Book Review

Forests under Fire is a collection of essays tracing the use and abuse of forests in the southwestern United States since the late nineteenth century. During that period, destructive ecological change has been widespread. Ironically, much came while professional foresters were applying scientific management as an antidote to the laissez-faire practices of the nineteenth century. Together, flawed science and an overarching emphasis on commodity production ensured a decline in health of the region's forest and rangelands. Conflict over control of those resources has been constant, but since World War II an "evolutionary shift in national forest management" has refocused debates. Now, as Hal Rothman notes in his concluding essay, the region's forests "have become more valuable as scenery than as timber"; moreover, a new division has developed that pits radical environmentalists, often from urban backgrounds, against those living on and from the land. Responding, the Forest Service, which administers most of the Southwest's forests, has moved toward "holistic ecosystem management" and, in some places at least, cooperation with others in devising management plans.

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