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As these ancient forests fell, streams became muddy with erosion and some of the last true giants left on our earth were cut with industrial chainsaws and dragged out of the woods and brought to the company lumber mill. The marbled murrelet, the Olympic salamander, the spotted owl, the northern goshawk, the fisher, and the tailed frog would eventually be homeless. It did not matter to Maxxam that these species had lived in these forests for hundreds of thousands of years. They saw profit in boards and kept cutting. For the full story, read "The Last Stand" by David Harris, published by Sierra Club Books. Demonstrations in the headwaters forest have raised awareness on the issue and have slowed the pace of timber cutting. In October of 1997, small groups of protesters practiced civil disobedience in the name of the ancient redwoods by occupying timber company offices and the office of a U.S. Congressman. The Humboldt County Police Department responded by forcefully smearing pepper paste and spraying pepper spray into the eyes of the peaceful protesters. Seeing the videotaped footage of this atrocity on CNN and other national news leaves little doubt about the conviction of the protesters. http://www.headwatersforest.org/about/index.html has full information on the protests, the response of law enforcement and the media.
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Nowhere is the battle to save ancient forests more visible
than Humboldt County, California. In 1985, the Maxxam Corporation and its
President, Charles Hurwitz, executed a leveraged buyout of Pacific Lumber,
a venerable old timber company committed to responsible logging in the ancient
redwood forests of Northern California. To make a return on his investment
sufficient to warrant the staggering debt undertaken, Maxxam began to harvest
the old growth forest in its possession at an alarming pace.