Perched 25 stories high in a construction crane –
above the crowns of the Douglas firs – environmental writer Jon
Luoma surveyed the forest canopy, searching for a humble lichen,
Lobaria oregana. The lichen forges an intimate
relationship with the trees, swapping nutrients for a home and
helping the firs grow taller. These sorts of symbioses abound in
The Hidden Forest, which charts the major
advances in old-growth forest ecology through the eyes of the
scientists who study them. Reissued with a new introduction by one
such researcher, Jerry Franklin, the book offers a thorough
introduction to old-growth ecology.
Nestled deep in
Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, between Eugene and Bend, H.J. Andrews
Experimental Forest is the main character in Luoma’s book. Since
the Forest Service created Andrews in 1948, hundreds of ecologists
have examined the 16,000-acre woods.
Foresters once
called old-growth coniferous forests “decadent” – long past their
harvestable prime, nothing more than a jumble of centuries-old
firs, fallen trees, and a chaotic mat of moss, dirt and bugs. But
where foresters saw inefficiency, scientists saw an ecosystem. At
Andrews, they discovered that tree needles harmonize with fungi,
exchanging natural insecticides for food and a home, and that
microbes make up the bulk of soil and ensure the forest’s recovery
after fire or flood. “For all the appearance of stability,” Luoma
writes, “the ecosystem is always in flux.”
The
Hidden Forest is most compelling when Luoma tackles
forestry policy. Emboldened by conservation biology, some foresters
adopted an ecological view and pushed the Forest Service to do the
same. Founded by Andrews researchers in the mid-1980s, “New
Forestry” sought protection, not just management. Old-guard
foresters and loggers fought the changes, and the debate came to a
head during the spotted owl controversy, to which Luoma adds fresh
perspective. He examines the dispute from the view of scientists
who determined the habitat needs of the owls, rather than simply
quoting politicians, activists and loggers.
Federal land
policies show the debate over ecological forestry is still alive.
Scientists have recently questioned the effectiveness of thinning
forests to stave off fire, a provision of President Bush’s Healthy
Forests Initiative. Like old growth forests, the political
landscape is ever shifting and evolving.
The
Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem
Jon R. Luoma
228 pages, softcover: $22.95.
Oregon State University Press, 2006.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A forest in flux.
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