Last Stand

No legacies of the land are more deeply embedded in American emotions than the Grand Canyon and the redwood forests of Northern California. Yet, because of their commercial potential, conservationists have had to fight to preserve them. Only last month they beat off--for the time being--an Administration attempt to build two dams that would have flooded both ends of the Grand Canyon. Now their principal concern is the soaring redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens).

Since 1820, loggers have turned 85% of the redwood forests into building materials. While enlightened lumber companies have long practiced selective logging and reforestation, some still buzz-saw heedlessly through stands of trees that may have been saplings at the time of Christ's birth. Where once the redwoods covered nearly 2,000,000 acres, today only 300,000 acres of virgin trees are left, including 50,000 acres sequestered in scattered state parks.

Prized & Profitable. Standing, in some cases, over 300 ft. high, redwoods are prized by the public--and profitable to the loggers. Their wood is rotproof, termiteproof and practically weatherproof, nonwarping, retentive of paint and, because of its softness, easy to work. Before the days of cheap, non-corrosive metals, it was widely used for sluice boxes, water tanks, pipelines, pier piles, fences and wine casks. Today, homeowners use it for outdoor terraces and to panel both exteriors and interiors. So well does the wood sell that profits sometimes exceed 25% of total earnings. The Arcata Redwood Co., for instance, made $2,640,000 in 1965 on sales of $8,930,000. Much of the profit, of course, goes toward reforesting cleared areas with redwood saplings so that a continual supply of the tawny lumber is assured future generations. Though they endure for millennia, the trees achieve their greatest growth in their first 30 to 60 years.

Since redwoods grow only in the moderate, foggy climate of northern California and southern Oregon, most loggers and conservationists agree that a large national park should be created in that area to preserve the oldest trees amidst their majestic natural setting. But even the most ardent conservation ists cannot get together on how many of them should or could be spared. The California-based Sierra Club is calling for a 90,000-acre park (including 13,-210 acres already in state parks), which would cost $140 million to acquire. San Francisco's 49-year-old Save-the-Red-woods League favors a more realistic 43,234-acre site (with 15,471 acres coming from state parks), which would cost $56 million. Both plans would put hundreds of lumbermen out of work but would ultimately create more jobs--chiefly in the park service--than they would destroy.

Barely a Moment. With President Johnson warning that a national park "is a last-chance conservation opportunity," two plans were introduced this month. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall called for a 43,434-acre site that is similar to the one favored by the Save-the-Redwoods League, and would add 9,190 acres of virgin trees to those already in state parks. California's Republican Congressman Don Clausen proposed a comprehensive plan that would set aside 53,000 acres of seashore and redwoods in the northern part of the state, but would add only 3,000 acres of virgin trees that are not already in existing parks. So deep do passions run that no one plan has attracted enough support to get through Congress.

At the current rate of logging, it will take only 15 to 20 years--barely a moment in the life of the oldest redwoods --for the last stand of unprotected virgin trees to fall. Unless conservationists and loggers strike a compromise, many of the finest specimens of one of America's oldest living heritages could soon be reduced to paneled playrooms.

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