Conserving Forest Biodiversity: A Comprehensive Multiscaled Approach

By David B. Lindenmayer and Jerry B. Franklin ’66

The authors argue that the conservation of forest biodiversity requires a comprehensive and multiscaled approach that includes both reserve and nonreserve areas. Their book lays the foundation for such a strategy, bringing together the latest scientific information on landscape ecology, forestry, conservation biology, and related disciplines.

Flames in Our Forest: Disaster or Renewal?

By Stephen F. Arno ’65 and Stephen Allison-Bunnell
Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2002

Are forest fires good or bad—or some of each? Flames in Our Forests is a primer to this debate. Stephen Arno, a forester who has been at the vanguard of rethinking the role of fire in forests, and Steven Allison-Bunnell, a science writer, have combined their talents to produce a book that skillfully and judiciously examines the issues.

Read a review from WSM.

Mimicking Nature's Fire: Restoring Fire-Prone Forests in the West

By Stephen F. Arno ’65 and Carl E. Fiedler

From the publisher: In Mimicking Nature's Fire, forest ecologists Stephen Arno and Carl Fiedler present practical solutions to the pervasive problem of deteriorating forest conditions in western North America. Advocating a new direction in forest management, they explore the promise of "restoration forestry"—an ecologically based approach that seeks to establish forest structures in which fire can once again serve as a beneficial process rather than as a destructive aberration.

The . . . book presents case studies of restoration projects in the western United States and Canada, representing different forest types, different historic fire regimes, and contrasting management goals. For each project, the authors describe why and how the project is being conducted, profile forest conditions, and describe methods of treatment. They also report what has been accomplished, identify obstacles to restoration, and offer their candid but understanding evaluation. Mimicking Nature's Fire concludes by placing restoration forestry in the broad context of conserving forests worldwide and outlining factors critical for its success.

River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake

By Keith Petersen ’73

The four lower Snake River dams stand at the center of a continuing national debate over the fate of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and Petersen’s book remains the most important scholarly study of the history of those dams.