Seeing the Forest Among the Trees: The Case for Wholistic Forest Use

Ken A. Armson, a former executive co-ordinator of the Ontario Ministry
of Natural Resources’ Forest Resources Group, is currently a forestry
consultant.

This book is almost exclusively taken up with the author’s views and
philosophy about the forests of British Columbia and their relationship
to his view of society’s needs. It is lavishly produced in
“coffee-table” format and profusely, often repetitiously,
illustrated. There are five chapters (“What Are Forests?”; “How Do
We Use the Forest?”; “What Are the Impacts of Our Use of the
Forest?”; “The Politics of Forest Use”; “The Solution: Wholistic
Forest Use”) and a summary/photo essay.

There are two persistent threads throughout the book. One involves a
diatribe against existing forestry practices and policies in British
Columbia. The second amounts to a paean for old-growth forests as the
exemplification of all that is desirable and natural, such as
biodiversity. Throughout the book is a mixture, often amounting to a
hodgepodge of facts, errors, fiction, and philosophic ramblings.
Frequently what starts as a rather straightforward discussion—of, for
example, species diversity—moves to erroneous statements—such as,
“Then there are those nitrogen-fixing bacteria that enable the
mycorrhizal fungi, perhaps found only in old growth forests, to pump
nitrogen into the system.” To the lay reader this sounds like
scientific fact: but it is, in fact, nonsense.

The book does contain valid information and, indeed, relevant
criticism, but these are so intertwined with errors, irrelevancies, and
the author’s own views and prejudices that it is too often difficult
to separate the wheat from the chaff.