Old Growth Douglas Fir in the Mattole River watershed.
A Bit of History
In 1985, Maxxam Corporation, based in Houston, Texas, took over the Pacific Lumber Company, in Humboldt County, California. This takeover was accomplished with consolidated shares and junk bonds, and then Maxxam dumped a huge sum of its debt onto Pacific Lumber, forcing the company to log it's forests at an unprecedented rate, and targeting the Old Growth Redwood and Douglas Fir forests.
In response, the North Coast Earth First! movement was formed, in the non-violent civil disobedience and direct action traditions of Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks. Well over one thousand people have been arrested in defense of these forests, and people are risking their lives, at this very moment, to save these ancient wonders.
The resistance to Maxxam lasted over 20 years, and then, as activists predicted, Maxxam Corp. filed bankruptcy on Pacific Lumber Co. The bankruptcy proceedings ended very recently, and now the Mendocino Redwood Company is the owner of the old Pacific Lumber Co., and has renamed it the "Humboldt Redwood Company," or HRC. The HRC has promised to permanently protect Old Growth trees on their land, and has pledged to end the destructive practice of clearcutting. This is wonderful news, and we hope that these promises will be fulfilled. Activists will be keeping a close eye on the timber harvest plans and practices, because, well, that's what we do. We also hope for the best, and believe that revolutionary change is possible, and that our efforts will eventually result in the preservation of Old Growth and the implementation of responsible timber harvesting practices.
For over two decades, people have been flying banners that read "Maxxam Out of Humboldt." It finally happened, marking the end of a tragic and contentious era. If North Coast Earth First! had never existed, Maxxam would have been able to come in and just mow the old growth down; thousands of acres of redwood forest were saved as a direct result of North Coast Earth First!, non-violent civil disobedience, and direct action.
If conditions do change, it's an awesome example of the power of the people to effect change; even if things didn't change, the fact still remains that the people stopped Maxxam from easily doing what they came here to do, which was to log every last old growth tree on Pacific Lumber property. Power to the people! Earth First!
