Module 29 Land Use Concepts and Classification

Module 30 Land Management Practices

For most of its history, northern California’s Pacific Lumber Company was a leader in environmental stewardship. It pioneered the practice of selectively cutting some trees on its land while leaving nearby trees intact. Unlike the usual practice of clear-cutting—clearing all the trees from an area of land—selective cutting allows the roots of the remaining trees to retain water and hold soil in place. In addition, the surviving trees foster regrowth that more closely mimics natural succession after a disturbance. Pacific Lumber developed a 100-year sustainable logging plan that ensured relatively healthy forests as well as job security for the loggers and their families.

In 1986, however, Pacific Lumber was purchased by new owners and renamed Maxxam. To increase revenue from the company’s land holdings, the new management clear-cut hundreds of thousands of acres of redwood forests. Because the new harvesting method removed vegetation and tree roots, Maxxam’s practices left the forests susceptible to soil erosion and landslides. On December 31, 1996, an immense landslide began on a steeply sloped Maxxam site above the town of Stafford, California, destroying a number of homes and drastically altering the natural environment.

The adjacent uncut land, also owned by Maxxam, was home to the largest remaining intact forest of ancient redwood trees as well as to a number of endangered species. Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill was appalled by Maxxam’s forest management practices, and in response she joined a “tree sit” on Maxxam’s land organized by the direct action group Earth First!

The ultimate goal of a tree sit is to remain in a tree long enough to save it from logging, although many such actions merely delay the inevitable. Still, activists support tree sits because they gain time for further legal proceedings and increase media awareness. Julia Butterfly Hill proved indomitable. In her most famous tree sit, she occupied Luna, a 55-m (180-foot) redwood tree that was nearly a thousand years old, and resolved to remain there until Maxxam agreed to spare the tree. She spent 2 years in the tree without coming down once, staying through gale-force winds, two winters, intimidation tactics, the death of another activist, and the removal of most of the trees in the stand that she occupied. Julia’s efforts were rewarded when Maxxam agreed to protect Luna, and a 61-m (200-foot) buffer around it, in perpetuity. In a separate, complex deal that included many stipulations about logging practices, Maxxam and another company also agreed to sell the U.S. government 3,035 ha (7,500 acres) of ancient forest for $480 million. That property has now become the Headwaters Forest Reserve.

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Hill’s actions cost Maxxam millions of dollars in delays and lost revenue and brought unsustainable logging practices to the attention of many people. A large debt load forced Maxxam to file for bankruptcy protection in January 2007, and its depleted assets were reorganized and transferred to a new company in 2008.

Maxxam’s logging practices appeared to place profit before sustainability. The new company, though, appears to have implemented more sustainable practices with the trees that remain on its holdings.

The conflict over logging practices raises many questions. Do citizens of the United States have the right to influence what activities occur on private lands? What if the land is public? Was Julia Butterfly Hill a hero or a villain? Some see her as having made a personal sacrifice to save an ancient tree and to bring the issue of unsustainable logging practices to the public’s attention. Others see her as a lawbreaker who trespassed on private property in an effort to prevent a legal activity.

Sources:J. B. Hill, The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods (HarperCollins, 2000); H. Sims, The scion, North Coast Journal, July 20, 2006.