Editor's Note
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. (read more)

20 Years in the Forest: Trees Foundation: A Beginning

I've been invited to write a piece about the origins of the Trees Foundation in recognition of its twenty years of service. The idea of trying to write an article for a publication I so admire, that is filled with writings expressing the passion, wisdom, and concern of forest activists, foresters, and biologists, many of whom are my heroes, is a bit intimidating. (read more)

20 Years in the Forest: How We Came Together, the Whole We Built That Was Greater Than the Parts
Twenty-one years ago, the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st started with a bang. A loud and profound explosion, in fact, that reverberated throughout the redwood region and the nascent Headwaters Forest campaign. A pipe bomb planted under the seat in Judi Bari's car as we launched our Redwood Summer organizing campaign nearly killed her, injured Darryl Cherney, and suddenly landed us in challenging new territory, as we lunged forward from that pivotal moment into the 1990 chapter of the Headwaters Forest campaign. (read more)

20 Years in the Forest: Twenty Years of Northwest Forest Defense: The Politics of the Spotted Owl Party Like its 1992
Twenty years ago...1992. It was a different world. The Internet was in its earliest infancy, nobody had a cell phone or knew what email was, and Kurt Cobain was still writing grunge rock classics. And it was still very much an open question whether or not old-growth forests in our National Forests would be completely liquidated outside of the minimal reserves found in designated wilderness areas. (read more)

Tribes, State, and Public Work Together to Protect our Ocean
This December marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. Since 1986, the organization has made great strides in protecting the coastal redwood ecosystem and local tribes' traditional ways of life, and in providing education about tribally directed land conservation efforts. The Sinkyone Council is a community-based conservation initiative, formed and operated by appointed representatives of the tribal nations whose peoples have lived on, understood, and cared for North Coast lands since time immemorial. (read more)

Mattole River and Range Partnership: PROTECTING RURAL HUMBOLDT Seeking Balance in the County's General Plan

I was born at home in Miranda and spent most of my childhood doing home school in the Mattole watershed. I have lived on a number of small parcels classified as Timber Production Zone (TPZ). When I was nine or ten years old, I could walk from the creek to the ridgetop without disturbing anyone. Looking back, I realize that I was living on a pretty small slice of timberland that had been thoroughly logged and subsequently subdivided and sold. Unknowingly, my walks to the ridgetop took me over some half dozen undeveloped parcels. (read more)

Diggin' In: The Gienger Report

Just after the deadline for the last issue of Forest & River News the California Wildlife Conservation Board, at a special July 26th meeting, voted 2-0 (the Fish & Game Commission member was absent) to approve funding (over $19 million) for a conservation easement for the Usal Redwood Forest (URF). This is a milestone for the Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc. (RFFI), specifically as regards an essential step for success in their first project--and in general for progress in the attainment of community-based forest models. The public, and you the reader, were a part of the team that brought pressure to bear to enable this step to be made. Thank you. Now the `real work' begins to actually realize the economic, environmental, and community potential of the Usal Redwood Forest. Your awareness, support, and participation remain a crucial factor. (read more)

North Coast Living: The Green Rush Economic Boom-Ecological Bust
"The only possible guarantee of the future is responsible behavior in the present. When supposed future needs are used to justify misbehavior in the present, as is the tendency with us, then we are both perverting the present and diminishing the future." Wendell Berry (read more)

Cereus Fund of Trees Foundation: 2011 Report
In this section we highlight the Cereus Fund, Trees Foundation's largest and longest-running donor-advised grantor. Over the past thirteen years the Cereus Fund has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to grassroots environmental efforts throughout the redwood region. One person making a significant difference! (read more)

McKay Tract Update
As the winter rains begin to soak in, we busy ourselves with community organizing, staying dry, building new living quarters in the tree-village, and replenishing our water stores. We're now entering year four of the occupation in the McKay Tract/ Ryan Creek watershed to stop this precious habitat from being clear-cut by Green Diamond Resource Company, aka Simpson. (read more)

Your Redwood State Park: Richardson Grove, Gateway to Redwood Country BIG TRUCKS or BIG TREES? What do YOU want?
The Preliminary Injunction secured in federal court against CalTrans on their Richardson Grove Project remains in effect until the hearing for summary judgement, which is scheduled for Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 9am in San Francisco Federal Court. Please attend. The State hearing will be in Eureka at the Humboldt County Superior Court in mid-March. (read more)