10-year-old Daniel Felix looks out from the top of a huge stump of old redwood on his tribe’s ancestral lands. Once upon a time, this forest on California’s northern coast was filled with ancient monsters that can live more than 2,000 years.
Now only a fraction of it remains, which was destroyed by a logging company before the state acquired the forest in the 1940s.
It is a unique public land, the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, which spans 50,000 acres. Trees are abundant here, but they may not live for a millennium. California’s 14 demonstration forests are required to produce and sell wood to show or “demonstrate” sustainable practices. The money derived from logging – about $8.5 million a year – is paid for by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, to manage the forests.
Daniel’s tribe, the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, has pushed for a halt to logging — led by his late great-grandmother Priscilla Hunter. They are part of a diverse coalition that includes environmental activists, local politicians and other tribes.
Now they may finally get their wish. Assemblymember Chris Rogers (D-Santa Rosa) has introduced a bill that would end forests’ logging mandates, instead prioritizing values such as carbon storage, wildfire resiliency and biodiversity.
The bill represents the latest chapter in a region famous for fierce battles over logging, and marks an unusual alliance between tribes and the environmental movement.
under Assembly Bill 2494There could still be logging, but it would have to support those new principles, and the forests would be funded separately.
And it proposes another important change. It would pave the way for tribes to have a say in land management for the first time since they were forcibly evicted more than a century ago, and integrate indigenous knowledge – such as cultural burning – into forests.
“This is what we dreamed of,” said Polly Girvin, Hunter’s former partner and a retired attorney who focuses on Native American issues. “And to make it true? I’m used to movements that sometimes take 30 years in Indian country to get the justice you’re looking for.”
Children play in the stump of an ancient redwood during a potluck held after the Spirit Run at the Jackson Demonstration State Forest last month.
(Paul Kuroda/For The Times)
Some supporters say the bill provides a new economic path for communities behind the so-called Redwood Curtain. With the decline of logging and cannabis, they see tourism driven by ultramarathons, mushroom foraging and other outdoor activities as a financial savior.
Mendocino County Supervisor Ted Williams estimated the increase in funding from the lodging tax, saying, “If there is a 10% increase in visitors to our county due to recreational opportunities, that will be more than the entire timber tax in our county.”
But the effort to redesign forest management has been strongly opposed by loggers and mill owners, who say their work is sustainable and provides blue-collar jobs in a region where they have been decimated. California already imports most of its lumber from Oregon, Washington and Canada.
Miles Anderson, owner of a logging company founded by his grandfather in Fort Bragg, said, “California has the most rules and regulations anywhere in the world, so they’re exporting the environmental impact somewhere else, still using the product.” “It’s really disgusting.”
Anderson believes this bill would greatly reduce logging, even stop it altogether. In his office, with photos of himself and his father at a logging site decades ago, he explains that it is sponsored by the Environmental Protection Information Center. “Why would they and other environmental groups support this if they didn’t see the same thing I’m seeing?”
Last month, activists seeking to curb logging held their first large gathering in nearly four years in Jackson, inspired by the bill, which they see as an important step in the right direction.
(Paul Kuroda/For The Times)
A new but old battle
About five years ago, community members became aware of a plan to cut down giant redwoods within Jackson, near the coastal town of Casper. “Priscilla Hunter would come into the woods and hear them crying – these were our ancestors,” said her daughter Melinda Hunter, the tribe’s vice chairwoman. “Then he had to protect (the trees).”
Environmental activists and Native Americans, who had not historically been allies in the region, united to fight it. “Forest guards” camped high in the canopy and blocked harvesting equipment with their bodies. Some were arrested.
This rebellion is reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s, when distinguished environmentalist Judy Bari led Earth First! Campaign against logging in the area. Several of the old men who tend the trees – white-haired and full of Bari stories – have come out of the woodwork for the latest fight.
For him it was a victory. Cal Fire halted new timber sales and, citing public safety, halted much of what was going on – including what was expected to generate millions of dollars for Miles Anderson’s logging company.
“We had nothing left,” Anderson said.
Then, last year, Cal Fire approved the first harvest plan since that hiatus. This enraged the large, ecologically conscious community.
Jessica Curl, 47, remembers growing up nearby “in the trunk area,” when trucks hauled logs. Now the redwoods are growing again, “gorgeous” and swallowing carbon, he said.
“We’re so fortunate to live in an area where we have this amazing climate-change mitigation tool, that if we left it alone it would do the amazing work that we’re trying to do to think of all these brilliant, inventive things.”
Isidro Chavez encounters burning sedge, or smoke, after running in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest. Smudging is a ritual used to cleanse negative energy from places and persons, promoting peace and improving mood.
(Paul Kuroda/For The Times)
tears of sorrow, resolution
a group of “Soul Runner” – a Native American tradition of bringing prayers – spread across the heart of Jackson Forest as rain through the canopy. The event held in mid-April was the first major gathering of activists since the protests ended in 2022.
The people present gathered in a circle to wait for him. Misty Cook of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians read a statement as visions blurred around:
“All the living things around us, they remember us. They remember language. They remember our touch, our hands, all the things we touch – water, plants. They remember songs. They remember the beat of our footsteps and our voices, and they remember the laughter and play of children, which was very important. They want us to collect them, use them and share them. Otherwise they will get sick and possibly die.”
Cal Fire started a Tribal Advisory Council to bring an Indigenous perspective to Jackson. But some local tribes say this is not enough as they do not have decision-making power.
When the runners came, the circle absorbed them. They then continued on to the site of Camp Eight, a controversial proposed settlement. She wrapped Priscilla Hunter’s bandana around a small tree – a quiet, sad act where she took her last stand. The runners took turns hugging the trunk.
Redwoods at the Capitol
In March, Rogers’ bill cleared a committee and is now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee’s suspense file. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Funding is a major point of contention. Environmentalists say that funding these forests from logging operations encourages cutting down large trees. Cal Fire says decisions are driven by forest health, not industry demand.
AB 2494 would finance forests through a tax on lumber and engineered wood products. According to one legislative analysis, this change could “(o)duce ongoing state costs and cost pressures of an unknown but potentially significant amount, possibly at least millions of dollars annually”.
The California Forestry Association, a lumber industry trade group, says the idea is a non-starter.
Cal Fire declined to comment on pending legislation, but Kevin Conway, the agency’s chief of staff for Resource Conservation and Improvement, said its nearly 80-year history of managing Jackson shows “care and attention.” Since the state acquired the forest, “we have more trees on the landscape, more habitat and those trees are getting bigger,” he said.
For those tribes who rallied and prayed, a burning question is whether the land will again reflect their vision, or continue to be shaped by decisions made by others.
Buffy Campbell, Executive Director of the Intertribal Sinkayone Wilderness Council – Co-founded by Priscilla Hunter And one of the groups supporting the bill said – Young people will not be able to understand the importance of the passing of this law. Maybe this is a good thing.
“Maybe they don’t need to know about all the battles we have to go through before we can go out and enjoy and become tribal custodians managing our land.”
