living—skiing, rafting, canoeing, and sea kayaking.