THE book on California’s redwoods
Greg King has written THE book on California’s redwood forests and it’s quite a ride. The book release coincides with my plans to go visit the redwoods for the very first time. And I now feel like I know more about the redwood forests and their history.
What I love is that Greg King isn’t just another journalist re-telling a story. He also happens to be an activist who was active when Earth First! was very active in the US. King got to meet people like Dave Foreman, who passed away this year, I believe. So, King knows his stuff and he drops several bombs on unsuspecting readers like me. Actually, I listened to the audio version which runs at 17 hours and 26 minutes and is superbly produced and narrated.
Save the redwoods league, my ass
Save the redwoods league sounds like an organization worth supporting with donations. I visited their website just before listening to King’s book and I’m glad I waited. It turns out that the league was originally formed by white supremacists; and it did very little to save the redwoods. It was a front for industry. Surprise, surprise. I suspect it still is but only 4% of the redwood forests remain.
King mentions several cases where the league had a chance to support the protection of important redwood forests and chose not to, which is beyond shocking.
Stolen redwoods
King asks an important question: how did the redwoods end up in private hands? The first white European settlers scammed their way into owning and logging the redwoods. Since they were only allowed to purchase so much forest acreage individually, they got people to sign deeds and then, for a price, transferred them to their companies. It was dirty and illegal but it made them rich.
Who bombed Judi Bari?
The early history was all new to me but then the book clicked once it arrived at Earth First! I knew about Earth First! and their direct action tactics in defense of mother Earth. They employed “monkeywrenching”; for example, bulldozers were torched or sand was shoved into their gas tanks. Or trees were spiked with large nails which made it extremely hazardous to run the logs through sawmills.
One prominent, and extremely effective, activist was Judi Bari. Then one day while she was driving her car, a bomb went off under her seat, severely injuring her. If the bomb had gone off as designed, she would have died a fiery death. Instead, she recovered, only to later die of breast cancer.
Incredibly, the police and FBI didn’t investigate the assassination attempt and instead charged Bari. It would take years in court to win the battle and a financial settlement. I hope the cash helped the two girls Bari left behind.
This whole affair shows how logging money talks. Greed decimated the redwood forests and King asks several times what I’ve been asking myself: how can you stick a chainsaw into a massive, old redwood?
Conclusion
If you like trees and forests, this book will educate and enrage you. When I finally visit the redwoods this fall or next year, I will be seeing the remaining “beauty strip”.
