OPINION/COMMENTARY

Book Review: The Agony of an American Wilderness

The spotted owl and the virgin forests of the Pacific Northwest are the emblematic symbols of logging conflicts in the United States. These images convey a seemingly simple account of what is at stake: environmentalists protecting untouched landscapes and endangered species on one side, loggers and timber companies fighting to protect their livelihoods and profits on the other. The real center of the controversy has shifted, however, from Washington and Oregon to Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest. In recent years, this area has become a hotbed of environmental activism, lawsuits, and bitter disagreement. The story of how this came to be and what it means for the future of logging in America is the subject of Samuel A. MacDonald’s new book, The Agony of an American Wilderness. A native of Ridgway, PA, a small town bordering the Allegheny National Forest, MacDonald returned to the area on a grant from the Phillips Foundation to report on the developing controversy. Interviewing the people affected by every angle of the argument, he uncovers a story far more complicated than simply “loggers versus environmentalists.” The dispute takes place in the midst of a complex milieu of cultural, political, and economic forces that involves just about everyone in the region. Through his extensive interviews and colorful descriptions of the characters involved, MacDonald sheds light on the motivations and history behind the fight to control the Allegheny and, perhaps, forests throughout the nation. Part of what makes the dispute over the Allegheny so heated is its long tradition of logging. Unlike the Pacific Northwest’s old growth forests, the woods there are young and, to some extent, unnatural. Exploitative clear-cutting exterminated the trees and wildlife that inhabited the area in the nineteenth century, leaving behind a scarred and barren landscape when the Forest Service began buying parcels of land in the 1920s. There was no longer any forest to speak of, which led some at the time to refer to the place as the “Allegheny Brush Heap.” MacDonald recalls that by the time he was growing up, the “brush heap” could be seen only in photos that were unrecognizable as the local landscape to kids of his generation. By then, a carefully managed forest had grown in to replace the desolate ground of decades before. He remembers vibrant forests and streams that were perfect for a young boy’s hunting and fishing outings. This forest is a dream come true for people in the timber industry, too. For them it is not just new, it is new and improved. Unlike the northern hardwoods of beech, hemlock, and white pine that used to populate the region, it is composed primarily of lucrative hardwoods like black cherry that fetch higher values on the market. Black cherry probably only made up about one percent of the trees in the forest one hundred years ago; today it accounts for twenty-five percent. The new forest is so different that a new term, “Allegheny hardwood,” was coined to describe it. By the time the environmental controversy was heating up, wood from the Allegheny was selling at unheard of prices and bringing in significant revenue for the surrounding communities....

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