Tensions Escalate as Logging Work Commences Near Active Treesits in a Redwood Rainforest

Trinidad, CA 

On Wednesday, August 6, Green Diamond Resource Company, an industrial logging company that owns nearly 400,000 acres in Humboldt County, started logging another forest that is being actively defended by activists living in trees. The forest activists are calling for an end to industrial logging during the climate crisis and have been defending trees across two Green Diamond timber harvest areas since April.

Yesterday, Green Diamond started logging in osprey (Pandion haliaetus) habitat, where the bird of prey could be heard in between the roars from the heavy machinery (see video). Forest defenders are protecting the largest trees within the area that are slated to be cut, some of which measure up to 7’ in diameter.

In the neighboring units, surrounding Strawberry Rock, Green Diamond has been shovel yarding directly below tree sitters for two days. Tree sitters, who have been protecting this area for 127 days, stated, “For the last two days my comrades and I have watched from the canopy as heavy machinery move logs, excavate stumps and flatten the soil on the hillside below us. What is truly horrifying is the realization that this is happening all over the Pacific Northwest – this is the devastating reality of modern mechanized forestry that is converting complex mixed forest ecosystems into monocropped tree plantations on a bioregional scale.”

The company’s response to the treesitters has been to station security at the trailhead and beneath the protected trees. Though the sitters have informed the workers and the company that forest defenders are dispersed throughout the area, the company has chosen to continue cutting and operating heavy machinery, even close to known treesits. “Green Diamond says they prioritize safety. Clearcut logging is not safe for engaged species who rely on these forests. It is not safe for future generations coping with climate catastrophe. It is not safe for redwood ecosystems, a rare ecological niche reduced by industrial logging to 5% it’s original two- million acre range.

The forest defenders state that they will continue to protect the forested stands. They call “for an end to industrial timber harvest during the climate crisis and sixth mass extinction. We demand that Green Diamond should return all the land within its holdings to the land’s Indigenous people.”

Media Contact

Cupcake, Treesitter/Redwood Forest Defense (502)298-8654
Lupine, Treesitter/Redwood Forest Defense (510)904-7352