Post by The Big Dog on Mar 8, 2009 11:38:41 GMT -5
Here again we see a specific issue with which I disagree with the militant enviros. They had their way. An industry was destroyed along with thousands of direct and indirect jobs, and now the only people accessing the land are government employees and (largely) the enviros. The price of lumber has grown astronomically in some cases, and while Pacific Lumber was practicing good forest management, and the owls were demonstrated to not be endangered at all and were fully adapting to changing conditions, it was all eeeeeee-vil and had to be stopped. The economies of Humboldt and Mendocino counties are still deeply depressed with rampant alcoholism and drug abuse. Their number one cash crop is marijuana.
Seems fair, doesn't it?
Seems fair, doesn't it?
A decade after Headwaters deal, truce comes to Northern California redwood country
By Paul Rogers
The San Jose Mercury News
EUREKA — Chris Heppe climbed the trail at Headwaters Forest as sunlight streamed through the towering redwood trees.
Moisture glistened off a carpet of ferns. The only sound was the bubbling of a nearby stream.
"See that?'' he said, pointing to blue paint on an immense redwood 20 feet around and 1,000 years old. "That means it was going to be harvested. Cut down. But they never got to it."
<< snipped >>
Pacific Lumber, shouldered with more than $700 million in debt, declared bankruptcy in 2007. Parent company Maxxam's stock, $57 a decade ago, is now about $5 a share.
During the bankruptcy trial last year, a new company formed by Donald and Doris Fisher, the billionaire San Francisco founders of retailer Gap, acquired all 211,000 acres of Pacific Lumber's land and its historic sawmill in the town of Scotia.
Their new company, Humboldt Redwood, won't cut redwoods larger than 48 inches in diameter, said Chairman Sandy Dean. They have banned clear cuts. And their logging level will be about one-fifth of Hurwitz's. Humboldt is an operation with about 220 employees, compared with the 1,600 Pacific Lumber had at its peak. Maxxam did not return calls for this story.
<< snipped >>
And most famous of all was Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who climbed a 180-foot redwood, named it "Luna" and sat there for two years in driving rain and windstorms to stop it from being cut down.
"I dealt with her," said Dan Collings, a former Pacific Lumber logger whose job was to climb up and haul environmental protesters out.
"Julia believed the trees had souls, and maybe personalities. I said, 'Get real, it's a beautiful tree, but you probably have an interesting conversation with your broccoli at dinner, too.' "
Such was the cultural chasm of the time.
"I said to this one Earth First girl in the woods: 'You know, you're an attractive girl, why don't you take a bath?' " Collings, now 51, recalled this week with a chuckle.
"And she said, 'You'll get used to it. People wash off too much of their natural body oils.' And I was like, that's why God gave us soap!"
By Paul Rogers
The San Jose Mercury News
EUREKA — Chris Heppe climbed the trail at Headwaters Forest as sunlight streamed through the towering redwood trees.
Moisture glistened off a carpet of ferns. The only sound was the bubbling of a nearby stream.
"See that?'' he said, pointing to blue paint on an immense redwood 20 feet around and 1,000 years old. "That means it was going to be harvested. Cut down. But they never got to it."
<< snipped >>
Pacific Lumber, shouldered with more than $700 million in debt, declared bankruptcy in 2007. Parent company Maxxam's stock, $57 a decade ago, is now about $5 a share.
During the bankruptcy trial last year, a new company formed by Donald and Doris Fisher, the billionaire San Francisco founders of retailer Gap, acquired all 211,000 acres of Pacific Lumber's land and its historic sawmill in the town of Scotia.
Their new company, Humboldt Redwood, won't cut redwoods larger than 48 inches in diameter, said Chairman Sandy Dean. They have banned clear cuts. And their logging level will be about one-fifth of Hurwitz's. Humboldt is an operation with about 220 employees, compared with the 1,600 Pacific Lumber had at its peak. Maxxam did not return calls for this story.
<< snipped >>
And most famous of all was Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who climbed a 180-foot redwood, named it "Luna" and sat there for two years in driving rain and windstorms to stop it from being cut down.
"I dealt with her," said Dan Collings, a former Pacific Lumber logger whose job was to climb up and haul environmental protesters out.
"Julia believed the trees had souls, and maybe personalities. I said, 'Get real, it's a beautiful tree, but you probably have an interesting conversation with your broccoli at dinner, too.' "
Such was the cultural chasm of the time.
"I said to this one Earth First girl in the woods: 'You know, you're an attractive girl, why don't you take a bath?' " Collings, now 51, recalled this week with a chuckle.
"And she said, 'You'll get used to it. People wash off too much of their natural body oils.' And I was like, that's why God gave us soap!"
