Robert Sutherland Has Taken His Final Walk in the Woods

Robert “Woods” Sutherland, widely known across Southern Humboldt as “the Man Who Walks in the Woods,” died Thursday, August 21 at age 82 following an apparent fall from a ladder at his Briceland home. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reported he fell approximately 50 feet into a creek bed while working on his house. The Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue Team conducted the difficult nighttime recovery.

Sutherland first arrived in Humboldt County in 1968 and became a full-time resident in 1973. He brought both a brilliant mind and a fiercely independent spirit to the North Coast, where he immersed himself in environmental and community activism.

In the late 1970s, Sutherland co-founded the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) in Garberville. He was the driving force behind dozens of lawsuits against MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber, pushing back against the cutting of old-growth redwoods.

He also authored much of the Forests Forever initiative (Proposition 130) in 1990, which sought to shift California forest policy toward ecosystem-based management, protect ancient forests, create restoration jobs, and strengthen endangered species protections.

As activist Darryl Cherney recalled,

“Woods stood out of course, because he was first and foremost an actual genius…Woods was more than brilliant on matters of forest protection as well as extremely ornery… The Northcoast and California forest practices are forever changed both in practice and perception because of Woods.”

Woods was connected to a legacy of scientific achievement even as he carved his own legacy in the redwoods of Northern California. Woods’ father was Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., the American pharmacologist awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1971 for his groundbreaking discoveries about hormones.*

Sutherland was also a founding member of the Humboldt Mendocino Marijuana Advocacy Project (HumMAP), where he fought for small, organic, “mom-and-pop” cultivation and railed against industrial greenrush grows. He testified, wrote policy critiques, and helped bring legal challenges that forced environmental impact reviews, greater protections for wildlife, and stricter oversight of some cannabis operations.

Woods was known for his blunt, unyielding personality that often alienated allies as well as adversaries, yet he remained respected for his passion, intellect, and sheer persistence. Cherney observed that while Sutherland sometimes grew bitter and combative in his later years, he was still deeply loved: “…I could make fun of and get him to laugh at his cantankerousness, and I and many others held him dear to our hearts.”

Woods, who was left-handed, was fiercely opinionated about even seemingly insignificant differences, and once with absolute seriousness quipped his suspicions about Congressman Jared Huffman trustworthiness saying, “Righties are so horribly dominant.”

His poems echoed his voice—angry, unyielding, and rooted in the land. In “This Is Not a Love Poem” he declared:

“I am the guerrilla gardener….maddened by what they have done to our mother, the earth. Fat nouveau-riche loggers, in their tailor-made three-piece arrogance; boasting of their destruction of wilderness….I hate their guts.”

Dominic Corva, Former Director of Cannabis Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt, called Woods a “righteous man.” Corva went on to say that Woods “was a kind friend to me when I first came to Southern Humboldt, although we were at odds in recent years.”  Corva mentioned another aspect of Woods–“He grew excellent weed, too, in the redwood shade and in the ground in China Creek. He shared a bread bag full of it with me to take home when I visited him there in 2012.”

Though at times difficult, Robert “Woods” Sutherland profoundly shaped Northern California’s environmental and cultural landscape. From stopping destructive logging practices to reshaping cannabis debates, he left behind a legacy of unyielding principle and determination.

*Thanks to Darryl Cherney for his work proving that Woods’ father was the Nobel Prize winner.

Note: Mr. Cherney’s name has been corrected. Our apologies.