No other tree is as revered and iconic as the monumental redwood. They are nature's cathedrals — towering some 300 feet tall, adorned in rust-colored bark and bearing the stateliness of 2,500 years.

Yet 209,000 acres of northern California's redwood forest — representing 10 percent of all redwoods left on Earth — and the town of Scotia and its operating timber mill are at the center of the Pacific Lumber Company bankruptcy proceedings.

Regardless of the eventual outcome of the bankruptcy court, The Nature Conservancy, Save-the-Redwoods League and a coalition of local environmental and timber community partners, called the Community Forestry Team, are proposing a vision permanent protection for Humboldt’s environment and economy. This vision for the area called the Great Redwood Forest includes setting aside the most environmentally significant areas and creating a sustainable timber operation to support the community that depends on this forest.

“Our local environment, economy and community need stable jobs and healthy forests that protect wildlife habitat and clean water,” said David Simpson, a member of the Community Forestry Team. “The only way to make this possible is by permanently ensuring our forestlands are kept in sustainable timber management and enabling the community to have an ownership stake. Our community should have a voice in the future of our natural resources.”

Finding Ecological and Economic Solutions

This 209,000-acre stretch of majestic redwoods and Douglas-firs — dubbed "The Great Redwood Forest" — is home to many threatened and endangered species, including spotted owls, marbled murrelets, coho and Chinook salmon and tailed frogs. It also includes nearly half the watershed of Humboldt Bay, an important stopover for migratory birds.

But the forest has been heavily logged in the past and currently only has temporary protection that would expire by 2050. The Nature Conservancy and its partners in this effort propose placing the vast majority of the forests under a permanent conservation easement that ensures the forests are managed in an environmentally sustainable way, in perpetuity, regardless of future ownership, providing jobs and a continuous supply of timber to mills.

In addition to maintaining the local timber industry, the partners aim to set aside the most ecologically important and sensitive habitat, including old growth forests, into publicly protected wildlife areas. The move would add to Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the Headwaters Reserve, increasing public access for Californians and visitors from all over the world.

The idea of conserving forests while practicing sustainable timber operations is not a new one. In recent years, the Conservancy has engaged in similar efforts to protect thousands of forest acres and support sustainable timber in New York, Maine, Minnesota and across 11 southern states.

“This is conservation on an epic scale,” says George Yandell, North Coast project director for The Nature Conservancy in California. “The only way to protect landscapes this big and this important is for conservation to work hand in hand with compatible economic activities.”

A Forest for the People

With protection of the Great Redwood Forest, California would have an area of unfragmented coastal redwood habitat that stretches for nearly 35 miles. And Humboldt County residents have a chance to help save this forest and the livelihoods that it supplies.

Nature picture credits (left to right): Photo © Sandra Howard (California redwoods); Photo © Tom and Pat Leeson (Chinook Salmon).