The North Cascades ecosystem includes diverse forests shaped by natural processes and human history. Indigenous peoples have used these forests for millennia, employing cultural fire and benefiting from harvesting various resources to live a rich life. Europeans and Americans arrived in the mid-nineteenth century and saw the forests in economic terms. The subsequent rise of the timber economy, facilitated by railroads, transformed North Cascades forests. But the exploitation of labor and the land forced reform as workers and conservationists organized to lessen abusive practices. Federal land management sought to protect forests, develop them for recreation, and help the timber industry. By the 1950s, these competing demands clashed. This struggle culminated in efforts to preserve the North Cascades as a national park in 1968. This and subsequent developments reflect evolving values that view forests as more than standing timber. …When lumbering started in the North Cascades, the prime value of forests was economic. By late in the twentieth century, other values had ascended, including protecting biodiversity.