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Note: This issue is no longer available for purchase. "Idaho's
Forests at the Crossroads" The first in a series of "on the road" reports developed by Evergreen editor, Jim Petersen, during his nearly three-year trek across America. Beautifully photographed and exquisitely illustrated, it tells the story of forests and forestry in his native Idaho. "Long before I knew what gin was, I knew about 'gin clear water'," Jim writes. "My great aunt, who cooked in logging camps and was the finest fly fisherman I have ever known, used the phrase to describe the clarity of water in our beloved 'North Fork.' Fancy Spokane fishermen called it by its proper name, "the Coeur d'Alene River," adding to the list of reasons why we did not like them much." This is fine writing, exemplary of a style that has earned Jim the admiration and respect of Evergreen readers in 50 states and 26 countries. Because most of Idaho's forests are federally owned, its forest products industry and its rural logging and mill towns are struggling under the gathering weight of timber sale appeals, litigation and political pressure aimed at ending harvesting on all federal forest land. Much on everyone's mind is the increasing risk of catastrophic wildfire, especially in southwest Idaho, where insect and disease-driven mortality now exceeds growth. Lost amid an increasingly nasty debate is the role science-based forestry might play in restoring the West's National Forests. We visit the little known Boise Basin Experimental Forest, a US Forest Service tract that long ago implemented a management style that holds the key to reducing the risk of catastrophic fire across the West. And we ask the inevitable question: why aren't all the West's National Forests managed this way?
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