Redwood RootsSprouting a Movement Toward Restoration and Reconnection

Rhododendron, Lady Bird Johnson Grove, Redwood National Park

Rob DiPerna

California Forest and Wildlife Advocate

Environmental Protection Information Center

145 G Street, Suite A, Arcata, CA 95521

(707) 822-7711 rob@wildcalifornia.org

www.wildcalifornia.org

Coast Redwood Forest Symposium 2016,

Eureka, CA

Tiger Lilies, Ladybird Johnson Grove, Redwood National Park

Rob DiPernaEnvironmental Protection Information Center

17 Years of Reflection, Salmon Pass Trail, Headwaters Forest Reserve

The Redwoods are Calling, and I Must Go…

Downed log hideout, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park

My Redwood Journey

• From Upstate NY

• Moved to Humboldt County

in 1997

• Involved in Campaign to

Save Headwaters Forest

• BA English Literature and

Rhetoric

• MS English Education

• EPIC: 2001-2003, 2010-

Present

• Docent for

BLM/Headwaters,

Volunteer, RNSP “Inspector Gadget,” Tall Trees Grove,

Redwood National Park

What People Think I Do…

President Theodore Rosevelt, “Speak Softly but carry a big stick”…

What I Actually Do…

Testimony before California Fish and Game Commission, April 2016

Redwoods, Advocacy, and Forest Policy

• Forest Practice law,

regulations, policy, legal

history, law

enforcement, public

education, advocacy,

project monitoring, and

litigation

• “Last-line of Defense”

• Protection—Keep it

Standing!

• Create space for

decision-makers to

orchestrate solutions

• Change the policies Redwoods in Sinkyone Wilderness State

Park, protected, in part as a result of

EPIC’s first forestry litigation in 1983

EPIC and the RedwoodsA legacy of Education, Advocacy, and Conservation

• Founded in 1977

• Based in Humboldt

County

• Community-based, non-

profit, public interest

environmental advocacy

organization

• Most known for

successes in

conservation and

strategic litigation

• Foremost environmental

watchdog on North

Coast

What People Think Advocacy is Like

Peasants Storming the Bastille, French Revolution

What Advocacy is Actually Like…

Cartoon by Friends of Gualala River

EPIC, Advocacy, and Headwaters Forest

EPIC Educational Hike, Salmon Pass Trail, Headwaters Forest Reserve

Campaign to Save Headwaters Forest

“Postcard Grove,” Headwaters Grove, 1987, Courtesy Greg King

Why Headwaters Mattered

Headwaters Forest, flyover—Photo Courtesy Richard Gienger

What We WantedCitizen’s Alternative to Headwaters Forest Agreement

60,000-acre Headwaters Forest Complex, Headwaters Forest Stewardship Plan

The Reserve Today

Kiosk, Salmon Pass Trailhead, Headwaters Forest Reserve

Finding Our Way Forward Since

Headwaters was “Saved”

Forest Restoration—The Final Frontier

Tall Trees Grove, Redwood National Park

What People Think the Redwood Forest

Looks Like…

Chetham Grove, Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park

What Most of the Redwood Forest

Actually Looks Like…

Regenerating Stand, Redwood Creek Trail, Redwood National Park

Remaining Old-Growth Coast Redwoods

Remaining old-growth and cast redwood range, Save-the-

Redwoods-League, (2016)

To Boldly Go Where No Advocate Has

Gone Before…

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Redwood Restoration and ReconnectionFrom Protection to Stewardship

Volunteer Trail Stewardship Day, Headwaters Forest Reserve

Putting the Pieces Back TogetherAdvocacy, and Creating a Culture of Stewardship

“A land ethic…reflects the

existence of an ecological

conscience, and this in

turn reflects a conviction

of individual

responsibility for the

health of the land. Health

is the capacity of the land

for self-renewal.

Conservation is our effort

to understand and

preserve this capacity.”

― Aldo Leopold Tall Trees Grove, Redwood National

Park

Questions???

Ladybird Johnson Grove, Redwood National Park

Thank You!

Western Trillium, Chetham Grove, Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park