🚀 go-pugleaf

kfloritto@kermode.net wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 26 Aug 1997 21:53:01 -0800, catherine yronwode
> <cat@luckymojo.com> wrote:
> 
> >Headwaters Action Video Collective has just released a half-
> >hour documentary/organizing feature about the ancient forests 
> >of Northern California. "Headwaters '97 -- Call to Action" 
> >details the 1996 direct action campaign to save Headwaters, 
> >from the massive rally on September 15th, featurng Judi 
> >Bari's stirring speech and the arrests of 1033 children, 
> >women, and men, to aerial footage of amazing beauty and
> >incredible destruction. This report bears grim witness to 
> >MAXXAM's clearcutting of the magnificent Headwaters old-
> >growth redwood ecosystem, which has provoked unprecedted 
> >resistance among a growing multitude of dedicated forest 
> >conservationists.
> >
> >Designed as a tool for organizers, this video contains 
> >important information about the coming rally to save 
> >Headwaters Forest that will be held on Sunday, September 
> >14th, 1997, in Carlotta, California. It is suitable to use 
> >for ecological fund-raising, educational outreach, and
> >showing on public access television.
> >
> >Copies can be obtained from the Mendocino Environmental 
> >Center, 106 W. Standley St., Ukiah, CA 95482 (707) 468-1660.
> >
> 
>         Perhaps you, or someone else reading this, can fill in 
> a few blanks for me.
> 
>         Years ago, I lived in the tiny No. California 
> community of Fortuna - about 30 miles south of Eureka.  At 
> that time, the Sierra Club had published a book entitled "The 
> Last of the Redwoods", a copy of which is still in my library.
> 
>         With all the conservation and preservation activity 
> that was so very prevalent in those days - early '70s - I'd 
> have thought the ancient redwoods were well and truly saved.
> 
>         From some of the horror stories I've heard over the 
> past couple of years, it seems my assumption was quite wrong.
> 
>         What went wrong?

I can't speak for the situation with all of the redwood forests, but in
the case of the Headwaters Forest, the situation is this:

Up until 1986, the Pacific Lumber Company, who owned the land, logged it
in a sustainable manner and preserved what is now known as the
Headwaters Forest Complex, six distinct ancient groves near Fortuna,
California. In 1986, Charles Hurwirtz, a notorius corporate raider, who
had previously been implicated in savings and loan scandals in Texas,
acquired PL's holdings in a hostile take-over, using junk bonds as
leverage. His company, MAXXAM, then begain to liquidate PL's holdings,
especially the irreplaceable old-growth trees. At the moment Hurwitz is
under seige from several quarters, including an FDIC lawsuit and massive
citizen outrage at his destruction of a once-sustainable logging company
and the forest lands upon which it and its employees depended. 

For an in-depth review of all the corporate crimes of Charles Hurwitz,
which include his gutting of the Pacific Lumber Company pension fund as
well as clearcutting the Headwaters groves, check out the web site
http://www.jailhurwitz.com