SECRETS OF THE OLD GROWTH FOREST<i> by David Kelly & Gary Braasch (Gibbs-Smith: $15.95, illustrated)</i>

This handsome, outsized volume combines a paean to the beauties of the forest with a diatribe against the timber industry. Old-growth forest is characterized by large conifers at least 250 years old, tall standing snags and big fallen logs. The most productive biomass on Earth, it once dominated the Pacific Northwest ecosystem, stretching from Northern California to Anchorage, Alaska. Barely 10% of the old growth remains, and much of that is slated for destruction.

David Kelly and Gary Braasch excoriate the policies of the Bureau of Land Management under the Reagan administration, and accuse the federal government of propping up a moribund timber industry at the expense of taxpayers, hunters and commercial salmon fishermen. The destruction of the old growth imperils the habitats of more than two dozen animals, including the bald eagle, the marbled murrelet, the Roosevelt elk and the Olympic salamander, as well as the much-publicized spotted owl. With its handsome nature photographs, “Secrets” will appeal most strongly to conservationists, reducing this thoughtful polemic to a sermon to the converted.