Research interest in the forests of Oregon and Washington east of the Cascade Range can be traced back to 1897, when Fredrick V. Coville of the Division of Forestry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, reconnoitered the Cascade Range Forest Reserve to report on forest growth and sheep grazing there in an 1898 report. Subsequent forest survey in the late 1890s and early 1900s was stimulated by anticipation of the timber boom that would follow arrival of a railroad. In 1908, Gifford Pinchot's new Forest Service sent young Thornton Taft Munger to study the encroachment of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.) on the more valuable ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) stands. By the end of the year, Munger was in charge of the North Pacific District's one-man Section of Silvics, which evolved to become the Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station in 1924 with him at the helm. The forest research effort east of the Cascade Range picked up speed with establishment in 1931 of the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest to research the ecologically and economically viable silvicultural systems that would convert the stagnant old-growth forests into more-productive secondgrowth forests. During the ensuing six and one-half decades, a small group of Forest Service researchers and their university counterparts working at the experimental forest and, beginning in 1963, the Bend Silviculture Laboratory, pioneered and pursued the practical silvicultural research that both led and responded to the evolution of their science.

People are demanding more of the goods, services, and amenities provided by the forests of the Pacific Northwest, but the finiteness of the supply has become clear. This issue involves complex questions of biology, economics, social values, community life, and federal intervention. Forests of the Pacific Northwest explains that economic and aesthetic benefits can be sustained through new approaches to management, proposes general goals for forest management, and discusses strategies for achieving them. Recommendations address restoration of damaged areas, management for multiple uses, dispute resolution, and federal authority. The volume explores the market role of Pacific Northwest wood products and looks at the implications if other regions should be expected to make up for reduced timber harvests. The book also reviews the health of the forested ecosystems of the region, evaluating the effects of past forest use patterns and management practices. It discusses the biological importance, social significance, and management of old-growth as well as late-succession forests. This volume will be of interest to public officials, policymakers, the forest products industry, environmental advocates, researchers, and concerned residents.