The Final Forest

Before Forks, a small town on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, became famous as the location for Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" book series, it was the self-proclaimed "Logging Capitol of the World" and ground zero in a regional conflict over the fate of old-growth forests. Since Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Dietrich first published "The Final Forest" in 1992, logging in Forks has given way to tourism, but even with its new fame, Forks is still a home to loggers and others who make their living from the surrounding forests. The new edition recounts how forest policy and practices have changed since the early 1990s and also tells us what has happened in Forks and where the actors who were so important to the timber wars are now.

William Dietrich, a former science writer for the "Seattle Times," is the author of "Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River" and "Natural Grace: The Charm, Wonder, and Lessons of Pacific Northwest Animals and Plants," as well as popular fiction.

Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award

"In writing as lush as the threatened forests he describes, William Dietrich captures why the battle isn't merely for the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest and California but for the health of the planet itself." -Michael L. Fischer, former Executive Director, Sierra Club

"William Dietrich has gone to the heart of the greatest forest left in North America and returned with a clear and compelling story of why so many people are fighting over it. Like the towering firs of the Olympic Peninsula, this book will stand the test of time." -Timothy Egan, author of "The Big Burn""Dietrich presents in an easy-to-read narrative style the point of view of various participants in this war, from the logger whose way of life is threatened to a biologist concerned with saving the Northern spotted owl. Highly recommended." "Library Journal""A remarkably readable and lucid account." "Audubon Magazine""The best book about the environment that I've read in a y