Redwood Reader

In the former Soviet Union, polluting companies discharging into streams and river was a huge problem. The answer was new rules forcing discharge upstream of their intake point, so they would be the first to suffer the consequences of easy, illegal behavior. As far as sediment is concerned, both sides are under-informed and using observation and anecdote to explain away what we now know about glomalin. I have proposed many times big trees are needed for water retention in the root zone, flood protection, production of rain forming aerosols, shade and landscape stability but especially for reducing greenhouse gases by natural carbon sequestration. My blog is full of sources concerning increased CO2 and accelerated growth above and below ground, and the need for regional leaders to help market our carbon storage capacity. It would seem to me a natural path of a large corporation to try to get paid for holding mature working lands. As for making a difference in the market place, its like a buffalo hunter killing until someone invents synthetic winter coats to replace the buffalo robes. The ecosystem is never figured in, only money from competing interests has any sway. And it happens all the time.
As for the courts, they seem to be in position to be sure business gets done. It is no accident there are pictures of logging operations on the courthouse, or that judges are afraid of losing their jobs if they rule a certain way. That is corruption.
A better remedy for this situation is pounding on the doors and halls of science and government to get them to acknowledge that glomalin, now well known in crop lands, is the single most neglected aspect of forest systems, the binder of silt particles and retainer of soil moisture, and the cause of erosion and sediment in streams. Then we can write rules that reflect new science and allow a regulated rate of cut in consolidation with whatever other new practices come to the fore. It doesn’t matter how good the scientist is if the science is no longer up to date.

Eureka Times-Standard
Time to wake up and smell the sediment
Friday, August 13, 2004 -
My Word by Jeny Card
I read with amusement the Times-Standard's disapproval of and advice to forest activists. The timing was nice, given the article you published the day before about the forest "service," who was found guilty of exaggerating damage done by wildfires in order to facilitate logging in Spotted Owl habitat. Then there was the editorial you published two days before by Sal Steinberg about the locals being shut out of participation in public meetings so that government and industry will not have to hear of damage suffered by residents due to a reckless rate of logging. During one such meeting, activists got advice from PL's lead "scientist," Jeff Barrett, who said "As environmental activists, if you want to make a difference in the world, go figure out how to convince the market place to reward us for leaving trees on the ground longer." To hell with owls, water quality and stable hillsides; it's all about the market! At least Mr. Barrett acknowledges his true motivations for destroying natural systems on which all life forms depend.
The T-S also counsels forest activists to try legal action as a "last resort." Are we there yet? Government agencies entrusted to protect and restore the public trust have documented over 300 violations of conservation laws by Pacific Lumber in the last five years, adding to the 300 they racked up between 1994-1997, yet their fraudulently obtained rate of cut continues while wildlife and water quality sustain more and more damage. EPIC won a case against Maxxam's bogus SYP and permits that allowed harm to endangered species, only to have the court offer no remedy while thousands of acres of critical habitat were sacrificed for Charles Hurwitz's pocket book. The case took over four years due to CDF dragging their feet on handing over pertinent documents, delaying long enough for Maxxam to get the cut out. What do you think the threat of recidivism is on this one? Once you've hoodwinked the courts and government into doing your bidding for you, to the tune of millions of dollars, any transgression of the law becomes simply a cost of doing business.
If it is still unclear to the Times-Standard that the courts have become a tool of repression and harassment wielded by Maxxam, it's time to wake up and smell the sediment. Like the public trust agencies, the courts have failed the people, and have become instruments for corporations like Maxxam to quash public dissent over government agencies inappropriate relations with corporate timber.
Jeny Card (better known as Remedy) is a speaker, writer, film maker and forest activist, currently fighting a SLAPP (Strategic Law Suit Against Public Participation) suit filed by Pacific Lumber in Humboldt County Superior Court. She lives in Freshwater.