A novel assessment of the interplay between law and ecology in forest management Trees are the embodiment of existence: abundant, regenerative, irrepressible. Yet as more of the planet undergoes profound and accelerating climate change, deforestation, loss of biotic diversity, and a pitiless spread of pests and pathogens, which trees--if any--will thrive are increasingly urgent questions. Managing healthy forests remains factually uncertain, an uneasy dance between law and science. How can law facilitate or even accelerate the application of forest ecology on landscapes like our national forests? This book is a thorough exploration of that question from more than a century of intersections of law and science on the national forests. With a focus on law--as distinct from mere policy--as an agent in human relations and as a catalyst of scientific research, it makes the case that we can and must do better to solve intractable land management problems.
Jamison E. Colburn is the A. Robert Noll Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State. He served as assistant regional counsel for US EPA and as trustee of the Connecticut River Watershed Council. He is the author of The Scales of Weighing Regulatory Costs: Technology, Geography, and Time.
Contents Part One: Forest Ecological Inquiry: A Special Science Science in Forestry: An Unending Arc The Prospect of Forest Service Science - In Retrospect Ecology in Space and Time Part Two: Law as Normative Tool The Forest Service as Agent Law's Exclusionary Function Shared Legal Powers in Context Part Three: Science and Law: From Retention to Reformation Foundations Set and Hardened Scaling the Search for Causes: Of Farms and Forests The Campaign Against Fire: A Science of Timber Protection Missoula: Apex of Service Fire Science Facts Worth Knowing? Service Science Meets a Reformation Forestry Evolved: The Legal Landscape of "Resources" Scientific Forestry? On Legal Foundations Rebuilt Part Four: Ecological Forestry in an Age of Polarities Regulations for Forest Planning: Guides to Local Optima A Geography of Biotic Diversity From Populations, Communities, and Ecosystems: The Habitat Focus Hardens The 'Megafire': What Kind of Nemesis? A Lynx Tale: Restoring and Protecting Wide-Ranging Species in Rapidly Changing Forests Part Five: Intersections: Toward More Deliberate Redesign Fact, Fiction, and Forestry: Weighing Available Evidence Succession, Patchiness, and Evolution: Mosaic Ecology, Joint Inquiry Depth: Facilitating Forest Ecological Inquiry by Law Appendix - Table of Abbreviations and Acronyms Notes Bibliography Index
"A great resource for anyone interested in Forest Service law, policy, and history."--Sam Kalen, University of Wyoming College of Law
