Balancing Act: Environmental Issues in Forestry

In the past decade, there has been much debate over the environmental impact of forestry. People are justifiably concerned about what is happening to the local and global forest environments, but they are also confused by the polarized rhetoric that has characterized both sides of the debate.

In Balancing Act, Hamish Kimmins calls for a balanced, more objective approach to forestry issues in order to bridge the gap between the most extreme opponents in the debate. He suggests that we need to begin with a common understanding of what forestry is about and how forest ecosystems work. He outlines the scientific and ecological aspects of the major environmental issues facing British Columbia and the world today, arguing that we need to disentangle the scientific from the value-based social aspects of these questions. He also contends that much of the current debate about forests and their management ignores the time dimension of ecosystems, and he calls for a more dynamic view of current environmental issues in forestry -- one that accounts for change.

The first few chapters provide an outline of the basic principles of forestry and ecology, and subsequent chapters discuss the major environmental issues facing forestry in the 1990s. These include clearcutting, slashburning, management chemicals, old growth, biological diversity, 'new forestry,' climate change, acid rain, the comparison between temperate and tropical forestry, and long-term decisions in forestry.

Balancing Act is essential reading for those who are searching for an objective, accurate, and readable evaluation of the issues at the heart of the forestry/environment debate. By emphasizing that forests are not static but change over time, Kimmins adds an important, often ignored, dimension to the discussion. Only by understanding all the intricacies of the ecosystems can we learn to manage our forests in a sustainable fashion.

Hamish Kimmins is a professor of forest ecology in the Department of Forest Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He has spent thirty years visiting and studying forests both in British Columbia and around the world. He is past chair of the BC Ecological Reserves Committee, current moderator of the National Forest Round Table, and a frequent consultant to governments and environmental groups on proposals for wilderness areas, parks, and ecological reserves, and on a variety of environmental issues.