Old Growth in a New World: A Pacific Northwest Icon Reexamined by Thomas A. Spies and Sally L. Duncan, eds.
When I learned that Tom Spies was invited to be one of four keynote speakers in September at the Northeastern Old Growth Conference—Wildlands and Old-Growth Forests: A Vision for the Future, I decided to revisit this comprehensive volume that he and Sally Duncan edited in 2009. My memory of the book’s scope, ranging from ecological and social history to economics of old-growth forests, and the valuable insights from many chapter authors, was well served. What I had not anticipated was how relevant this book and the treatment of its diverse subjects would be to the controversies brewing nationally today concerning the management of mature and old-growth forests, and the rationale, extent, and management of Wildlands and forest reserves. I was also surprised to see more parallels between many of the discussions taking place then and now in Oregon and Washington—states with millions of acres of old-growth forest remaining—and New England where, according to the book editors, conservationists seek to “protect the tiny fragments of old growth, let forests return to the wild, or ‘restore’ old growth.”
The book centers on lessons learned since the first major study of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, a 1981 study by Jerry Franklin (another keynote speaker at this September’s conference) and colleagues, and through the old-growth wars that consumed conservationists and the timber industry for the ensuing decades. Many lessons emerge from the process, initiated by Bill Clinton, that generated the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan—a plan that created a regional management framework for 24 million acres of federal forest land allocated to late successional reserves (30 percent), riparian reserves (11 percent), adaptive management areas (six percent), matrix forests (16 percent), and 37 percent left in already designated wilderness areas or other set asides.
This historical framing for the book is poignant. In 2023 a 21-person federal advisory committee was formed of tribal leaders, environmental advocates, scientists, timber representatives, and local government officials to revisit the 1994 Plan; evaluate its achievements; and grapple with new challenges from wildfire, pests, and diseases. Having completed its recommendations and still working to complete its other core assignments, the committee was informed by the Forest Service in May 2025 that their work was no longer needed.
Old Growth in a New World will be illuminating for anyone interested in forest ecology, policy, and conservation. A few chapters really captivated me, starting with the introduction and synthesis by the two editors, and including an illuminating piece by Spies on the science of old growth. Eric Forsman, whose master’s thesis brilliantly identified the importance of old forests to the survival of the northern spotted owl, shares prescient (it being 2009) unease concerning the simple preservationist solution his work motivated in the face of the emerging threat from expanding barred owl populations. Jack Ward Thomas, former Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, provides the most readable and informative overview that I have read of Forest Service history as it pertains to old-growth forests and timber extraction in the Pacific Northwest. Andy Kerr shares inspired insights into the motivation and tactics of environmentalists to protect old growth that will captivate readers who have followed his work and career since. Meanwhile, Jerry Franklin, who helped establish the approach of ecological forestry that was reviewed in the last issue of this magazine, grapples with the challenges of managing young forests and plantations for old growth characteristics across the wide range of moisture conditions experienced on the west and east sides of the Cascade Mountains.
Overall, this volume should inspire any reader to join with these authors and other experts in discussing the nature, importance, and future of old-growth forests and Wildlands.
Recommended by David Foster