5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rich narrative of the Headwaters Forest controversy, November 11, 1998
This review is from: From the Redwood Forest : Ancient Trees and the Bottom Line: A Headwaters Journey (Paperback)
Earth First!, Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club - what images do these names conjure up in your mind? In the minds of many, including the author, Joan Dunning, before she got involved in writing her book From the Redwood Forest, hearing those groups made them think of long-haired, young activists who chain themselves in front of bulldozers just to save trees - "America's Renewable Resource." Joan Dunning got involved with the campaign to save California's headwaters forest and realized that these stereotypes, although partially accurate, are still far from the truth. Saving not just old-growth forests, but old-growth ecosystems, should be a top priority for a true citizen. She contends that whether we want to or not, one day, like her, we will have to stand up and face the reality that these trees and their ecosystems need saving.
Dunning begins this book: "I never intended to get involved with the controversy surrounding the Headwaters Forest, let alone write a book about it." She writes this book in a unique first-person view, as her journey of learning about the Headwater's forest, including clever anecdotes and stories of her family and past. She puts in excerpts from what appears to be a journal, giving you a first-hand look at what she was feeling. She writes in a way that you feel as though you were there and can feel her feelings.
Dunning says that this book is "about the satisfaction that comes from action, effective action, activism." She believes that many Americans are almost activists. They know that they care, they need to do something, but they are afraid to act. Just as she, an almost activist, emerged out of her cocoon of fear, she believes that soon others will also. She first began this emergence, September 15, 1996, when a friend invited her to a meeting of the Taxpayers for Headwaters. She agreed reluctantly and then ended up reading an excerpt on the marbled murrelet from her book Secrets of the Nest. While touching members of the audience, she was moved herself. She went to an Earth First! Rally and after hearing a speaker describe the deliberate sawing down of a Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood). Then, in ultimatum, she attended a slide show by Doug Thron, a "war correspondent," to determine if she would or would become involved with this issue. The shocking photographs of clearcuts and slash fires that took out forests convinced her that this was not something to be taken lightly. So, after talking with Doug, she agreed to write a book in which he could publish his pictures.
Headwaters Forest is in Northern California, south of Redwood National Park and small towns such as Eureka and Arcata. Headwaters Forest is made up of six groves: Headwaters grove, Elk Head Springs grove, Shaw Creek grove, Allen creek grove, Owl creek grove, and Yager camp. Throughout the book, the author describes her journey through the Headwaters Forest controversy and through the six groves of Headwaters Forest. She and Doug are the only ones besides MAXXAM employees who have visited all six groves, since several of the groves are private property owned by MAXXAM. Pacific Lumber Company (PLC) had forested Headwaters Forest for nearly a hundred years. They had forested it wisely, thinning out trees and planting more, using proper foresting techniques. PLC supported the communities in Humboldt County and was a popular household name, a symbol of pride for residents there. Then in 1985, Charles A. Hurwitz, of MAXXAM, staged a takeover of PLC. To repay the debt incurred, he had trees chopped down at alarming rates, followed by clearcut fires to which burned all growth to provide short-term nutrients for more trees, but eliminated long-term nutrients, by destroying the entire ecosystem. The author concludes that PLC practiced good forestry techniques which preserved nature, while MAXXAM just chopped down wood as fast as they could to repay Hurwitz's $864 billion debt. MAXXAM tore apart Humboldt county and their forests.
When Dunning travels through the groves, she uses illustrative language to attempt to describe the natural beauty and the artificial horror that can be seen in Headwaters Forest. However, she is still able to blend in scientific lore about the magnificent ecosystem that is trying to survive. For instance, the mycorrhizal fungi which cover the soil and a tree's rots. The mycorrhizal fungi and the tree's roots have a symbiotic relationship, the mycorrhizal fungi creates a connective layer between the soil and root to extend the roots' reach into soil and increase the tree's capacity to absorb water and nutrients. This is especially critical with seedlings. In addition, the mycorrhizal fungi, which lacks chlorophyll, derives sugar from the roots of the tree. In fact, 51% of the biomass of an old-growth forest is fungal. Clearcutting, a common practice by MAXXAM, destroys the fungus that is so crucial to the survival and growth of redwoods. And it goes on; there are the salmon in the creeks, the flying squirrels, the marbled murrelet, and more, all essential to the ecosystem of an old-growth forest. The author says that while PCL preserved them, after MAXXAM's takeover, ecosystems were rampantly destroyed.
Dunning goes on hikes with both Doug and her nine-year old son, David. She gives us a picture of what it might be like for her David to be experiencing this, not realizing that when he is older, this may all be gone. Dunning, goes so far as to even climb "Luna," a redwood in which Julia "Butterfly" Hill has lived since December 10, 1997. After a quick lesson in climbing trees, she, in her early 50s, climbed 180 feet up into the tree to interview Butterfly. Her description of that gives you an awe of the massive size of the tree. She stresses the importance that people know about this. She wants people to know how valuable these forests are. Dunning has heard the feeling that one forest is enough for humans to go look at and is trying to get people to realize that these forests are important to more than just man.
Dunning writes an inspired book about the controversy surrounding Headwaters Forest filled with cheerful stories and her journey through discovering the forests and what the controversy was all about. While she leaves the end up in the air stating that she had to quit writing to give it to her publisher. However, a bit of research on my own part helped me to discover that, in fact, just yesterday, November 10, 1998, the California Department of Forestry revoked MAXXAM/PLC's license to log wood in any of the Headwaters Forest. Dunning concludes that the most important thing is to get involved in what you believe in. While she is trying to save Headwaters Forest, that may not be your place, but you should be active in what you support. She makes this point in through rich journal entries and narratives of her discovery. That combined with 57 full-color photographs in the middle leads me to give this book two trunks up.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm speechless, so to speak, August 24, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: From the Redwood Forest : Ancient Trees and the Bottom Line: A Headwaters Journey (Paperback)
No book has ever moved me the way this one has, I have tears in my eyes as I write this. I've just read many of the other reviews, and I don't have the way with words that some do, but they tell it like it is. Joan tells it like it is. Books don't get any better, and this one will change your life, like someone said it isn't all about happiness, and I have become informed and aware of too much to not so something about what is being done to our Redwood Forests, and what is being allowed to be done to our envirnment and watersheds. It's a true story, happening right now, this book documents it succinctly with amazing one of a kind pictures. It will open your eyes. Something needs to be done about Charles Hurwitz from Houston, Texas and his company MAXXAM. He is savaging The last of the Virgin Redwood Rainforest in California. I cannot beleive the CDF and the department of Forestry are "letting him get away with it." Not to mention the way he "aquired" the land, which is explained in the book. Please read this book. This book will light a fire in you, and like me you will have to do something. There are several websites listed in the back to point you in the right direction. I beleive this book is THE BEST one on the subject and if you plan on reading only one this should definitely be it. It has the most facts, information, and insight and is so well written, I couldn't say enough. And 57 pages of priceless color pictures! I am buying used copies for people, I would give one to EVERYONE if I could, and I have only said that about 2 books, and I read alot. The book is priceless. Thank You Joan
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