This Article addresses how well forestry law in the United States promotes sustainable development, with special attention to the trends of the past decade. The role of law in shaping forest management decisions has been a contentious issue in this recent period, and forestry has been at the forefront of public concern about sustainability of natural resource management generally. Therefore, the problems and opportunities for forestry law to promote sustainable development are indications of the weaknesses and strengths of the overall U.S. legal regime.

This Article focuses on forestry, as opposed to forests or the forest sector of the economy. As Prof. Jeff Romm has observed, sustainable forestry is a "social process rather than a forest condition."¹ Though the ecological health of the forests themselves is a critical aspect of sustainable forestry, it is but one of the three axes along which sustainable forestry should be measured. Economic viability and social responsibility are equally important dimensions of sustainability.² Conceiving forestry as a process rather than a condition is particularly helpful in evaluating the role played by law in promoting sustainability. Because law is an important method society employs to resolve disputes, it concerns itself primarily with process. Though the process established through forestry law can promote sustainability, extra-legal ecological, economic, and social forces dominate the outcomes. This Article emphasizes those areas where law can serve as a catalyst for sustainability, but it is important to acknowledge at the outset that law is often a follower rather than a leader of changes in forestry.