Redwood Summer actions, and actions inspired by Redwood Summer, but organized by local groups continued unabated in courtrooms, towns, and forests in both Humboldt and Mendocino Counties. In Garberville, on August 5, 1990, 200 people attended a nonviolent demonstration to protest logging in the Sprowel Creek area near Garberville. A local watershed association found that the CDF had approved no less than 24 THPs involving at least 9,000 acres, as well as two additional THPs under second review. The local water quality control board filed a non compliance because of local timber operator Barnum’s failure to reveal the cumulative impact of the proposed cuts.[1]
The next day, Louisiana-Pacific announced that they would log no more old growth Redwoods in Osprey Grove THP 1-89-468 and that they would be negotiating with Save the Redwoods League who wished to buy the stand. Redwood Summer organizers and local residents waited with baited breath to witness the outcome of these supposed negotiations, but L-P’s conduct elsewhere should have provided sufficient enough clue as to the company’s sincerity.[2] While L-P was again claiming to be “a good neighbor”, they were proving to be anything but due to their insistence that they be allowed to log the nearby Deer Creek THP 1-90-280 on the north fork of the Navarro River near Navarro Ridge. Hal Walt, Director of the CDF, had demonstrated that he was indeed charting the resemblance of a “new direction” from his predecessors and had denied it, because it threatened the continued growth of younger “baby” redwoods. Although Redwood Summer primarily concerned itself with protecting old growth, the issue of liquidating stands of younger redwoods in favor of twenty-year rotations of even-aged managed tree plantations was also a growing concern, because allowing such timber harvesting enabled L-P’s implementation of waferboard, which timber workers and environmental activist alike recognized as an impending disaster on all fronts. Chris Tebbutt of the Redwood Coast Watershed Alliance declared, “The Deer Creek Plan is resource depletion at its worst. Cutting and chipping next century’s trees is now environmental piracy.” Walt’s decision to deny the THP was unprecedented and it represented the first time since the passing of the Z’berg-Nejedly California Forest Practices Act in 1973 that the CDF attempted to regulate the level and timing of logging operations.[3]
Naturally, L-P appealed the THP to the California State Board of Forestry in Sacramento. On August 6, while Annie McPheeters and Robyn O’Neil continued their fast on the capitol steps and stepped up their demands which now included legislation against old growth logging, the BOF held meetings to continue consideration of spotted owl and cumulative effect rules[4] as well as the Deer Creek THP appeal. At the advice of their attorney, Jared Carter, L-P refused to testify in defense of the disputed THP, even though they had assembled at least seven “expert witnesses” from as far away as Idaho and Montana, claiming that the BOF’s imposed time restriction was unfair. L-P’s numerous opponents speculated the real reason why the company requested (and was granted) a postponement to the September meeting had more to do with the likelihood that the board would rule against the corporation and deny the appeal. This was due to the increasing scrutiny faced by the state officials which could be directly traced to the attention created by Redwood Summer. Activists and concerned citizens present at the hearing, including logger Walter Smith and longtime environmentalist Meca Wawona spoke against L-P’s proposed cut, and CDF silviculturist Bill Baxter, who was a George Deukmajian appointee—certainly no friend to Earth First!—issued a scathing rebuttal of L-P’s arguments in favor of the THP.[5]
Walter Smith testified in detail about how L-P’s capital intensive harvesting of young redwood trees was harmful to workers and violated the spirit of the Forest Practices Act. Some excerpts from his speech include the following statements:
“Dear chairman Yee and Members of the Board of Forestry: I fully support CDF’s denial of Louisiana Pacific Corporation’s THP 1-90-280 MEN and rec-ommend that the Board of Forestry confirm the findings of CDF staff.
“I have been a logger in Mendocino County for the past sixteen years, having worked for Louisiana-Pacific in the Navaho watershed for the last five years. I am concerned that the silvicultural practices employed by Louisiana-Pacific, typified by THP 280, do not meet the intent of the Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practices Act as it was conceived and understood by the people of California…
“Louisiana Pacific’s conversion of their timber lands from a high quality, sawlog timber base to a low quality, chip log base does to meet the intent of the Forest Practices Act.
“High quality timber products are, by definition, products which are manufactured from trees capable of producing a variety of lumber grades, including clear heart. Harvesting small diameter, immature trees that are only suitable for a fiber product is not consistent with the production of high quality timber products and is, in fact, a serious impediment to the production of such products. Premature harvesting of young trees for any other reason than thinning to improve the quality of a stand is tantamount to destroying the very ability of the forest to one day in the future provide us with these high quality products…
“CDF Region One staff correctly acknowledged this fact and denied the THP on the grounds that it violated PRC 4513 and would have adversely affected the Coho salmon habitat.
“Another factor that has not been addressed adequately and which I feel would be further grounds for denial is the recent increased use of mechanical harvesting equipment on the steep and unstable slopes of our North Coast mountains…
“I believe it was the intent of the Forest Practices Act to limit the size of landings in order to minimize the impact of erosion and to reduce the amount of forest land essentially taken out of production. With mechanical harvesters, two heavy machines travel over the forest floor instead of a human timber faller and one skidding machine. On the landings the delimber machines add another heavy piece of equipment that should also cause concern about compaction. The new technology in feller bunchers allows them to operate on slopes up to 50%. There should be serious concern that track ruts could cause an increase in soil erosion. Feller bunchers also can cause considerable damage to regeneration due to moving and turning requirements. I question whether our current timber harvesting regulatory requirements consider fully the impacts of using these new technologies.”[6]
Meca Wawona described in detail how L-P’s twenty-year rotation liquidation logging spelled impending disaster for both Mendocino County’s environment and economy. She noted, in particular, how young redwood trees in even age plantations yielded much lower quality wood:
“Louisiana-Pacific’s stated forestry objectives for THP 280 spells disaster for all North Coast forests and communities dependent on them. If the Board approves this plan, it will give carte blanche to the timber industry to liquidate the last of their second growth sawtimber stands. And it will give L-P the green light they are seeking to begin mass-scale cutting and chipping of very young second and third generation stands.
“You should be aware that in other parts of the country, L-P has found it more cost-effective to chip young trees right on the landings out in the woods. If this happens here, L-P could truck chips to the ports in Fortuna and Stockton to be barged to their manufacturing plants in Baja, Mexico. Raw North Coast forest resources would be exported out of the region, bypassing our local labor and economy.
“In a 15-page addendum filed just hours before closure of the public comment period, L-P changed their silvicultural prescription. In classic corporate double-speak. L-P stated. “The harvest stand will be managed as an even-aged stand to furnish quality timber for our small log sawmills and “quality chips.” Yet small logs grown under even-age, open canopy conditions don’t produce “quality timber.” “Quality chips” is obviously a contradiction in terms.
“The intent of the FPA [Forest Practices Act] expressed under PRC 4513 is very clear: ‘maximum sustained production of high-quality timber products.’ The term ‘high-quality timber’ is not used in the Act as marketing lingo, like the buzzword ‘natural.’ ‘High-quality’ is used to denote a range of wood characteristics which contribute a multitude of public benefits, such as durability, product longevity, and broad utilization options or end-products.
“‘High-quality’ is characterized by tightly spaced growth rings. The more rings to the inch, the more durable and structurally sound the timber or lumber is. This is because the fiber in these dark growth rings, known as summerwood (or latewood) contains more cellulose strands, denser cell walls and smaller cell cavities. It’s tough stuff.
“This is the kind of wood that builds quality housing and furniture which can be passed from one generation to the next and the next. This is the kind of wood which comes from mature trees growing in a healthy mixed aged forest which has been allowed to reach and’ sustain some degree of canopy closure.
“But we are rapidly losing these forests. Because this Board has refused to regulate the rate of cutting, it is sanctioning the mass-scale conversion on industry lands from mature sawtimber forests to young growing stock stands. Now, I’m not referring to the transition from old-growth to second growth, which in Mendocino County was fairly well concluded by the mid-70s. I’m talking about the wholesale elimination of forests with trees large enough to make solid wood products and their replacement by uniform stands of young, small diameter trees which L-P views as fodder for their pulp and ‘reconstituted’ wood products.[7]
Wawona also elaborated, in great detail, how these same practices resulted in increased environmental degradation along the entire production chain:
“Nationwide, L-P is chipping up more and more of their harvest and gluing it together to produce their waferwood, laminated lumber, and oriented strand board (OSB) structural beams. Poisonous glues, resins, and other bonding agents, such as epichlorohydrin, phenol resorcinol, and urea formaldehyde are used to produce these products. And an increasing amount of hazardous pesticides and wood preservatives—copper chromium arsenate. tetra- and pentachlorophenol, busan, copper napthenate, etc.—are being applied as the wood quality of the nation’s wood supply degrades.
“Millworkers, secondary manufacturing labor and their respective rural and urban communities face increasing exposure to these toxics, both in the workplace and in their drinking water supplies. This is due to unethical corporate business practices (including widespread illegal mill-waste dumping or leaching and worker safety reg. violations), as well as lax regulatory enforcement by water quality and worker safety officials.
“The list of mill communities with contaminated water supplies grows longer each year: The L-P mills in Ft. Bragg, Potter Valley, Ukiah and Oroville; Coast Wood Preserving Co. (on the federal ‘Superfund’ list which has yet to begin clean-up) and the GP resin plant, three of which are on the flood plain of the Russian River near Ukiah; Baxter Mill in the town of Weed; and Koppers Co. in Oroville (also on the ‘Superfund’ list)—to name just a few. L-P’s handful of waferwood plants in Colorado (chipping what they call aspen ‘weed trees’) are demonstrating a similar track record.
“These communities are exposed to wood toxics in various other ways. Toxic smoke generated from mills burning chemically contaminated mill wastes settle in populated valleys, and the fly-ash from the burners which is landfilled or spread on athletic fields and school playgrounds has been found to contain dioxin and furan residues.
“Society at large is also being exposed to these toxic chemicals, living and working in home and office environments constructed of materials reeking with volatile glues and wood preservatives. Numerous studies have concluded that many of these newer construction materials out-gas formaldehyde for up to 5-10 years after construction. The problem of out gassing was first discovered about 12 years ago when adverse health effects were evidenced among significant numbers of mobile home residents, and students and workers who occupied mobile classrooms and office buildings.
“Consumer products like particle-board kitchen cabinets, furniture and waferwood paneling have also been found to out-gas for years. A 1985 study by the Oregon Department of Energy found formaldehyde levels detrimental to human health in newer energy efficient homes. Some people are allergic to even very low levels of formaldehyde. In fact, DHS toxicologists have been unable to find a ‘No Effect Level’ of exposure to formaldehyde at which no adverse health effects will occur.”[8]
Wawona finished by noting that while the increased awareness of L-P’s destruction of the environment would result in more restrictions on the manufacturing process locally, the corporation would simply relocate its operations abroad to countries (like Mexico) where environmental regulations were more lax. The only solution was to prevent the problem at its source and that was the logging of forestlands such as the proposed THP 1-90-280.[9] Despite substantial opposition to lifting the appeal by the public (as well as many representatives of the CDF apparently) the Board of Forestry granted L-P its continuance, much to the anger of the assembled activists. Many who had been prepared to offer testimony supporting and bolstering that of Smith’s and Wawona’s reluctantly decided to wait until the next month’s meeting, but many concluded that the whole process had been a sham.[10] The BOF’s chairman, Professor Carlton Yee, had already demonstrated that he was substantially biased towards corporate timber.[11] In any case, L-P’s motivations and professed concerns were more “dog and pony” show than anything else. For one thing, many of the same residents battling the Deer Creek cut were also challenging an L-P THP on the nearby Navarro Ridge.[12] Judge Luther, who had lifted an injunction against L-P’s logging in Osprey Grove also lifted a similar injunction against the Navarro Ridge cut on July 31, 1990.[13] L-P then proposed, as conditions for the “sale” of Osprey Grove to Save the Redwoods League, that the lawsuits against the Deer Creek and Navarro Ridge cuts be dropped.[14] This proposal naturally angered residents who saw it as an attempt by L-P to pit activists against each other and continue their pillage of the redwoods in the southwestern part of Mendocino County.[15]
In Humboldt County, On August 6, 1990, twenty four Redwood Summer protesters were arrested after locking down to logging equipment which was readied for logging the small 222 acre old growth stand known as Murrelet Grove.[16] Located on a small knoll, about forty miles east of Eureka, this forest stand encompassed the headwaters of an unnamed stream which fed the Elk River. It was named by Earth First!ers for the small bird which bore the grove’s name. The site was adjacent to the now logged All Species Grove, which had been the focus of many Earth First! actions—including many of the first tree sits—but stood no more. Although the Murrelet had not been listed as endangered (yet) by the federal government, most biologists and environmentalists believed it should be. Activists, most of them Earth First!ers from the Wild Rockies (Colorado) chapter, had sneaked into the grove early the previous morning and established massive rock blockades on an adjoining timber access road. Unfortunately, the inexperienced Wild Rockies Earth First!ers were not used to dealing with the Maxxam-controlled Pacific Lumber who had dealt with such blockades many times; the blockades were removed by a bulldozer within minutes. The Wild Rockies Earth First!ers regrouped quickly, however, and locked themselves to gates and logging machinery thus resulting in the aforementioned arrests. After being cut loose by the police several hours later, some of the arrestees were held for eight hours in a hot police van, while still handcuffed and wearing heavy clothing intended for use during the cold nights. They were then jailed for three days following their detention.[17] Simultaneously, on August 7, thirty Redwood Summer demonstrators congregated at the nearby Carlotta log deck to support the demonstrators in Murrelet Grove. The activists again locked themselves to a logging gate, but Pacific Lumber employees cut the lock. Meanwhile, inside the grove, another half dozen protestors, including two more chained to logging machines were arrested. One employee, oblivious to the presence of the activist chained to his cat, fired it up, only to stop it in time to prevent the same activist from being seriously injured after another demonstrator (who was engaged in “support” of the chained activist) alerted the driver’s attention to the first.[18]
The same day, Louisiana-Pacific issued a press release announcing that they had found spikes in logs slated to be milled by the company in its Samoa mill.[19] All work in the mill was halted for the day.[20] Naturally, Earth First! and Redwood Summer were assumed to be guilty, and L-P division manager Joe Wheeler personally “appealed” to Redwood Summer activists to come clean.[21] Once again, however, there was not an inkling of proof that Earth First!, Redwood Summer, or any activist at all had anything to do with the spikes, and given L-P’s prior record of exaggerating or even lying about tree spiking, this may have been another example of the proverbial boy crying “wolf!” For one thing, tree spiking had been renounced by the organizers of Redwood Summer, and it certainly violated the nonviolence code. There were Earth First!ers who disagreed with the renunciation, but even were they present for any of the Redwood Summer actions, no other known instances of spiked logs had been found in the area after the tree spiking renunciation, save the one unsolved spiking that was discovered in Scotia by Pacific Lumber on April 23, 1990, and that incident had not been linked to Earth First! (goodness knows that Pacific Lumber would have liked to have done so).[22] For another, the spiking was isolated and unconnected to any particular timber cut. Usually Earth First! spiking happened in large groups and were announced well in advance.[23] L-P certainly had motivation to invent another tree spiking myth as they were under increasing legal scrutiny (by now well over ten of their THPs in Mendocino County alone were being challenged in one or more legal arenas, and Terry Farmer was still considering bringing them to trial for their wastewater discharges in Samoa). In any case, the incident did not detract from Redwood Summer, and the matter was quickly forgotten.
The following day, August 8, 1990, the USFS served organizers of the Sequoia Week of Action with violations related to “damages”, and though these were also eventually dropped, they represented part of the ongoing repression of environmental activists by the powers that be. Meanwhile, Operation Greensweep was wearing out its welcome by even the BLM for refusing to fight the aforementioned forest fire in the King Range and the BLM was turning down the offers by Redwood Summer activists to volunteer. On Friday, August 10, Redwood Summer’s main base camp moved again to a second location within the Six Rivers National Forest. The next day, August 11, far to the south in Mill Valley, sixty demonstrators including many children held a vigil at the Pacific Lumber office there to protest the ongoing attempts by Maxxam to liquidate its last remaining old growth stands. The day after that, August 12, a group of forty Redwood Summer activists fed up with both Operation Greensweep and the BLM occupied a tract of the Cahto Wilderness east of Laytonville. They removed stumps and improved trails to create conditions that made the land eligible for designation as wilderness land. BLM officials intercepted the activists and informed the latter that they were prohibited from removing the stumps, but that it was okay to pick up trash, demonstrating that the agency’s understanding of wilderness was paper thin. As if this weren’t bad enough, that same day, two activists who had not been involved in the Cahto occupation, and were in fact taking a break from actions for a day returned from swimming in a nearby river only to find their car windows smashed by a rock. The Sheriff’s department claimed that they could do nothing for the pair (though they were very quick to support Operation Greensweep). The following day, Monday, August 13, 1990, Annie McPheeters bowed out of the ongoing fast on the capitol steps in Sacramento, though her fellow faster, Robyn O’Neil remained steadfast and now demanded that State Attorney General Van De Kamp investigate the leveling of 98% of California’s old growth ecosystems as a crime. This did not happen, sadly.[24] The first half of August had been a frustrating one for the organizers of Redwood Summer, but they could point to at least one glimmer of hope: Judi Bari had survived her ordeal and had been vindicated. As the month neared the halfway mark, she was about to make her first public appearance since the bombing.
Notes:
[1] “Redwood Summer Timeline”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Samhain / November 1, 1990; and Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, various issues from June 1, 1990 – October 1. 1990.
[2] “Redwood Summer Timeline”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Samhain / November 1, 1990; and Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, various issues from June 1, 1990 – October 1. 1990.
[3] “Epitaph for the Navarro?”, AVA News Service, Anderson Valley Advertiser, August 8, 1990.
[4] “Redwood Summer Timeline”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Samhain / November 1, 1990; and Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, various issues from June 1, 1990 – October 1. 1990.
[5] “Shenanigans at the Board of Forestry”, testimony by Walter Smith, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, with introductory statements by Bruce Anderson, August 15, 1990.
[6] “Shenanigans at the Board of Forestry”, testimony by Walter Smith, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, with introductory statements by Bruce Anderson, August 15, 1990.
[7] “From Quality Sawlogs to Crappy Wood”, testimony by Meca Wawona, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, August 22, 1990.
[8] “From Quality Sawlogs to Crappy Wood”, testimony by Meca Wawona, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, August 22, 1990.
[9] “From Quality Sawlogs to Crappy Wood”, testimony by Meca Wawona, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, August 22, 1990.
[10] “Shenanigans at the Board of Forestry”, testimony by Walter Smith, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, with introductory statements by Bruce Anderson, August 15, 1990.
[11] “Just a Joke, so Yee is Free”, EcoNews, June 1990; and “Yee Denies Sustenance”, by Andy Alm, EcoNews, October 1990 [CHECK SOURCE].
[12] “Residents Battle Navarro Clearcut”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 1, 1990 [CHECK SOURCE].
[13] “Navarro Ridge Restraining Order Lifted to Allow Logging”, Willits News, August 3, 1990; and “Judge luther Rules Against Navarro Ridge Residents”, Mendocino Beacon, August 9, 1990. [CHECK SOURCE]
[14] “L-P Tries a Trade on lawsuits”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 8, 1990; and “LP Demand Snags Navarro Log Suit: Firm Wants Other Suits to be Dropped”, by Chris Calder, Ukiah Daily Journal, August 14, 1990 [CHECK SOURCE].
[15] “‘Osprey Grove’ Deal is Unlikely”, by Kevin Murphy, North Coast News, August 16, 1990; and “L-P Sale Conditions ‘Absurd’”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 16, 1990 [CHECK SOURCE].
[16] “Bitter End to North Coast Summer of Discontent”, by Jane Kay, San Francisco Examiner, September 2, 1990.
[17] “The Battle for Murrelet Grove: Resistance as a Form of Elegy”, by Michael Robinson, Colorado & Wild Rockies Earth First!, Earth First Journal, Mabon / September 22, 1990
[18] “Redwood Summer Timeline”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Samhain / November 1, 1990; and Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, various issues from June 1, 1990 – October 1. 1990.
[19] “L-P Finds Spikes in Logs at Samoa Mill: Timber Protesters Deny and Tampering”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 8, 1990. [RECHECK THIS SOURCE]
[20] “Logs Spiked at Sawmill; Work Halted”, Eureka Times-Standard, August 9, 1990. [RECHECK THIS SOURCE]
[21] “Wheeler Appeals to Activists”, Mendocino Beacon, August 16, 1990.
[22] “PL Millworkers Discover 3 Spikes”, by Lisa Shaw, Eureka Times-Standard, April 24, 1990.
[23] “The Secret History of Tree Spiking, Part II”, by Judi Bari, Anderson Valley Advertiser, March 8, 1993 and Earth First! Journal, Brigid / February 2, 1995.
[24] “Redwood Summer Timeline”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Samhain / November 1, 1990; and Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, various issues from June 1, 1990 – October 1. 1990.