Local books: genetics, geomagnetism and the debate over old-growth forests

"The Final Forest: Big Trees, Forks, and the Pacific Northwest" by William Dietrich (University of Washington Press, $19.95). This book focuses on the debate over the management of old-growth forests both on the Olympic Peninsula and worldwide — Forks, the self-proclaimed "Logging Capital of the World," has a central role. This is a new reprint of a 1992 book titled "Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Pacific Northwest" by Dietrich, a former Seattle Times reporter, now a professor at the Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University. With a new introduction and afterword by the author.