From the Redwood Forest : Ancient Trees and the Bottom Line: A Headwaters Journey. This item is unavailable.From the Redwood Forest : Ancient Trees and the Bottom Line: A Headwaters Journey

The oldest trees of the Headwaters Forest pre-date Jesus Christ. For generations they have provided refuge, inspiration, and livelihood for creatures large and small. Harvested sustainably for decades by Pacific Lumber, a family-owned business, it seemed that the legacy of old-growth forest could be maintained indefinitely. This situation changed when Pacific Lumber was acquired in 1985 in a hostile takeover by MAXXAM Company of Houston. The welfare of the forest and its regional stakeholders suddenly became secondary to a corporation's need to satisfy financial obligations. Since that takeover, "liquidation logging" practices have fueled passions and caused deep rifts in a land known for its peaceful majesty. Now, the Headwaters Forest is the locus of a virtual environmental holy war, with skirmishes fought in courtrooms, on back roads, in the media, and in the living rooms of local residents who are scared, resentful, and angry that the healthy forest, which for generations has provided jobs, is vanishing.

A journey to the heart of Headwaters
The book begins---- I never intended to get involved with the controversy surrounding the Headwaters Forest, let alone write a book about it. I have always considered myself a naturalist, not an activist---- It then traces my journey deep into a issue that is filled with fascinating characters, agonizing problems, and profound lessons. I have interviewed the young activists who were tortured when police put concentrated pepper spray in their eyes; climbed a 180-foot redwood to visit Julia Butterfly who has remained on a platform in the tree for almost a year; met Charles Hurwitz, CEO of MAXXAM, the corporation which is destroying all but a tenth of the Headwaters Forest; talked with the landowners whose property adjoins MAXXAM1s and witnessed firsthand how their quality of life and property value have been diminished due to the logging upslope; become one of the few people who have hiked to all six groves that are a part of Headwaters Forest; and now, looked into the eyes of the Earth First! activists who saw David Gypsy Chain killed when an irate logger deliberately felled trees in their direction. All over America, a growing number of activists are fighting battles that should have been settled through government action. David Chain died trying to hold off the cutting of ancient trees in Grizzly Creek watershed until the California Department of Forestry could determine the legality of the timber operation under way. But CDF didn1t come until it was too late. This is a book, from a mother1s point of view, about citizen responsibility and action in the face of government complicity with corporate law-breaking. From the Redwood Forest explores in depth a classic environmental battle of epic proportions. It underscores the fact that we need to sieze the opportunity to collectively inform ourselves and brainstorm now, while the world is watching, rather than wait for even more violent struggles to expose the same problems without the benefit of public scrutiny. Fifty-seven of Doug Thron1s finest color photographs show clearly the widespread destruction that is occurring behind the forested beauty strips that line our highways and also the wild majesty of that renowned forest known as Headwaters.