Necessary Work: Discovering Old Forests, New Outlooks, and Community on the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, 1948-2000 by Max G. Geier

Abstract

After theBoldt decision of 1974,a new genera tion of fishers resented the treatytribes' right tohalf thefish. Klingle also spends timeon Seattle's tenden cies tometaphorically dump problems and physically dump sewage and toxicwastes in theDuwamish River.Waste disposal was, of course, an almost universal use of the com mons, whether it was a river,Puget Sound, or a patch of unfenced woods beside the road. Curiously, Klingle omits the early-i98os dis covery that sediments in theDuwamish and elsewherewere lacedwith PCBs and othernasty substances, and thatfish that lived among the sediments sufferedfrom liver lesions, as well as the short-lived burst of enthusiasm in the mid-1980s for"saving" Puget Sound. He startshis epilogue on "The Geography of Hope" with John Beal, theVietnam vet who died in 2006 afterdevoting the last three decades of his life to restoring natural areas along theDuwamish and protecting people who lived near the river from environmental hazards. He describes Beal's decision ? fac ingwhat seemed tobe imminent death? to use his last days cleaning up a junk-clogged Duwamish tributarynamed Hamm Creek and Beal's metamorphosis into the environmental conscience of Seattle's largest river."It is easy to dismiss Beal's story as maudlin," Klingle writes, but he himself does notmerely dismiss it (p. 266). And he does not dismiss theDuwamish. Klingle argues that Seattle should startdevel oping itsethic ofplace rightthere."Mistreated and deserted, its man-made banks squeezing slackwater to the sea, theDuwamish symbol izes the disharmonies of the Emerald City," Klingle writes. "The river,like thepeople who livealong itsbanks, remains invisible to those people pronouncing judgment on Seattle's future. It is an impure place ... [and] to the residentsof theDuwamish River valley, wedged between dumps, highways and a befouled waterway, Seattle is anything but benevolent" (p. 268). Even ifSeattle becomes a good deal more benevolent, he concedes "[t]he new Duwamish will never resemble the old one. Itwill not be perfect,but itmay be enough" (p. 280). Daniel JackChasan Vashon,Washington NECESSARY WORK: DISCOVERINGOLD FORESTS, NEWOUTLOOKS, AND COMMUNITYON THE H.J. ANDREWS EXPERIMENTAL FOREST,1948-2000 by Max G. Geier U.S. Department ofAgriculture, Portland, Oregon, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, maps, tables, notes, index. 357 pages. Free, online publication. Necessary Work is a comprehensive history of the establishment of theH.J. Andrews Experi mental Forest and thegrowthand development of its research programs overmore than five decades. InMax G. Geier's thorough treatment, the Andrews Experimental Forest comes through as something of a paradox. This "ecosystem of ideas grounded in a place of inspiration" is a kind of scientific Shangri-La ? a living laboratory in an idyllic mountain setting tuckedamong old-growth forestsand sparkling streams of the Central Oregon Cascades (p. 324). Here, camaraderie and synergyabound as amultidisciplinary community of scientists conducts innovative, collaborative research. At the same time, "the Andrews" is also a reminder of themundane realities ofmaking sciencework amid the constant challenges of securing funding, navigating the intricacies of interagencymanagement, and addressing themore prosaic needs of a growing research community in a remote location. The first two chapters ofNecessary Work examine how this"experimental place for sci ence and community" came to be (p. 1). The Blue River Experimental Forest, laterrenamed 336 OHQ vol. 109, no. 2 theHJ. Andrews Experimental Forest, was established in 1948 and is jointlyadministered byOregon StateUniversity, theForest Service PNW Research Station, and the Willamette National Forest.The Andrews covers approxi mately sixteen thousand acres ofmountainous terrain in theCascade Range ofwest-central Oregon, including the entire drainage basin of Lookout Creek. The initialfocus of research at theAndrews Experimental Forestwas management for the production of timber on a 100-year rotation. That focus began to shiftas new discoveries shaped thedirection of scientific inquiry and as the growing community of scientistsbegan to recognize the potential fornew avenues of research in areas such as watershed and cli mate studies,wildlife ecology, and forestand stream dynamics. The emergence of a point of view marked by a willingness to consider new approaches to research in the "outdoor laboratory" characterized the scientific com munity thatcame tobe known as the"Andrews Group." Chapters three through six ofNecessary Work explore several interconnected themes. One such theme is the growing linksbetween interdisciplinaryscience and long-termexperi mental...