UW News

April 14, 2005

Canopy crane featured in forestry service film

News and Information

The story of the U.S. Forest Service and how it has shaped the debate over land stewardship for 100 years is the subject of The Greatest Good, a centennial documentary film being screened at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21, in 110 Kane. Included in the documentary is the UW and forest service collaboration at the Wind River Canopy Crane in Southwest Washington.


The crane is the largest of any of the 11 forest research cranes operating in the world today and has been used by more than 300 scientists from numerous universities, agencies and institutions to study how old growth forests function and the implications for managing forests of many ages including timberlands. Averaging 25 to 35 projects a year, work using the Wind River Canopy Crane has produced several hundred publications.


The film also focuses on the early days of the conservation movement, inventing the tools and building the system to manage public lands, development of the multiple-use concept to fulfill post World War II demands for wood and today’s new emphasis on the scientific understanding of ecosystems.


The showing, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored in part by the UW College of Forest Resources, which has ties to the U.S. Forest Service going back nearly that full century. In 2004, research funding from the U.S. Forest Service to the College provided nearly 35 per cent of total research expenditures.


Many graduates of the college have gone to work for the Forest Service as scientists, managers, and administrators. Just this year, Joel Holtrop, a 1982 graduate of the college, was appointed deputy chief of the national forest system.


The documentary brings together national organizations, renowned historians, political activists, and major corporations to share their perspectives on one hundred years of conservation and the prospects for the future. For more information on The Greatest Good online at http://www.fs.fed.us/greatestgood/.