…The cutblock represented a small sliver – around the size of 12 football fields – of the kind of old-growth forest that once spanned the island nearly from tip to tip and coast to coast. But this small patch of trees was a prime example of an endangered ecosystem. Black bears and elk, wolves and cougars passed quietly under its canopy. Red-capped woodpeckers knocked on standing deadwood; squirrels and chipmunks nibbled on cones to extract seeds; and fungi the size of dinner plates protruded from the trunks of some of the largest trees in the world. As a forest engineer, Cronin’s job involved taking stock of the timber, and producing a map for the fallers to follow. …As Cronin waded through the thigh-high undergrowth, something caught his eye: a Douglas fir, larger than the rest… He scrambled up the mound of sloughed bark and dead needles that had accumulated around the base of the giant tree.