UW News

February 8, 2004

Challenges of forest stewardship focus of public lecture

News and Information

The challenge of preserving Pacific Northwest natural resources is the subject of “Sustaining Our Northwest World: When Humans and Nature Collide,” a lecture series starting next week with a look at the need for active forest stewardship of public forests.

Forest resources professor Jerry Franklin presents A Fork in the Road: The Challenges of Forest Stewardship in the 21st Century, Feb. 12. Throughout North America, the need for active stewardship of public forests is already critical and will greatly intensify in the 21st century, he says.

Globalization of the wood products industry is creating new and serious challenges to forest stewardship. The Pacific Northwest faces the questions of who will purchase industrial forestlands of departing corporations and what they will do with them. Where will society find the will and resources to carry out forest stewardship? The old timber-environment controversies of the 20th century are no longer relevant, Franklin says, but their echoes obscure the very different challenges of the 21st century.

The lectures will be at 7 p.m., in 220 Kane, followed by an open reception with refreshments. All the lectures in the series are free and open to the public but because of space limitations, those who’d like to attend should register by visiting http://www.washington.edu/alumni/clubs/cfraa/2004cfrlectures_main.html

The three-part lecture series is sponsored by the UW College of Forest Resources and Alumni Association. Also scheduled are:



  • Feb. 26, Still Batty After All These Years? Contemplating the Future of Bats in the Managed Forests of the Pacific Northwest, by forest resources professor Stephen West
  •  March 11, Are Cities for the Birds? Balancing Our Needs and Desires with Ecological Function in Urbanizing Regions, by forest resources professor John Marzluff.