C I N T R A F O R
Special Paper Abstract
Forest Policy: Ready for Renaissance.
John Calhoon (editor). 1996. (64pp) SP29 $10.00
Forest policy issues over the political conflict. Or perhaps just the opposite is true. The Pacific Northwest has been the focus of this turbulence, but lately issues of forest health and conflicting strategies to produce certain values from forests have spread throughout North America.
Ecosystem management has emerged as an enlightened response to growing ecological knowledge and social concern. Yet it is precisely this effort to create a new synthesis of knowledge that seems to shudder the foundations of our economic, political, cultural, and ecological values. Emerging forest policies are accompanies by a new dominance of extremism, narrow-minded thinking, and ironically a tendency toward oversimplification; not to mention a rising tide of questions about the role science can play in forest policy development.
While ecosystem management has been proposed as the progressive alternative to traditional commodity-based management with the ultimate goal to provide sustainability of non-timber as well as timber-commodity forest functions, the form of ecosystem management has been interpreted to include a wide range of alternatives. There seems to be little progress toward consensus or broadening the middle ground of scientific and philosophical thought. Extremism seems to have a disproportionate influence on policy. Consider the gridlock and expense to government created by the wildly swinging pendulum of policy as extreme views vie for power, using legal mechanisms to toss a monkey wrench and assert minority vetoes. Indeed, on can argue that there has never been a time in the American forest policy debate with more acrimony, extremism, or cultural and social peril. Hardly a time of enlightenment.
The Olympic Natural Resources Center was created by the Washington State Legislature, in part to provide a neutral forum where parties with diverse interests in forest policy "are encouraged to address and resolve their conflicts." The campus, located just outside of Forks, Washington, on the west slope of the Olympic Peninsula, seemed a fitting place to gather together scholars from all over North America to discuss various aspects of the forest policy process. The community of Forks and the old-growth forest of the Olympic Peninsula serve as strong symbols of the social and ecological issues at the core of forest policy debates. In the fall of 1996, a conference designed to bring together, by invitation, a select group of scholars, managers, and policy decision makers interested in understanding the potential of new paradigms for forest policy was convened at Olympic Natural Resources Center. This collection of essays and other material constitutes the essence of the conference proceedings.
The forest policy debate and processes by which these policies are derived and implemented are ongoing. The discussions continue to demand our evaluation from at least three perspectives. First, "what valued do we want from our forests?" Second, "what are the best strategies to produce these values?" Third, "how are multiple or competing values measured?" The proceeding of the conference have been organized into sections that address various aspects of those questions. These categories might not be the ones frequently thought of as primary elements of forest policy, but that is the point. The papers constitute an insightful collection of essays that embody the theme of enlightenment and diversity. A critically important mix of social, cultural, economic, analytical, and ecological values can be found here.
The Place and the People
Dr. Daniel B. Botkin's keynotes address, "People and Nature: Can We Find a Balance?" was delivered to a community gathering of Forks townspeople and framed the broad issue of how mankind relates to nature and natural surroundings. The essays in the first section explore this relationship, especially by examining the human impacts of various forest policies. Philosophical and cultural fragmentation - the differences in our personal values and cultural beliefs - define our differences on issues and our attitudes toward nature, and the forest specifically. Measuring the results of forest policy in human terms helps us determine if the expected social and cultural outputs are being achieved.
Land, Ownership, and Uses
The subjects of alternative land allocation methods of achieving ecological goals, the future of private forest land management in the Pacific Northwest, and the impacts of land-use allocations on long-term landscape management objectives are discussed in this second section. One of the aims of the conference was to broaden the perspective of policy makers and bring to light alternative approaches to achieving ecological goals. These chapters take a critical look at some important aspects of current policies. Arguments against policy objectives are not made but important observations regarding likely consequences of current policy are documented.
Diversity, Habitat, and the Future
Gordon Orians offers a thorough discussion of the nature and value of biodiversity in forests, and suggests some appropriate approaches and implications of applying certain conservation strategies. This essay provides excellent reference fore more specific consideration of the relative value of "active" or "passive" management strategies that might be employed in forests to achieve various conservation objectives. A history of salmon management in the Pacific Northwest, some lessons learned, and Peter Bisson discusses prospects for future successes.
The Policy Issues
A key insight gained at the conference was on provided by Debra Salazar in her paper, "Beyond the Virgin and the Chain Saw: Political Analysis and Forest Policy." Debra urges us to first ask the question "What values do we want from our forest?" before debating grand strategies such as "passive versus active" management approaches. She contends that the lack of a broad social consensus regarding forest values prevents us from achieving the harmony in forest policy we seek. Great quantities of resources are devoted to the biological aspects of management. A comparable application of political and financial resources to achieve a social consensus is justified - even necessary.
In this section the legal aspects of forest policy gridlock as well as an overview of some to the country's administration dilemmas are presented by Sally Fairfax, who also looks into the future to consider what mix of politics and other elements it likely to occur.
How Values are Measured
Three technical papers on policy analysis and decision support systems deal with rational ways to measure multiple, value-laden proposals. Roger Sedjo describes the spatial aspect of forest policy, noting implications on a local-community to global scale, while Bruce Lippke provides a definitive paper on decision support tools, or systems of interconnected models that can be used to implement forest policy decisions. Chadwick Oliver admonishes us to rely on management scientists to assess value-laden objectives and suggests "active management" strategies likely to succeed in achieving certain forest policy objectives.
Cultivating New Ways of Thinking
In the spirit of the Renaissance, the last set of essays reveals the authors' efforts to exchange tired, unpromising processes and paradigms for new concepts and approaches designed to broaden understanding stimulate creative thought. Lessons learned regarding the essential syntheses of social, cultural, economic, ethical, and ecological values are applied to describe fresh perspective for achieving a rationalization and harmonization of the needs of human society with environmental conservation.
When we decided to reference the concept of renaissance in our Forest Policy conference we had in mind to encourage innovation - the fresh thinking of issues. We wanted to bring to bear on issues the style of the Renaissance ideal of broad-minded, well-mannered deliberation that cultivates and celebrates diversity of opinion. Too often today the forest policy discussions and politics are characterized by hostility, acrimony, lack of civility, and one-dimensional sound bites. It is our hope that this collection of essays will aid in the formulation of a new and broader intellectual foundation for a forest policy grounded in widely shared philosophical, moral, ad ethical principles - principle of democracy and inclusiveness, where there can be a celebration of creativity and differentiation and a shedding of autocratic tendencies.
It is also our hope that those interested in balanced approaches to effective forest
policy that can transcend gridlock will find these proceedings a valuable and
thought-provoking contribution.