Timber-dependent, rural communities in the Pacific Northwest face dramatic economic, political, and cultural change. New philosophies of forest management, primarily formulated in urban communities, require new approaches to the use and extraction of resources. What are the roles of rural communities that wish to adapt and sustain themselves? Two rural communities, one from Washington State, and one from Oregon, serve as case studies for coping with change. These cases build an ethnographic foundation on which to explore the rural-urban dynamic. The theories that elaborate the rural-urban relationship are central-place theory, and hermeneutic theory, which is used to understand the symbols and meaning of actions and ideas. Adaptive management, with new power relations, provides one possible solution to expedite the environmental and cultural sustainability of rural communities. / Graduation date: 1996