October 1st 2001

Letter to the editor
Anderson Valley Advertiser
October 1, 2001

Editor,

Today, I went out to walk a harvest unit on the Albion with Mike Jani. I haven't been out there in twenty years, haven't seen a logging show in similar stocking in that long either, since there's so little of it left to see. I remember the blow to the soul of seeing a freshly-logged patch of former forest, the grim feeling of doom that hung on. What I saw today, logging completed, roads and skid trails being put to bed, stream crossings restored, did my heart a lot of good. MRC has put a huge amount of effort into doing a good job. This is so many orders of magnitude better than any timber harvesting we've seen - the plan leaving not only a still beautiful environment, but perfect conditions for regeneration of redwood, and vastly improved drainage - I find it very hard to understand why there is yet so much disparagement of their work from activists. If L-P had leapt up in response to Redwood Summer and presented us with the kind of work standards MRC has instituted, wouldn't we all have felt we'd died and gone to heaven?

I think I've died and gone to heaven. What I saw today was flat out gorgeous to me. We could not have found a better buyer for these hammered timberlands, and will not if the ownership turns over yet again. Not only is MRC taking pains to do right by our home habitat but they are helping to raise the bar for timberlands stewardship everywhere. We should not lose interest in what they are doing, not just blanketly approve of every move they make, but I think it's time we start treating them as the friends they've been trying so hard to become.

We hollered that we wanted to see evidence on the ground of all their high-fallutin' "greenwash" PR. Well, I just saw it - visible, tangible proof they have meant what they've been saying. Please, people, just because they have stores to picket and nearly automatic attention from The Wall Street Journal, does not mean they are a more worthy target for our ire than Hawthorne Timber is showing itself to be. Couldn't we try some positive reinforcement with MRC for a little while, divert the energies of those who excel at negativity toward the more deserving landowners, and see if that wouldn't be more productive?

C.E. Parrish Albion