Ill 



road through redwood gro\es, and thus create construc- 

 tion jobs. The Park Service was directed to give prioritv 

 to displaced timber workers in hiring. 



The centerpiece of the bill was the Redwood Employ- 

 ees Protection Program (REPP), set up to ease the finan- 

 cial pain for workers whose jobs were taken away. Under 

 a complicated formula that kept lawyers busy for ten 

 years, displaced workers could receive severance pay, 

 weekly benefits about equal to their paychecks, a combi- 

 nation of both or a retirement program. 



"Short-service" workers who had spent five years or 

 less in the industry received only severance packages. 

 That meant a onetime payment of $2,500 to S4,000. 

 Workers with more seniority typically received weekly 

 stipends of S225 to $400 for up to 72 months, or sever- 

 ance ranging bet\veen $32,000 and $45,000. 



Undeniablv. REPP poured money into the troubled 

 economy-lots of money. At its height in 1980, REPP was 

 paying out $250,000 a week in Huinboldt County alone, • 

 making it by far the county's largest payroll. But even 

 though young workers received nice nest eggs, and 

 older ones a paycheck as large as if thev were still work- 

 ing, many weren't happy about it-and they still aren't. If 

 you want to hear hmibeijack vocabulary at its sulfurous 

 best, drop in at the Lumberjack Lounge and mention 

 the words "park" or "REPP." 



Charles Rankin, who worked for Areata Redwood, was 

 one of those immediately affected by the park expan- 

 sion. Now a sprightly 75, Rankin was 59 then and had 

 worked in the woods since he was 15. He had become a 

 "faller," a chain-saw specialist who could expertly drop 

 300-foot trees precisely on a given spot with minimal 

 damage to the valuable timber-one of the most skilled, 



dangerous and therefore highest-paid jobs in the indus- 

 try. When the park expansion took Arcata's old-growth 

 forests near Redwood Creek, Rankin found himself out 

 of a job. 



"Areata offered to send me to their land up bv Kla- 

 math." he says, mentioning a town some 60 miles nonh 

 of his home in Eureka. "That would have meant two 

 hours' drive each way, a lot of it over logging roads and 

 through the tourist traffic in the state parks." Rankin 

 took his benefit check until he was 62, then "severanced 

 out." He has held a few pan-time jobs since, but has re- 

 signed himself to puttering around the house and play- 



