The Continued Fight to Save Old-Growth Forest from MAXXAM

Houston, Texas, and Humboldt County, California, have seen a resurgence of activity involving the (anti) MAXXAM campaign. Over the summer, Houston saw its first tree-sit in MAXXAM's own backyard, and several local Houston groups have formed to work on this issue through teach-ins and home demos. In Humboldt, tree-sitters have been violently extracted from their tree-top perches and activists are being sued for trespassing by Pacific Lumber, MAXXAM's subsidiary. As some of the excitement from recent actions dies down, I am left debating tactics. Which work? Which don't? Which should be maintained, and what new ones can we try? In a state of perplex I wonder what one can really do to save the last 3% old-growth forests remaining in this country.

Jobs vs. the Forest

Among MAXXAM's many destructive and unforgiving things, the loss of 2,000 Pacific Lumber jobs after [MAXXAM CEO] Hurwitz's hostile takeover is a recurring concern, along with the fact that the forest should belong to everyone and should not be held hostage by logging companies. It can be difficult to satisfy both of these concerns. If lumber companies pull out so the land has public use, many more jobs would be lost with no way to refill them adequately. As much as we might hate it, people will continue to log the land and exploit her resources, therefore we must work to find a way to preserve the forest with the help of the logging companies.

There are several ways we can do this. We can demand the logging companies follow certain guidelines that ensure forest preservation and biodiversity, or we can eliminate logging practices and replace them with jobs that work to restore and maintain the forest's complex ecosystem. Environmentalists and most groups currently working on this issue suggest both sustainable forestry and restoration projects.

Sustainable Forestry

One does not have to annihilate the forest and completely destroy its biodiversity by clear-cutting to harvest lumber. Remedy, an activist who lived in the tree Jerry for 361 days before being forcibly removed by MAXXAM, defines clear-cutting as a method of logging that cuts every tree in a given area whether it is two years old, or two thousand years old, virtually turning the forest into a desert. The results are eroded hillsides that choke the streams and rivers, destroying habitat for the endangered Coho salmon and filling in the wells that supply local families with drinking water (1). Remedy should know. She has witnessed the devastation of Freshwater creek and surrounding areas firsthand.

Late Earth First! activist Judi Bari was an avid promoter of the idea of sustainable forestry. "Clear cutting is the most environmentally devastating logging method, and also the least labor intensive," she said. "In the long run, the only way to save timber jobs in our area is to change over to sustained yield logging, where logs can only be taken in a manner and at a rate that doesn't destroy the forest. This is exactly what the environmentalists are asking for" (2).

This idea is not new. Pacific Lumber (PL) practiced sustainable logging for years, when it was founded and run by the Murphy family. Albert Stanwood Murphy (A. S. Murphy) became President of Pacific Lumber in 1931, and implemented two new policies that became PL's identity for the next 50 years (3). He first redefined how the company would cut its trees. At the time, clear-cutting was the standard technique of the logging industry, and already the damage to the earth was mounting. Mr. Murphy decided to take PL out of that destructive cycle and shifted the company to a policy of "selective cut," where PL cut a maximum of 70 percent of the mature trees in a stand, leaving the younger, most vigorous trees to hold the hillside and seed the new generation of forest (3). He then added another policy dubbed "sustained yield". While other logging companies might cut themselves out of existence, his company would never lack timber ready to fell because its annual cut would always be limited and never exceed its timberlands' new growth. (3)

It is because of these sustainable logging practices, before Hurwitz's takeover, that MAXXAM acquired the largest track of privately owned old-growth forest. Because of the Murphy's previous logging practices, MAXXAM adopted Pacific Lumber's misleading "environmental commitment" credo that states, "Over the last century, PALCO (Pacific Lumber) has become a leader in protecting the environment, producing high-quality lumber products, and preserving the truly special places treasured by the public." (4). While this statement may have been true during the Murphy's reign from 1931 to 1986, it is now laughable given the mutilation of the forest since MAXXAM's takeover.

Restoration Jobs

In what began as an attempt to "restore peace in the forests of Humboldt County," Pacific Lumber's Rich Bettis proposed PL's version of a truce with the tree sitters after an encounter with Remedy and Shunka (North Coast Earth First!) on June 17, 2003. (5) In this proposed agreement, PL promised to refrain from cutting certain trees for six months if protesters promise to stay off PL land and meet other conditions. Six months, they claim, would give everyone enough time to sort things out. If ever agreed to, this proposal would be signed by PL President Robert Manne and Cindy Allsbrooks, founder of the Forest Peace Alliance, a group organized following the 1998 death of Allsbrooks' son, David "Gypsy" Chain (5). This idea of providing jobs for restoration work has been discussed in the FPA (Forest Peace Alliance) meetings and may some day soon be a reality.

One of the ideas behind a "cooling off period" such as this would be to organize activists and loggers in an effort to work together to repair the forest and alleviate the legal implications of trespassing that activists currently face. The damage MAXXAM has done to the land is so great that the reparations of the forest would provide ample jobs. In a recent survey, scientists declared certain areas of MAXXAM's land irreparable. These scientists were hand-picked and approved by Pacific Lumber, and their report stated that they could find "no scientific basis to expect that implementing minor improvements within the existing system will ultimately lead to significant improvements in water quality." (6)

Boycott Redwood and Old-Growth Products!

While sustainable forestry and restoration jobs seem to be a viable solution, MAXXAM will never agree to such alternatives unless it is financially beneficial for them to do so. Unfortunately, MAXXAM is a large corporation that is practicing forest management from their perch in the big city, with no experience in forest management and with dollar signs leading the way. It is a big corporate business that took over a small family owned business, causing severe damage to the infrastructure of the Pacific Lumber worker's community and the land that surrounds it. MAXXAM will never see Pacific Lumber as more than profitable value because it would not be in their best interest to do so. MAXXAM's operations resemble that of a parasite. It's primary goal is to utilize Pacific Lumber's assets, and when it is finished it will leave it a shell company and move on to the next. I have no doubt that Charles Hurwitz plans to wring every last dollar out of the forest leaving a trail of clear-cuts, tree farms and desertification behind him.

We must then make it unprofitable for MAXXAM/ Hurwitz to log old-growth trees and redwoods. One step would be to reinstate the National Boycott of old-growth and redwood products launched by the Rainforest Action Network in 1997 (7). A revision of this boycott would include all redwood products, not just old-growth, since second- and third-growth redwood products have a shorter lasting life-span and make poor quality wood products. A boycott of redwood, therefore, serves the best interests of both the forest and the consumer.

The goals of this campaign include public and media outreach concerning the state of the world's remaining redwood forests, organizing local communities to demand alternatives to redwood forest products, pressuring consumers of wood to halt their use of old-growth forest and redwood products, and organizing consumers to apply pressure on corporations to reverse institutionalized over-consumption of wood products. (7) A campaign of this magnitude requires people from across the nation to take part. If we all work together, we can make a difference and save the forest from MAXXAM's demise! For more info, email info@SacredRedwood.org or call 713-858-0074.


Notes

1) May 8, 2003. Open Journal: Exposing MAXXAM. KPFT 90.1 FM Pacifica. Guests: Remedy, Rod Coronado, Karen Picket (Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters)

2) Bari, Judi. 1994. Timber Wars. Monroe, Main .Common Courage Press. Pages 12-13. Article from the Industrial Worker, October, 1989.

3) Harris, David. 1997. The Last Stand: The War between Wall Street and Main Street over California's Ancient Redwoods. San Francisco. Sierra Club. Pages 16-18.

4) October 23, 2003. Environmental Commitment. Pacific Lumber Company. http://www.palco.com/commitment.cfm.

5) August 7, 2003. Pacific Lumber Offer Rebuffed. North Coast Journal. http://www.northcoastjournal.com/080703/news0807.html#anchor682756.
6) August 16, 2003. Panel says plans don't adequately assure protection, restoration of water quality. Mike Geniella, The Press Democrat. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/16plreport_b1empireb.html.

7) 1997. Update on the Redwood Old Growth Redwood Boycott Campaign. Rainforest Action Network (RAN). http://redwoods.freeyellow.com/ran.html