After getting hammered by protests from loggers on
Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the Forest Service abruptly killed
an old-growth research project it had backed for the last 18
months. University of Washington scientists wanted to erect a
300-foot crane to study one of the least known areas of old-growth
forests – the canopy. The Olympic Peninsula setting was perfect,
the crane was ready for construction, and Congress had approved
five years of funding. But the Forest Service balked at the last
minute after 200 residents of nearby Lake Quinault signed petitions
against the crane. Citizens of the old logging community say more
research would only shrink their already shrinking timber industry.
Project director Jerry Franklin, a forestry professor at the
University of Washington, called the protests a symbolic act of
retribution. “They see science, scientists and scientific knowledge
as a major source of their pain, rather than as a potential
solution,” Franklin told the Seattle Times. Franklin says he has
given up hope of erecting the crane on the Olympic Peninsula, where
the region’s old growth is most productive and diverse. He says the
university will look for new sites in the Columbia River gorge or
central Oregon Cascade Range.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fear of research.
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