Judi Bari

Redwood Forest Defenders Occupy Trees in Strawberry Rock Timber Plan–Call on Green Diamond to halt logging

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On Wednesday, April 1, Redwood Forest Defenders occupied tree sits in the contentious Strawberry Rock timber harvest plan, calling on Green Diamond Company to stop logging now! Green Diamond Resource Company (GDRC), a private timber company, has started industrial logging operations in the Strawberry Rock area in northern Humboldt County, a site culturally significant to the Yurok tribe. The group, Redwood Forest Defense is currently occupying the forest and a treesit platform has been raised into the canopy. The group is calling for GDRC to halt all logging in the area immediately. Link to photos in Google Drive with a …

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Tell Gavin Newsom what you think of post-fire salvage logging in our wounded forests!

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So-called salvage logging has been around for decades—promoted by the timber industry and vehemently opposed by forest advocates—after insect infestations, die-off due to drought, and most often after forest fires. But really, it’s generally about satisfying the market. Given the history of large fires in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, salvage logging proposals are on the table in a big way again, in California, right now.   >>Send a message today to lawmakers urging them to prioritize public (tax) money going into  Fire safety efforts, Toward controlled burning and “home-hardening” efforts in wildfire zones, not logging trees. Any thinning and/or brush …

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Mattole Action Camp; Richardson Grove Back in Court

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    GATHER FOR the MATTOLE ~ IN the MATTOLE! This Action Camp and skill sharing will be a great time to plug in with other forest defenders on the North Coast, find out what is on the horizon for this spring and summer, and hike in some beautiful forest. You can contact BACH at our email for details and car-pooling and we will try to help. Find out why people are so passionate about protecting the forests in the Mattole River Watershed! Info in Humboldt: efhum@riseup.net; Save the Mattole’s Ancient Forest on FB Richardson Grove in Court (again) March …

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Forest and Species Issues Making News in Northern California

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Forest and Species Issues Making News in Northern California Mattole Forests The intrepid Mattole Forest Defenders are organizing an action training camp in the Lost Coast area for mid-March. Stay tuned for more details as local activists gear up for the logging season.  Contact efhum@riseup.net, or us at bach@headwaterspreserve.org. In the same neighborhood, another hard-working group of local residents in the Mattole River Valley—the Lost Coast League—is in the midst of challenging Humboldt Redwood Company’s (HRC) heavy use of herbicides and their THPs (Timber Harvest Plans) filed in ” legacy forests” via a different avenue. That route is a formal challenge to the “certified as sustainably …

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Actions in the Forest, plus Forests in Court

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New Tree-Sit and Forest Occupation in the Mattole Shuts SPI Down Humboldt County Forest Defenders have been occupying a Sierra Pacific Industries’ (SPI) logging plan in the Mattole River watershed, effectively shutting down operations there. A tree-sitter has been perched 100 ft. up, joined in the last couple days by more activists who turned back heavy equipment and trucks on site to haul the giant logs out. The area is deep in the forest, and the activists are calling attention to corporate logging of large, fire resistant trees, damage to water quality and other destructive environmental impacts. For more than six years, protestors have …

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New tripod blockade in Mattole, new suit in Gualala forest

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New Blockade Rises to Protect Old Growth in the Mattole! Logging season has returned to the north coast, and Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC) remains adamant that they will cut in the previously unlogged forest in the Mattole River watershed. The blockaders, however are even more determined that they will not.  After an effective and successful action training skill share camp in May, numbers of people monitoring, communicating, strategizing and holding the blockade line were boosted in the Mattole. Now, there is a new heavy tripod on the main logging road on Rainbow Ridge near the headwaters of the North Fork of …

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North Coast Forest Update–Mattole, Gualala and more

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Old Trees, River Habitat and Action: They Go Together No New Road for the Mattole!  Forest Defenders on Alert for Logging Season Our last update to you concerning the magnificent old forests in the Mattole watershed [http://headwaterspreserve.org/2018/02/comments-needed-on-mattole-forest-road-building-offshore-oil-and-wild-smith-river/] addressed Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC)’s new logging road proposal, which seemed to have no rational foundation for construction, except to get around forest defenders’ blockade. Thanks to strong public and organizational challenges, HRC withdrew their construction proposal. This is good news! But after a too-brief sigh of relief, Mattole area activists are shifting into vigilant alert mode, as the rains stop and logging season …

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Comments Needed on Mattole Forest road building, Offshore Oil and wild Smith River!

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Deep in the fog-shrouded coastal forests in the hills above the ocean in southern Humboldt county, a new logging road is planned that has no good reason to be built.  This area of old forest, mostly Doug Fir and other species in the Mattole River watershed, is one of the few areas outsides of the now publicly-owned  Headwaters Reserve that was left in fairly pristine shape by the old, rapacious Pacific Lumber. But the timber company that bought the forestland from PL/Maxxam—Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC)—is not leaving it alone.   Activists have had a long-standing blockade (see previous Mattole BACH …

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Action Updates: Mattole Forest Blockade and Richardson Grove!

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UPDATE ON  MATTOLE  FOREST DEFENSE! An area in the Mattole River watershed on  Northern California’s forested coast is called the “Lost Coast”, because of its relative remoteness from major highways and population centers. There lies mature Douglas Fir forest, unmolested by logging—left behind even by the rapacious Maxxam Pacific Lumber, in favor of more accessible redwood forest. Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC), the current owners, have been threatening to log in an area known as Rainbow Ridge. They have been met with staunch opposition from local residents and stalwart forest defenders who have maintained a formidable blockade for five months.   HRC recently …

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Radio towers and murrelets; climate and deforestation

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Clearcuts in Redwood National Park—really?  The state of California has a project for construction of three communication towers in the far northern coastal corner of the state, including one in Redwood National Park. Because of maintenance and access issues, these towers always come with clearcuts that must be perpetually maintained. A total of three communication towers, with a height range of 120 to 270 feet and with adjacent clearcuts are proposed for Rodgers Peak (in Redwood National Park), Alder Camp (a state-owned prison facility), and on Rattlesnake Peak (owned by Green Diamond Timber Co.). The towers would provide radio coverage …

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