Who are the Real Eco-Terrorists? Mill Closure And Job Loss
After The Boom, Who Sweeps Up The Rubble?
August 15, 2003
As reported in our last newsletter, Maxxam/PL closed its flagship mill operation in the company town of Scotia, laying off 140 workers, because it has used up much of its old growth trees (see "Telfon CEO" in Winter issue on www.headwaterspreserve.org).
It has been said that to see its future, Humboldt county only has to look south to Mendocino county. Mendocino, in turn, can look to the development and vineyards that were once forests in even larger areas in Sonoma county. The future is foretold, that is, unless we can effect a shift toward sustainability in Humboldt, where the opportunities are greatest, Maxxam Corporation notwithstanding.
The last lumber mill on the Mendocino coast in Ft. Bragg shut down on Aug. 1, 2003, after over three decades of unrestrained liquidation logging by Louisiana-Pacific, Georgia-Pacific and Masonite. These corporations moved in and bought up the locally owned operations in the late 60's, as Maxxam invaded Humboldt county in the mid 80's, changing the face of the timber economy there. G-P, L-P and Masonite all practiced the same cut and run management practices, like Maxxam, selling their wounded and depleted land to Hawthorne Timber and the Mendocino Redwood Company (controlled by the Gap's Fisher family) respectively. The number of mills in Mendocino county has declined from a peak of 200 in the mid-60's to just 4 today.
As PL did when their main mill in Scotia closed in late 2001, Mendocino's timber company PR flacks trot out the argument that they are restrained by regulatory restrictions, blaming the advocates for wildlife and forests. In fact, big timber in California has never been restrained in any serious way by the agencies that are supposed to protect the public interest, principally the Calif. Dept. of Forestry with their ready rubber-stamp. The closure of the Ft. Bragg mill not only puts 59 people out of work, but affects the network of people related to mill operations, including loggers, truckers and ship haulers.
For a bit of a perspective on the shift from local owners of the timber base to the multi-nationals, we exerpt from a Nov 15, 1985 column by Gaye LeBaron, long-time columnist in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat who was born in Scotia and grew up in Southern Humboldt county. Remember, this is less than 20 years ago:
link to Scotia peace zone, November 15, 1985
The takeover of Pacific Lumber Company, news of which has filled our financial pages for months, has yet to be confirmed. At last report the fourth-generation descendents of Simon Murphy, who founded the Humboldt Count
company that claimed to be the largest redwood lumber mill in the world, had lost in court. But their battle to block the acquisision of the company by a Houston financier won't be over until all the shares are counted. And that hasn't happened--yet.
Pacific Lumber Co. owns everything in Scotia--every house, every store, every office, the school, the churches, the hotel, ... the bank, the hospital. When I grew up in Southern Humboldt, PL was synonymous with power. It was The Man, the big house on the hill, the grandfatherly figure who watched over the family. PL was The Boss. But PL was also Santa Claus, the good fairy and the recreation director. In many ways it was what management theorists now applaud as the Japanese Management Style--although those lumberjacks then...would have hooted at the idea.
Since my father and mother didn't work for PL, we were a distinct minority. I can remember how I envied those children [whose mothers and fathers worked for PL]. I envied them their company picnics where they would win prizes in races and feats of skill. And most of all, I envied them their dolls. Every year PL had a Christmas party for the children of employees. Children, whom I knew deserved them far less than I, came out of that Christmas party lugging dolls so big their feet dragged the ground.
And now the Murphys [ed. note: previous owners of PL before Maxxam], who were like royalty in my childhood--coming to visit their hunting lodge across the river in Larabee, bringing important friends--are fighting to save Scotia.
The Texans say there's nothing to worry about. The mill will go on as always. "All we want to do is be helpful to Scotia and Pacific Lumber," said Hurwitz. But the Murphys mistrust his reassurances. As for me, I have no stock in PL. Only a stock of memories. ...A San Francisco writer and photographer did a book on Scotia about 15 years ago. It was called, appropriately, "Life in the Peace Zone." Sometimes I fear there is no peace zone anymore.
The poignancy and irony of this commentary, written on the very eve of Maxxam's takover of Pacific Lumber, speaks for itself. Since 1985, the fish, the trees, the hillsides, the community, the workers, and the vitality of Humboldt county's watersheds have
been in a war zone, where the invaders call the protectors extremists and terrorists.
Trees still standing and rivers still clear stand as a monument to the dedication of
grassroots activists.
