Demonstrators Picketed Humboldt Redwoods Company Yesterday in Hopes of Stopping Logging Planned for the Rainbow Ridge Area

Protester at the Scotia office of the Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC)

Protester at the Scotia office of the Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) yesterday. [Photos by Ryan Hutson]

About 30 people representing a handful of community groups from Humboldt to Mendocino rallied outside the HRC headquarters in Scotia yesterday as the offices of the Humboldt Redwood Company opened for regular business hours at 8 a.m. Protesters at the Scotia office of the Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC)Ever since several protesters were removed from Rainbow Ridge area in July, there have been plans to respond. Groups in support of the Rainbow Ridge action have been preparing people to protest for several days. They held non-violence training, created signs, and then yesterday demonstrators showed up for the protest. There are plans for other actions throughout the week.

“We are putting the call out to assemble for rallies and direct action to keep the trees standing,” read a statement on the Earth First Journal. “Come for one day or stick with it all week, there will be camping available for out-of-towners.”

They added, “Inspired by the non-violent mass mobilizations of Redwood Summer in 1990, the Mattole Forest Week of Action is being organized as an opportunity for people to gather together and be supported while taking action for what they believe in.”

Protesters at the Scotia office of the Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC)

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Gram
Guest
Gram
5 years ago

The ones protesting today were jerks. They were blocking people from going into the offices to do their jobs & being down right rude. The message is lost if you have no class putting it out there.

Aden
Guest
Aden
5 years ago
Reply to  Gram

That is not true we informed each person the back door was being used.

Kristi Wrigley
Guest
Kristi Wrigley
5 years ago

HRC has made themselves out to be purveyors of “good” logging. In Elk River as well as the Mattole that certainly is NOT true. Too much logging no matter how good it is viewed by the industry, is not good for water quality and quantity, fish or people. They continue to destroy our watershed where Maxxam/PL left off. We the long time residents or at least the ones still left alive know what a real river looks, smells and sounds like. Elk River is very sick; and getting worse just at a slower rate than it was with Maxxam. Public relations does not define reality but it does seem to be the only facet of this huge problem that is given any credence. Do you really think the entity causing the problem and getting money for doing so even knows how to know the truth?

It's me
Guest
It's me
5 years ago
Reply to  Kristi Wrigley

Smoke some more smoke and blame loggers for the trickle you call a river.

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago
Reply to  It's me

there are no grows in the Elk River Watershed. its choked with sediment from logging which is a fact that all parties have agreed upon.

Cy
Guest
Cy
5 years ago
Reply to  local observer

It’s not just logging though it is the primary source in the upper tributaries. All of the farms and development in the lower reach also contribute significant sediment to the lower Elk River. A fact the residents choose to ignore because it would mean admitting their own culpability in the problem. Additionally, when the company re-enters to log now they repair all of the old legacy roads to bring them to modern standards. If they don’t fix the legacy roads (if they are banned from entering to harvest, for instance), then the problem will persist in the upper tribs.

Bernedoser
Guest
Bernedoser
5 years ago
Reply to  Kristi Wrigley

Is that elk river with no water in it.

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago

This is private property not yours to protest get a life. They can do what they want to. If you want to protest something, protest the pot growers that are draining the creeks and rivers and killing salmon and steelhead by the thousands. Maybe you need some time in the Humboldt Hilton. Get a friggin clue, or better yet a friggin job.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

What a brave counterprotest. A valiant defence of some out-of-town rich guys you don’t know and never will. Someone get this man a participation medal!

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

I lived there for well over 50 years. I’ve seen the show from the start,and seen It go to hell in a hand basket. There used to be as recent as the late 90’s you could hunt and fish and bring some game home. We finally left but my family were homesteaders back in the 1860’s. So if you love the criminals running free doing all the dope from the sh$t they steal,and the home invasion robbery. Oh and let’s not forget the homeless and panhandling, or the brain dead liberals that dictate their will on everyone’s life,or the stupid ass college kids that think they know all. Thanks but we had enough.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

How is logging an old growth stand for a one-time corporate windfall going to drive away criminals or save the salmon? I’m not following your logic.

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Jeakwhatever…the whole area has gone to shit, when property owners can’t do anything with their property regardless of who owns it within the reach of law and order, without someone protesting or living in a fucking tree. You are all brain dead sheep.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

Sheep protest government and corporate power. Real heroes kiss rings and lick boots.

TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
Guest
TRUMPTASTROPHE for the GOP in November
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Real heroes like John McCain do not invite traitors like Disgusting Donald Trump 🏌️‍♂️🇷🇺 to their funeral.

Skippy
Guest
Skippy
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Thanx for making me laugh out loud needed that Jack it’s been a hell of a day! Right on

It's me
Guest
It's me
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Hundred Thousand people versus Two hundred Thousand people get the picture yet?

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

you were born after most of the extensive damage was done. maybe look at the Shuster Photos to examine the change in the rivers and creeks. the damage is similar to jade mining in Myanmar. no one nowhere in the US could ever do it again. some of the slides put millions of cubic yards of material in the river.

Get a life
Guest
Get a life
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

OMG private property that is commercial timber land has regulations to help guide the slow demise of the forest. Private property rights, if taken at your level, would involve shitting everywhere you want at home with no regard for neighbors or water quality. Nice logic.

It's me
Guest
It's me
5 years ago
Reply to  Get a life

Fertilizer, biodegradable you just have to remember to take your shoes off before going indoors.

Can't stand trespassers
Guest
Can't stand trespassers
5 years ago
Reply to  Get a life

Thats what the protesters did all over Long Ridge until they and their teepees were kicked out. You don’t seem to have a problem with that.

Dale Burton
Guest
Dale Burton
5 years ago

Ya makes sense, save the trees so wild fires can destroy them. Stupid dirty tree huggers

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Dale Burton

This is an old growth stand. It hasn’t been destroyed by fire for hundreds or thousands of years. Old growth is not anything near as flammable as recently logged land.

Dale Burton
Guest
Dale Burton
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Maybe that one stand of trees, but have you looked at the news lately? California is on fucking fire, like for real. Damn near amillion acres burned, if we properly log our forests fires like these dont burn like this. Besides its private land so it’s none of your fucking business what they do with it.

El Conquistador
Guest
El Conquistador
5 years ago

EF! locally doesn’t even respond to emails. I emailed them many times to write a story. Southern Humboldters also not that responsive. These so-called eco organizations are cliques of friends and cohorts and one of them “led” by an incompetent medical practitioner (yeah, she works at Open Door).

Private land is a sacred right, especially in this country. If you care about trees – and I have no problem with that – put a coalition together and BUY THE LAND. No one will touch the trees again.

Old school reds are behind these protests. Local and national EF! too inept to get anything done. I know. I used to be one of them.

GOD
Guest
GOD
5 years ago

You can get the f*** off a by planet you did not believe and treat me with respect the trees animals and water that falls from the skies our sacred and holy as the earth we walk upon they do not belong to a corporation we are stewards of the land taking care we must stand up against corporate greed and Global destruction time for the 7th generation to start healing the planet you have the power

Cy
Guest
Cy
5 years ago

Nothing humans do on the planet is without consequence to the environment. Sustainable logging certainly has an impact but it is considerably smaller than almost any other use humans put land to aside from designated Wilderness. We use wood products every day and that resource has to come from somewhere. If it isn’t here it will be somewhere else with fewer restrictions and a lot more environmental damage. The farms and housing in the lower Elk River have done far more total damage to the river and riparian ecosystem than HRC is currently doing further up.

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago
Reply to  Cy

Well put.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Cy

Modern logging practices evolved out of protest and political pressure.

Cy
Guest
Cy
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Certainly some of the motivating force for change was protest and political pressure, but as much, if not more, of it arose from scientific and technological innovations and development of best management practices. Professional foresters have an ethical obligation to protect site productivity while trying to meet the other landowner objectives and as science advances it is in the best interest of the profession and the landowner to adopt practices that have fewer negative impacts in the long run.

It's me
Guest
It's me
5 years ago
Reply to  Cy

How much designated wilderness went up in in flames the last twenty years? We as people can manage the land. Locking it up in places and subdivisions in other places is not working in our Mediterranean environment. To many growers in Northern California!

Lone ranger
Guest
Lone ranger
5 years ago

Sure are A lot of green houses on Google earth in southern humboldt, thats A lot of water trucked in from the central valley, how come I don’t see tankers of water on hwy 20, must be coming over 299 , must be logging and global warming that has dried up the local rivers, I must head to Scotia to protest

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Lone ranger

People don’t seem to understand that you don’t have to protest EVERYTHING BAD in order to protest ONE bad thing.

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

I come from Kneeland, a land still recovering from Hurowitz and the 90’s.

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Bullshit!

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve

Bullshit Palco didn’t clear cut everything between the McKay Tract and Barry ridge in the 90’s? Or bullshit I didn’t grow up there and see it myself?

Lone ranger
Guest
Lone ranger
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

A lot growers in kneeland in the 90s, that funded epic with their untaxed weed money, you paying taxes now Jack?

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Lone ranger

Grew up as in I was a child during that period. There were not many growers on Berry Ridge in the 90’s because the National Guard staged their irradication missions from Kneeland airport. That and Berry Ridge can be clearly seen from anywhere in Eureka. I didn’t see weed up there until the early 2000’s.

Lone ranger
Guest
Lone ranger
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

Sorry Charlie, lmao, bad haircut huh? Lol

Steve
Guest
Steve
5 years ago
Reply to  Lone ranger

Nice!

Eldon G. Whitehead
Guest
Eldon G. Whitehead
5 years ago

All of the “so called” protesters are nothing but a scourge on the Earth and are nothing but a bunch of very STUPID CRIMINALS BY INTERRUTING A TOWN FULL OF HARD WORKING PEOPLE. We went through this back in the 80’s and 90’s and I worked in the Palco Main Office and had to watch these vermin blocking the Streets and invading OUR office space. [edit] we were told to stay inside and do our jobs. They are nothing but paid protestors and criminals [edit]

Life is Good
Guest
Life is Good
5 years ago

As a long time commenter Kym may boot me for this but to all you “protesters”, you’ve ruined enough lives in Humboldt County so FUCK OFF!

It's me
Guest
It's me
5 years ago
Reply to  Life is Good

Truth!

Jaekelopterus
Guest
Jaekelopterus
5 years ago
Reply to  Life is Good

How did a bunch of non-violent hippy protesters ruin your life?

local observer
Guest
local observer
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

they made him have deep thoughts and now he hates himself.

Lone ranger
Guest
Lone ranger
5 years ago
Reply to  Jaekelopterus

They chained themselves to a gate and he drove thru them, now he has to live with the gruesome memory,but at least humboldt county found him innocent

Not thinking emotionally
Guest
Not thinking emotionally
5 years ago

Goes to show what the liberal democrat disease does to people. We can plow over acres at a time to grow weed and take thousands of gallons of water out of the ecosystem to take care of such weed, but heaven forbid we take out some of the over grown forest that needs to be thinned out. The forest is not unlike the pot farm, the more trees/ plants per acre the more water is needed to sustain life. Fewer trees leads to healthier forests.

Kathy Sutter
Guest
5 years ago

I dont know all the whys and where for’s concerning this issue. In my humble opinion is it not important to go in and thin the trees and underbrush to help prevent wild fires like we have witnessed this year? Having grown up in Humboldt County i cant remember wild fires as bad as they have been in recent years. Back then logging was allowed. Just my opinion.

It's me
Guest
It's me
5 years ago

We should do protests one water shed at a time to rid it of growers and see if Salomon, Steelhead, spotted Owls and Marbled Marlette populations stabilize.

Nemo
Guest
Nemo
5 years ago
Greenpower
Guest
Greenpower
5 years ago

Why don’t they go protest the guy sucking out of the eel river by tooby Park filling up his giant water bags. That’s more of a problem.