A Conspiracy of Optimism: Management of the National Forests since World War Two (Our Sustainable Future)

By Paul W. Hirt

Book Overview

A Conspiracy of Optimism explains the controversy now raging over the U.S. Forest Service's management of America's national forests. Confronted with the dual mandate of production and preservation, the U.S. Forest Service decided it could achieve both goals through more intensive management. For a few decades after World War Two, this "conspiracy of optimism" masked the fact that high levels of resource extraction were destroying forest ecosystems. The effects of intensive management-massive clear-cuts, polluted streams, declining wildlife populations, and marred scenery-initiated several decades of environmental conflict that continues to the present. Hirt documents the roots of this conflict and illuminates recent changes in administration and policy that suggest a hopeful future for federal lands. Paul W. Hirt is an assistant professor of western history at Washington State University.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080327288X
• ISBN13: 9780803272880
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 420 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Confusion and Clearcuts

In the current debates over resource management and environmental degradation, the role of government and its interaction with its various constituencies is very important. A Conspiracy of Optimism effectively examines the multiple mandates of the United States Forest Service since World War II and how under increasing political and economic pressure it has chosen to satisfy the demands of politicians, the logging industry, and outdoor recreationalists. What emerges from this well-documented and cogently written monograph is a portrait of mismanagement, confusion, and overharvest taking place beneath and behind the oft-stated and repeated mantras of sustainable yield. Anyone seeking to understand the logging controversies of the current day must read this book.