An Orick man was arrested recently on suspicion of hacking burl out of redwood trees on public land a year ago and selling them to a nearby burl souvenir shop. Danny E. Garcia is facing charges of grand theft, vandalism and receiving stolen property stemming from the discovery of a badly damaged tree in Redwood […]
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Big Bad Burl Biz
The New York Times has a piece this week on the despicable business of illegally sawing big hunky burl chunks off of our massive redwood trees — our elders, as the Times elegantly notes — and selling them for profit on an apparently quite healthy global market. Says the story: “The poachers, known locally as the ‘midnight […]
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Prairie Creek Scenic Byway Will Close Nights to Prevent Burl Piracy
File under: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. Newton B. Drury Parkway, that languorous, serpentine, redwood-lined scenic bypass through Prairie Creek State Park, will now be closed dusk ’til dawn because of burl-raiding nincompoops. California State Parks announced the closure — effective Saturday at sundown — as a measure to keep people from […]
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Redwood Rush
Rush into them gleefully, that is — those tall, barked hunks towering in our national-park sides of the woods, for which we’ve so pined over the past 16 days. They are open! Shutdown be gone! For now. In non-giddy English: Without fear of reprimand or worse (by feds, anyway), you may now enter Redwood National […]
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Next Time I’ll Try Skydiving
I hit 60 this past week, and my youngest daughter turned the ripe old age of 18 on the same day. To celebrate, and in my case, to prove that I was not nearly ready to kick the bucket, I suggested that we take on the zip line in the Arcata Community Forest. To my […]
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Redwood Fatties (And Climate Change)
An ongoing, multi-year study of climate change effects on redwoods in old-growth forests has yielded results some layfolks might find surprising. Among them: Coast redwoods and giant sequoias are busting out with the big girth. “Coast redwoods in a few Northern California old-growth forests produced more wood since the 1970s than ever before in their […]
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Headwaters: The Redwoods in our Backyard
“On March 1, 1999, the Headwaters Forest and surrounding lands … were acquired from private owners,” reads the Bureau of Land Management information booklet, which you can pick up in the Headwaters Forest Reserve parking lot. What a tale of intrigue, greed and violence that brief statement omits! It all started with a hostile takeover […]
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A-holes Saw Down Old Growth Redwood so They Can Steal a Burl
That’s right: Some depraved reprobate(s) chopped down a 300-year-old natural wonder so they could hack part of it off, chainsaw it into a bear shape and hawk it to tourists on Hwy. 101. This happened up in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park last month, and the nefarious deed has understandably unleashed the righteous wrath of […]
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Grove battle continues
Protestors opposed to the widening/straightening of Hwy 101 at Richardson’s Grove shifted into direct action today, unfurling a banner across the highway at the entrance to the state park and creating what was deemed by authorities, a “traffic hazard.” Here’s the incident report from the California Highway Patrol: Location: US101 AT RICHARDSON GROVE […]
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Bigfoot A La Mode
Yes, dearies, our stylish hairy man hit the runway during Paris Fashion Week to show those fashionistas how to dud-up (with help from Adam Kimmel). Gushes the L.A. Times: The major inspiration behind Kimmel’s Pacific Northwest collection was artist Dan Attoe, a painter and sculptor (and founder of the Paintallica art group) whose work taps […]
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Redwood vs. Man (Broughty Ferry, UK)
Redwood wins (sort of): Fortunately, says The Courier‘s news report, “the elderly resident of the room below the corner of the dwelling which bore the brunt of the impact was having breakfast in the lounge, and was unaware of the incident.”
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Humboldt Roller Derby — the Saplings Version!
Saplings! Photo courtesy Arcata Photo Studios Hardly an eye stayed dry at Redwood Acres last Thursday. There, in Francesci Hall, the legendary tough ladies of Humboldt Roller Derby‘s Redwood Rollers turned into mother hens as their young charges – aka Saplings – began their “Friends and Family” bout, complete with announcer Jason calling the action. The […]