This is the second installment of a two-part series on the Forest Service seeking to amend the Northwest Forest Plan. Part 1 examined the motivation of Forest Service bureaucrats to release themselves from the shackles of the plan, all the while playing up happy talk about ecosystems and sustainability and downplaying the sad truth of more roading and logging. Part 2 examines how to strengthen the Northwest Forest Plan for the benefit of this and future generations.

This is the third of a three-post examination of forests in the American East. Part 1 diagnosed an “environmental generational amnesia” that makes people think it is okay to not have real (old-growth) forests and to tolerate, if not facilitate, massive and repeated clear-cutting and/or deforestation in the name of creating “early successional habitat” for species of wildlife that we need not be concerned about. Part 2 shed light on a conspiracy of self-interested timber companies, misguided public land foresters, misinformed wildlife biologists, and Kool-Aid-drinking conservationists. This Part 3 suggests ways to partially—but significantly—bring back the magnificent old-growth forests that have long been lost.

This is the second part of a two-part series. Part 2 examines the economics of using beavers to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.

This is the first part of a two-part series. Part 1 examines the ecosystem and watershed benefits of beavers. Part 2 will examine the economics of using beavers to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.