Two Paths Toward Sustainable Forests: Public Values in Canada and the United States - Softcover

Bruce Shindler (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870715615 ISBN 13: 9780870715617

Publisher: Oregon State University Press, 2003

Synopsis

In recent decades, new scientific information has transformed our understanding of forest ecosystems, driving forest policy changes in both Canada and the United States. The extraction-oriented policies that dominated forest management for more than a century have given way to new approaches, leading often to acrimonious public debate, controversy over the interpretation of science, and frequent litigation by groups who support conflicting points of view. Today, the U.S. and Canada face a common challenge: to achieve a sustainable form of forest management that has wide public support. Many books discuss the scientific changes underlying forest policy, but this is the first to examine the social and economic aspects of sustainable forestry and the resulting impacts on resource policy in the two countries. The authors attempt to make sense of citizens' expectations for forests, and the responses by public-land managers and policymakers. Contributors include sociologists, research foresters, economists, political scientists, and geographers, as well as scholars in recreation and tourism. Together, their writings provide an in-depth interdisciplinary perspective on Canadian and U.S. efforts to manage public forests on a sustainable basis. The premise of "Two Paths toward Sustainable Forests is that academics and students, resource professionals, policymakers, and members of industry, environmental, and forest community groups can benefit from a comparison of the situations on either side of the border. By comparing the challenges of sustainable forestry and the different approaches adopted in Canada and the U.S., this book points the way towards potential solutions to common problems.

About this title

About the Author

Bruce Shindler is Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Resources at Oregon State University. Dr. Shindler was professionally involved for 18 years with natural-resource institutions and public-policy processes, prior to his extensive university program of research involving agency-citizen interactions for natural-resource decision making.

Thomas Beckley is Associate Professor on the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of New Brunswick. Dr. Beckley is a rural sociologist whose professional experience includes leading the social science research program for Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian Forest Service in Edmonton, Alberta, and at the Maritime Forestry Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Mary Carmel Finley is a doctoral candidate in the Science Studies Program, Department of History, at the University of California at San Diego.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oregon State University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870715615
• ISBN 13: 9780870715617
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 277