War In The Woods ‘Tree Huggers’ Explores Battle Over Nw Forests

“Tree Huggers: Victory, Defeat & Renewal in the Northwest Ancient Forest Campaign” Kathie Durbin (The Mountaineers, $24.95, 304 pages)

When Kathie Durbin quit her reporting job at the Portland Oregonian, she left a copy of the controversial coffeetable book “Clearcut” on her desk. She thought whoever succeeded her on the newspaper’s environmental beat would need to see the critique of industrial forestry in order to report on it.

“Tree Huggers” is her literary effort to leave the rest of us a record of what happened in the fight over logging the last coastal ancient forests. She is well-qualified for the task. Born in Oregon and the granddaughter of a logger, Durbin covered the spotted owl and ancient forest wars for four of her 16 years as a journalist.

“Tree Huggers” uses history to demonstrate how the showdown over logging was inevitable. In 1976, for example, Oregon State University forest economist John Bueter issued a report predicting timber companies would run out of trees on their own land in the 1990s. The trees that they replanted wouldn’t be ready for harvest for 20 years.

Armed with Bueter’s report, the Forest Service, forest industry and Congress saw to it that cutting skyrocketed on federal forests. And they ignored evidence that public lands couldn’t absorb the pace, according to Durbin.

Her book also tells how politics and biology played into the mix and why the spotted owl came to symbolize the conflict over logging the “West Side” - Western Oregon and Western Washington.

Durbin gives a nod to the environmental movement’s shortcomings and internal battles - acrimony which cost it momentum and effectiveness. She shows how the pro-industry wise-use movement got the best of the environmentalists. And how the environmentalists went from heady courtroom victories to a huge loss at the hands of Congress and President Clinton with salvage logging legislation that neutralized environmental laws.

Finally, the book makes important points that seem lost on all sides: Science couldn’t save all of the old-growth, even when elevated to near-magical status.

Durbin wanted to give people a historical context for the ancient forest battles and she succeeds in this difficult and complex task. “Tree Huggers” isn’t a feel-good book; an honest accounting of what happens in these battles shouldn’t be.

And the text suffers from two problems. The short chapters sometimes give the book an abrupt, distracting rhythm while the reader longs for a relaxed pace.

In other places, storytelling about people rather than generous detail about politics, forest units and bureaucratic processes would have been more compelling reading.

This level of detail will make sense to people quite familiar with the issues, but will be less attractive to newcomers to the ancient forest debate.

Neither of these flaws is fatal. Durbin’s work will be a classic reference, suggested reading for those watching the war over the woods moving to the Inland Northwest.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: Kathie Durbin will read from her book Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.