Merlo’s response to the question “do you think you got it right the first time” was an emphatic, “Damn right!” That unguarded expletive is tame, of course, by today’s standards—one can hear worse on the school playground. Still it clearly shows that Merlo remains confirmed in the conviction that his understanding of the timber industry and of redwood growth and resiliency is correct. “Timber is just like a garden, just like a vineyard,” Merlo insists. “It’s an agricultural product.”