107 



break: "We are fast becoming the Appalachia of the 

 West," one ex-logger maintains. EnvironmentaHsts and 

 champions who fought for the park maintain that the 

 jobs would have been lost within a few years an\'way, 

 whereas the park saved magnificent and irreplaceable 

 trees for generations to come. "The redwoods," says Lu- 

 cille X'invard, the Sierra Club's energetic North Coast 

 representative, "are the pride of the nation." 



John Dewitt of the Save-ihe-Redwoods League, which 

 has spent S75 million in 75 years to preserve ancient 

 trees, is uncharacteristically emphatic about who is at 

 fault in the argument. "Thousands of people are now 

 being laid off in the computer industry in the Western 

 United States because they just happened to have the 

 misfortune of working on defense projects. Timber work- 

 ers have had a habit of acting as cPibabies for the last 

 100 years, anytime anything interfered with the simple 

 task of cutting down trees. They lost jobs, but the taxpay- 



I ers compensated them handsomelv for it. People are 



! tired of listening to their complaints." 



To which (;hris Rowney. resource manager for the tim- 

 ber conipan\ Louisiana-Pacific, replies, "The park cost 

 2. .500 jobs. I know, the defense industrv is laying off 



i 70,000 workers. But for those 2,500 up here, and their 



! families, the jobs were just aslmponnnt as they are for 

 defense workers. Losing them was just as painful." 



.At a time when much of the country is suffering lost 

 jobs, lavoffs and recession, and the spotted owl show- 

 down has brought timbering in the Pacific .\orthwest al- 

 most to a standstill, it is difficult to picture how much a 

 park dedication in 1968 may have contributed to a mori- 

 bund local economy in 1993. At first glance, California's 

 beautiful and lonely North Coast, with its thick forests, 

 rich pastureland, hidden valleys and spectacular surf- 

 pounded beaches scarcely looks like a hardship case. Yet 

 both the economic statistics and the mood in Humboldt 

 and Del None counties are grim. 



In Del None County, between 14 and 16 percent of the 

 9,600-person work force was unemployed in 1992. At 

 $22,917, Del None's average household income stood 

 56th among 58 California counties. In adjoining Hum- 

 boldt County, the fastest-growing source of local income 

 comes from transfer payments, such as welfare and So- 

 cial Security. Inflation-adjusted household income in 

 1991 was lower than five years before, and 25 percent 

 lower than the California average. 



