ABSTRACT
Popular and official proposals to change forest policies have proliferated in recent decades, especially following the timber wars of the 1990s. The social and political divisions over public forest management are reflected on the one hand in campaigns to divest federal forests and return them to states, counties, and private owners, and on the other hand in campaigns to put an end to nearly all active forest management. Meanwhile, a separate set of controversies has arisen over the proliferation of voluntary and market-based policies to achieve outcomes on private lands. Questions have been raised not only regarding the effectiveness of these policies but also regarding their implications for equity. This chapter reviews some of these contemporary controversies in the context of both social and ecological changes underway.
