In the shadow of the cedars: the spiritual values of old-growth forests.

Last on everyone’s list of the values of old-growth forests—after goods, services, information, and cultural, recreational, and scenic values—is the sometimes vexing and usually undefined category of spiritual values. Yet oldgrowth forests hold particular value for the human spirit, the imagining and feeling part of the human mind. The challenge is to articulate, in secular terms, the sources of an ancient forest’s spiritual values and their importance to human thriving. When the presence of spiritual values may be the best reason to conserve a forest, it will not do to be silent or confused about what those values are. For well over 200 years, Americans have valued forests as a means to the accumulation of personal or corporate wealth and the satisfaction of human material needs. A sign nailed to a sturdy Douglas-fir on an interpretive trail near my town identifies those values exactly: