Science Findings, February 2009, Issue 110. Old Growth Revisited: Integrating Social, Economic, and Ecological Perspectives

摘要

How should old-growth forests be managed. Should they be managed. Stakeholders with differing values and agendas have debated these questions for years. Over time, the debate has evolved: now there is greater awareness about the complexity of old-growth ecosystems and different ways humans value them. A scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station has co-edited a book to provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary overview and synthesis to further this discussion. Written for a lay audience, Old Growth in a New World: A Pacific Northwest Icon Reexamined is meant to help deepen policymakers and public understanding of old growth. The book highlights the complexity of old growth and the dialog surrounding it. Forest management is as much a social issue as a scientific one. And the authors contend that intrinsic values of aesthetics, mystery, and spirituality must be considered alongside issues of carbon storage, habitat conservation, and timber production. Society may not agree on a definition of old growth, but working definitions based on subregional forest types are needed to help guide forest management.