113 



lion-three times the original estimate. The total bill for 

 the jobs compensation program was S120 million; 

 S235 million was set aside for the restoration projects. 

 That was in addition to the S306 million for the original 

 park. Depending on whose figures you accept, Redwood 

 National Park cost somewhere upwards of SI .4 billion. 



\ Disappointynents in retraining and tourism 



As for benefits to the local economy, Grobey notes, only 

 a few displaced loggers joined the Park Serxice payroll, 

 which today amounts to just over 170 employees. The 

 freeway b\pass contract went to a San Diego firm, which 

 imponed its own work crews. The increased cut in the 



I national forests never materialized, and in fact quotas 

 have dropped steadily, from 144 million board feet in 

 1985 to less than 11 million in 1993. 



The retraining program was disappointing, partlv be- 

 cause there were so few jobs to train for. Four hundred 

 workers signed up, but only 115 completed their pro- 

 grams. Many were Humboldt State dropouts who now 

 saw an opponunity to complete their education at gov- 

 ernment expense. More often, says Jim Yarbrough, re- 



\ tired publisher of the Triplicate in Crescent City, younger 



I workers took the cash and depaned. 



• Tourism has been the biggest disappointment, howev- 

 er. In the rosy scenario of the 1970s, the timber industry 



j cutbacks were only to be a period of adjustment usher- 



i ing in a new flood of tourism prosperity. Park advocates 



! insisted that waves of tourists attracted to the newer, big- 

 ger park would more than compensate for the lost jobs 

 in the woods and mills. Anhur D. Little, a management 

 consulting firm, predicted a gain of 1.6 million visitors 

 by 1983, and a total of 950,000 visitor-days above the 

 numbers recorded by the state parks. 



In fact, tourists have never arrived in anything like the 

 promised numbers. Far from the projected million and a 

 half tree lovers a year, tourist visits last year were estimat- 

 ed at 388,000-in a year when Yosemite, about 700 miles 

 to the south, was overrun by well over three million. 



The average visitor spends less than 50 minutes in the 

 park. "What they get are park-and-pee visitors," sniffs 

 John Miles of the Natural Resources Management Cor- 

 poration (NRMC). an adviser on several early park pro- 

 posals. "People stop, look up at the trees, go to the bath- 



