Karen Pickett

49,000 acres of recovering vibrant forest with large redwoods and other species, south of Fort Bragg on the Mendocino coast were purchased by the state of California in 1949, after having been logged in previous years. Its mission was to serve the purpose of the state operating a “Demonstration Forest” to practice and document sustainable forest management and logging, preserving water quality, and high quality habitat, as well as recreational uses. However, local environmental groups are raising an alarm that new proposed logging plans are contrary to anyone’s definition of restoration forestry, and rather reek of industrial logging in the …

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Last week we lost a force of nature, and one who has been involved in all manner of ecological issues on the northcoast for decades. Yurok elder Jene McCovey has certainly been very involved since long before she was an elder. It seemed that Jene was everywhere people were getting together to strategize on a myriad of issues. She showed up to testify at public hearings, to speak into a bullhorn or mic at rallies, and would show up at demonstrations out in the forest, treating her motorized wheelchair like a high-end off road vehicle. She was fearless. I first …

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Dear Friends of Wild Nature Everywhere, From my experience, we are all likely to get a whole pile of letters this season, as the end of the year draws near, as “giving Tuesday” approaches. Letters that start with a version of “Well, 2020 has been quite a year…” And it’s true! Whatever we are doing to get by, whatever causes we are passionate about and that move us to action—the context of 2020 affects us all profoundly.  A global pandemic stampedes into its ninth month; there are righteous uprisings in the streets across the nation in response to systemic and …

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We haven’t posted in a while, so our solidarity statement is coming a bit late. But we have been acting on our solidarity, in the streets, and in our lives. After putting up tree-sits earlier in the spring to protect redwood forest in California’s far north coast, upon discovering active logging in April, forest defenders have ascended to the trees again to defend a redwood grove a few miles north of Trinidad in northern Humboldt County. Green Diamond Resource Company (GD) plans to clearcut the forest under an active Timber Harvest Plan (THP). The 40.5 acres of the THP is …

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Marking milestones and honoring fallen warriors in the age of coronavirus: “Starting from the very reasonable, but unfortunately, revolutionary concept that social practices which threaten the continuation of life on Earth must be changed, we need a theory of revolutionary ecology that will encompass social and biological issues, class struggle, and a recognition of the role of global corporate capitalism in the oppression of peoples and the destruction of nature. I believe we already have such a theory. It’s called deep ecology, and it is the core belief of the radical environmental movement. A revolutionary ecology movement must also organize …

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On Wednesday, April 1, Redwood Forest Defenders occupied tree sits in the contentious Strawberry Rock timber harvest plan, calling on Green Diamond Company to stop logging now! Green Diamond Resource Company (GDRC), a private timber company, has started industrial logging operations in the Strawberry Rock area in northern Humboldt County, a site culturally significant to the Yurok tribe. The group, Redwood Forest Defense is currently occupying the forest and a treesit platform has been raised into the canopy. The group is calling for GDRC to halt all logging in the area immediately. Link to photos in Google Drive with a …

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