This article originally appeared as a guest editorial on July 29, 1999 in the Ukiah Daily Journal, under the title "MRC: Wolf in sheep's clothing?"
Recently, Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) announced plans to reopen its Willits sawmill and hire 25 workers to process tan oak into hardwood flooring. At first glance, this seems like a good ideaÑcreating new jobs and increasing company revenues while eliminating "weed" trees that are supposedly crowding out redwoods and Douglas firs.
Unfortunately, like most issues concerning timber extraction in our county, wholesale removal of tan oaks is not so benign or simple. This practice is closely connected to clearcutting, to the use of Garlon (a powerful herbicide related to "Agent Orange"), and to a program of liquidation logging which belies the company's professed concern for nature, our local economy and long term forestry employment.
Tan oak is a native tree that is part of the natural mix of species in redwood/Douglas fir forests. One of the plants that revegetates bare ground following natural events like fires, tan oak also serves to hold steep slopes together after they have been clearcut, and to provide wildlife habitat and other benefits.
Clearcutting and its close cousinsÑ"seedtree cuts," "rehabilitation," etc.Ñhave been timber corporations' methods of choice for decades, and the cumulative impact has been devastating.
The magnificent virgin redwood forest that once stretched from southern Oregon to Monterey has been all but annihilated (only three percent of the ancient trees are left). Countless hillsides have been denuded, exposing soil to erosion and loading streams and rivers with silt (bringing species like Coho salmon to the brink of extinction and polluting downstream communities' water supplies). Healthy, diverse forests have been replaced with same age, same species plantations, devoid of biological richness and vulnerable to insect infestation.
Last year, the Fisher family of The Gap clothing empire formed Mendocino Redwood Company and purchased the severely cut-over Mendocino and Sonoma County holdings of Louisiana Pacific Corporation (L-P), some 235,000 acres.
Virgin redwood/Douglas fir forests can produce over 100,000 board feet per acre, and maximum-yielding industrial forests about 40,000 bf/acre. The timberlands that MRC bought from L-P stand at a pathetic 8,000 bf/acre.
In recent news stories on their tan oak flooring program, MRC president Sandy Dean blames an "imbalance" of tan oaks in their holdings on past clearcutting by L-P.
What Dean failed to mention in these stories is that MRC is continuing to clearcut, and at the same rate as L-P in its final years of operation. When he does admit to clearcutting, Dean claims his company is merely eliminating tan oaks to open up the forest for conifer regeneration.
In fact, MRC is also clearcutting redwood and Douglas fir. A timber harvest plan on Elk Creek (THP1-97-445-MEN) contains 418 acres of clearcutting, which Dean characterizes as "primarily tan oak." However, MRC's own forester declares that the areas marked for clearcutting are 58% redwood and Douglas fir.
This kind of misrepresentation is typical of a sophisticated public relations campaign by MRC. The company's logging practices haven't really changed from those of L-P, but in their zeal to paint themselves "green," its spokespeople often cross the line of truthfulness.
A story on MRC's tan oak milling program in a major regional newspaper stated: "L-P drew the ire of environmentalists in the early 1990s by hiring workers to hack and spray herbicides on young tan oak trees spreading throughout its lands. Mendocino Redwood's Dean said Monday he believes his company has come up with a more realistic approach. 'We believe that by converting tan oaks into a viable commercial product, we can correct the imbalance,' said Dean."
Most people reading that statement could only conclude that MRC does not use Garlon, and that logging tan oaks for flooring will somehow free them from having to do so. The truth is that ever since purchasing their timberlands, MRC has been clearcutting tan oaks and using Garlon.
If anything, turning a profit on tan oaks may encourage MRC to put even more Garlon into the environment. Tan oaks are vigorous stump sprouters, and only merchantable trees are loggedÑsprouts and small trees are zapped with Garlon.
The main theme of MRC's "greenwash-ing" campaign is that the company is committed to stewardship and sustainable forestry. This is a laudable concept, but MRC isn't practicing what it preaches.
In fact, the company is cutting at twice the maximum rate recommended by Hans Burkhardt, author of Maximizing Forest Productivity and advisor to Mendocino County. Even though their forest lands have already been stripped of most trees of significant size and age, MRC is bearing down heavily on the few areas (like the Albion River watershed) that L-P hadn't completely ravaged.
It won't be long until Mendocino Redwood has reduced these areas to the same depleted state as the rest of their holdings. What will they do then?
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited