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North to South: A Pacific Northwest Travel Guide
for Forest Activists
California
Forests, Mendocino:
The oak woodlands,
meadows and riparian forests of California are much more unique and diverse
then the Douglas Fir forests that dominate Oregon and California. But this
drier side of biodiversity means there is a lack of vegetation on the forest
floor in the Southern reaches of the Pacific Northwest. As the forest
transitions from dry to wet understory vegetation becomes more plentiful,
clearcuts regenerate trees more rapidly.
Moving north the amount
of annual rainfall increases and with it the arid Mediterranean climate becomes
less a threat to the regrowing of big trees. The county of Mendocino, with its
towns of Ukiah, Boonville, Willits, Ft. Bragg, has found just enough distance
from the big city that things don’t happen as quick up here. It is a place that
city dwellers go to breathe easy, to slow down. There is also enough distance
from the city for a more rugged lifestyle. It’s reflected in the rugged terrain
that spreads out much further eastward than the southern forests described
earlier.
Temperate rainforests
start to reach much farther inland in Mendocino. The land to the east begins to
look and feel like the mountains of the PNW. Big trees grow well here, they
keep regrowing, even higher up on the slopes. The land up here is big enough
that the settlers and homesteaders were to few to claim it all. That’s when the
federal Government stepped in and designated these lands as part of the
National Forest system.
National Forest and
Bureau of Land Management Lands:
Federal “public lands
management” becomes a major part of forestry issues from Mendocino National
forest northwards all the way to the Canadian border. In this southern most
reach it is the Mendocino National Forest. From here northwards the human
psyche knows that off to the east up in the hills, there is a large range of
public lands, an escape, some of it still pristine wilderness. Some of it is
also still in need of defending by groups like the California Wilderness Coalition.
Under the current Bush policy to
clear away environmental regulations 10 demonstration projects are being
introduced. For Mendocino the proposals are for Santa Cruz type forest
thinnings in the ‘Summer home tract,’ an area called Pillsbury, it may well be
a reasonable proposal, but it all boils down to the discretion of the forester
who has designed the logging plan. Bush’s new rules are based on overriding
existing laws by giving sole authority to the timber sale planners. This
strategy is a throw back to the 1970’s and Bush thinks he can get away with it
because congress will vote for his plan to circumvent a whole raft of
environmental protections. The initial flash point in this, the latest round of
the forest wars is sure to start in California where many professionals earn a
living at saving nature and lobbying for state protections. What Bush did to
the Quincy logging
plan in the Sierra Nevada region says much about the direction he is going.
Defending the Redwoods:
As far as grassroots
community based activism goes in this part of California, the call of the Coast
Redwoods is strongest. There is far less talk of National Forest issues around
these parts compared to talk of saving the redwoods. To this day there is still
viable opportunities if you want to defend redwoods on the Coast. In Fact
Mendocino and Humboldt County to the North is the birthplace of the largest
forest defense campaign ever in the United States. The battle cry, “Save the
Redwoods” is integrated into the culture up here. Cutting trees or saving them
is a constant source of involvement of the whole community and both sides of
the issue are fiercely represented.
Forest defending in
this region began with Louisiana Pacific. There logging had become extreme in
the 1980’s. They stripped almost every
last tree, even the saplings. In response Judi
Bari became ground Zero for the Timber Wars.
Mendocino county was her home turf. The battles for Enchanted Meadow, the
Albion Uprising, the beginning of relentless non-violent civil disobedience in
defense of the redwoods, to this day, it has a vibrant effect at shaping forest
policy in both Mendocino as well as the rest of Northern California.
The activism in
Mendocino grew up at the MEC (Mendocino
Environmental Center.) Betty Ball, Judy Bari and many others helped to
spread the word when activists discovered Headwaters grove in Humboldt County
to the North. The Headwaters campaign
began in the late eighties and became big in the early nineties. The forest
activists’ earned their rank as a movement in 1990 during Redwood Summer when
over a 1000 Gathered in Mendocino county at Fort Bragg to demand protection for
the ancient redwoods. Judi died in 1997 of breast cancer six years after she
was blown up by a car bomb that the FBI used as a smear campaign. In 2002
Judi’s posthumous lawsuit proved that the FBI was guilty of multiple crimes.
In 1998 Georgia Pacific
was shut down and sold off to the Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC), which is
owned by the Fisher family. Fisher family owns The Gap and Old Navy clothing
stores. They have been fiercely boycotted by an International Campaign to get MRC to
stop stripping what little left there is of GPs forests. MRC’s public relations
ploy was to bring in a forester from Santa Cruz, non-other than "The
Butcher of Butano," Mike Jani. He felled the last 4000 acre tract of
unprotected residual old growth redwood trees in Santa Cruz Mountains in the
early to mid-nineties. As always Mike Jani is at the forefront of
"sustainable forestry," because he is experienced in the Santa Cruz
mountains, which is known as the forest land with the strictest logging rules
on the books. In Mendocino Mike Jani has succeeded in felling some of the last
ancient trees in Mendocino too. But in rare instances treesitters and local
campaigns have managed to save some big old trees in Kaisen gulch, among other
places.
State Owned Public
Lands:
In Mendocino it's not
only Mendocino National Forest, but it’s also a state owned tree-farm called
Jackson State Forest. There is nothing pristine or remote about Jackson State
Forest, the main road between Ft. Bragg and Willits runs through it. Most of
its Old Growth has long since been cut. But what this forest does have is good
soil, fast growing redwoods and some solid forest defenders who have taken
advantage of the obstinacy of state lands managers.
Through litigation
activists have shut down timber harvesting, The court found the state's harvest
plan to be out of date. In response a new “sustainable management” plan was
just released and as the tradition of forest defense always goes, many
victories have an expiration date. So the activists have to start over again on
something further reaching, something that saves more forest. Or sometimes it’s
just the grim task of saving what you thought you already saved.
The Mendo Marys:
Meanwhile, the battles
still continue against the Fisher Family Gap and as the years go buy fewer of
the older activists are able to run around and stop the loggers in the woods.
Activists from forests up North are constantly drawn on for support because of
this. So rather then backwoods activism, much of the community in this area is
about public demonstrations. Mary Bull's campaign against the Gap is relentless and the
battle she has raged in streets and gas stations across America is legendary.
Mary is a teacher of how to blend the saving of the forest with the stopping of
a war. There is also another Mary in
Mendocino her name is Redwood Mary.
She's another ambassador of the redwoods. She has defended old Redwood trees
all up and down the coast in defense of the redwoods. Central to Mendocino is
what will happen to the Gap's forest lands. In the long run much of Georgia
Pacific's old tree farm land will become either valuable sub-divisions for
upscale houses or protected forests given to the public trust. With all the
Marypower in this region much more protected forest is on the horizon.
Media:
The alternative
publications in this region have more words per article then anywhere else in
the United States. Beth Bosk's tireless work on the Luddite publication "The New
Settler" sometimes has 20 page long interviews with forest defenders
and alternative minded citizens. Her Journalism is very accurate historic
record of forest defense in this region. Also the Anderson
Valley Advertiser is another great way to get in on the all the controversy
that's always brewing up in this county.
Changes in Mendo:
Other recent events in
Mendocino are the acquisition of the Big River Estuary
and Ft. Bragg's local sawmill shutting down. Also this county has its share of
problems with grape growers sucking dry rivers like the Navarro.
Lastly there's a large
piece of privately owned Land in the Anderson Valley called Terrarium. 30 years
ago the landowner fenced off all the creeks, which kept all the deer from
browsing the sensitive vegetation. After all these years the fencing has been
removed and the streamside vegetation has regenerated itself to the point that
it can survive the deer's browsing.