Strawberry Rock Forest Defenders Set Up Treesit to Fight Clearcutting in California’s Forests

From Earth First! Newswire
By Strawberry Rock Forest Defenders

For over a century Green Diamond Resource Company (GDRC) has further debilitated the redwood ecosystem, starting with poor land management practices by parent company Simpson Investment, and by prior timber companys harvesting on stolen lands. Numerous endangered species like the marble murrelet, spotted owl, pacific fisher, humboldt marten, coho salmon, and many others have been placed in harms way and threatened with extinction from the timber industry’s practices. To make matters worse the constant use of herbicides and pesticides, which poisons the soil, water and wildlife, furthers an unnatural recovery of the forest. Habitual Clearcut Plan, let’s not.

In the redwood forest around Strawberry Rock we continue to take a stand against clearcut logging and all other forms of deforestation. The current paradigm of forest management is a sham that we feel necessary to oppose, therefore we have set-up a treesit north of Strawberry Rock, a couple of miles north of so-called Trinidad, California, within THP 1-10-058. We are demanding this land to be preserved for future generations, a community forest that all beings can appreciate and prosper from.

Redwood forests, if left to grow, would be the greatest carbon sink on Earth. That alone makes their continued survival paramount. Unfortunately the timber industry uses science that is not only flawed, but proven false by the scientific community, to continue their destructive practices. Turning a cold shoulder, the California Department of Forestry approves THPs without much forethought. This insanity must be stopped or we may never see healthy forests, vibrant wildlife and an end to global warming ever again.

The Forest Stuartship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) have both certified GDRC sustainable, however their 425,000 acres of private land in northern California is anything but that. An even-aged tree farm on a 45-year rotation is not a flourishing natural environment. Since the redwood tree sprouts from stumps, every harvest increases the number of small trees growing on site. If an old growth stump produces 10 sprouts, when these trees are cut each 2nd growth stump sprouts many more trees, turning our forests into thickets. Many of GDRC’s holdings are now into their 3rd, and even 4th, growth. The current drought isn’t going to help grow a temperate rain forest that once thrived from two million acres of old-growth’s perspiring moisture.

What “works” for GDRC is neither a healthy forest nor planet.

In solidarity with land-defenders and eco-prisoners around the world.
For the wild!

Strawberry Rock Forest Defenders