Editor's Note

December 19, 2011


Founded in 1991, this marks Trees Foundation's 20th year serving grassroots environmental groups throughout the redwood region. We thought we would take this opportunity to look back at the last two decades of progress and challenges in the forest, rivers, and communities of the region.

	Lucy in Headwaters Grove Photo: by Doug Thron

Leib Ostrow, Trees Foundation's creator, reflects on the rich firmament of activity from which Trees Foundation grew. The passion and commitment for restoring the wild that characterized the community that Leib describes, is mirrored in the stories of three other authors looking at the last twenty years.

Trees Foundation came of age during the so called "Timber Wars". As Karen Pickett from Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters recounts, the rapacious logging practices of Pacific Lumber that were liquidating old-growth redwood brought people together in new and powerful ways. As she says "It was a grand experiment that helped form the landscape of grassroots earth activism on California's north coast today."

But the battle to protect ancient forest and endangered species ranged much wider than just the redwood region. Stretching from the north coast of California all the way to Washington, the temperate forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service were subjected to equally devastating old-growth logging. The struggle to end the "timber first" mentality of the Forest Service, and the evolution of the Northwest Forest Plan is chronicled by George Sexton of Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center.

Spotted Owl in Owl Creek Photo: by Doug Thron

Contiguous with the imperiled forested landscape lies the wilds of the Pacific ocean. Hawk Rosales of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council takes us into the future with current efforts by tribes to protect the ocean and its bounty. "For the tribes, protection of the ocean and traditional cultural use of marine resources are inseparable ideas."

The next 20 years begins......


This article can be found online at www.treesfoundation.org/publications/article-469

Forest & River News is produced by Trees Foundation.