Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities: An Emerging Paradigm for Natural Resource-Dependent Communities?

Since Kaufman and Kaufman's seminal 1946 study examining the relationship between forests and communities, forest and community paradigms have shifted from (1) utilitarian views that stressed community stability and sustained yield harvests, to (2) ecosystem management and community resilience, to, we posit, (3) a new paradigm of forest and community health, The healthy forests, healthy communities paradigm both builds upon and departs from older paradigms. This article presents a case study of a small, resource-dependent community in eastern Oregon to illustrate the meanings and policy implications of this emerging paradigm.