That Old Maxxam Band Again

by Will Parrish
© 2017 Anderson Valley Advertiser
January 12, 2017

[excerpt:]

First came the “Dogwood” plan: a 320-acre timber harvest plan (THP) filed by Gualala Redwoods Timber (GRT) in 2015. It involves tractor-logging hundreds of stately second-growth redwoods that line the lower Gualala River, which straddles the Sonoma-Mendocino county line on the coast, in areas spared from axes and chainsaws for a century or more.

Next was the “German South” plan, which GRT filed last September, which involves harvesting an additional 96 acres of floodplain redwoods, in an area immediately adjacent to “Dogwood,” and clear-cutting 85 acres directly upslope. In September came GRT’s “Plum” THP, which involves felling floodplain redwoods along the Gualala’s north fork in Mendocino County.

The towering second-growth redwoods GRT intends to cut down include many of the largest trees remaining in a watershed that has been particularly hard-hit by clear-cutting since World War II. Scouring winter floods have periodically rushed through the river canyons in the past century, naturally thinning the lush forests and giving the groves an expansive, cathedral-like appearance reminiscent of other redwood parks such as Prairie Creek Redwoods.

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To read the entire article, visit the Anderson Valley Advertiser: That Old Maxxam Band Again