Historical context of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest--policy, practices, and competing worldviews

The history of our changing relations with the forest is painted on the landscape in the distribution of forests of various types and ages -- old-growth forest is a critical part of that mosaic. It is important to put consideration of the future of old-growth forests in the context of their past. To set the stage for chapters that follow, we trace the history of management of Pacific Northwest forests: how we have perceived the forests at different points in time, the goals and constraints for use of the forests, and how we have actually treated the forests. These changing relations are expressed in our objectives, language, legislation, regulation, and policies and in the history of logging, fire suppression, and other management actions. The interplay of these factors in part represents the balance of power among competing worldviews of the value of forests -- in the starkest contrast, for commodity exploitation and use versus their value as natural ecological systems.