Can't see the [old growth] forest for the logs: Dialectical tensions in the interpretive practices of environmentalists and loggers

This research examines the discourse of two groups from a community in Northern California where the future of old growth redwood forests has become a center of controversy. Based on focus group discussions with self‐identified environmentalists and loggers, two levels of analysis were conducted. First, divergent codes of personhood, time, space, and corporate responsibility were revealed. Second, there were differences in the two groups’ discursive statements about the nature of understanding and how communication functions in the controversy.