Giant redwoods are American icons, paragons of grandeur,
exceptionalism, and endurance. They are also symbols of conflict
and negotiation, remnants of environmental battles over the limits
of industrialization, profiteering, and globalization. Since the
middle of the nineteenth century, logging operations have eaten
away at the redwood forest, particularly areas covered by ancient
giant redwoods. Today, such trees occupy a mere 120,000 acres.
Their existence is testimony to the efforts of activists to rescue
some of these giants from destruction. Very few conservation
battles have endured longer or with more violence than on the North
Coast of California, behind what locals call the Redwood Curtain.
Defending Giants explores the long history of the Redwood Wars,
focusing on the ways rural Americans fought for control over both
North Coast society and its forests. Activists defended these trees
not only because the redwood forest had dwindled in size, but also
because, by the late twentieth century, the local economy was
increasingly dominated by multinational corporations. The resulting
conflict-the Redwood Wars-pitted workers and environmental
activists against the rising tide of globalization and industrial
logging in a complex war over endangered species, sustainable
forestry, and, of course, the fate of the last ancient redwoods.
Activists perched in trees and filed lawsuits, while the timber
industry, led by Pacific Lumber, fought the lawsuits and used their
power to halt reform efforts. Ultimately, the Clinton
administration sidestepped Congress and the courts to negotiate an
innovative compromise. In the process, the Redwood Wars transformed
American environmental politics by shifting the balance of power
away from Congress and into the hands of the executive branch.
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