Orwell’s forest
The lush, dense, wild forest at Tomales Bay State Park.
Word choice matters. Getting others to use words of your choosing is a powerful method of influencing not only their speech — but their thinking. George Orwell wrote: “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
With this in mind, what would you call a public works project that would cut down hundreds of trees and shrubs in a dense forest using chainsaws, masticating machines, and chippers? And then apply untold gallons of toxic herbicides like (Monsanto) Roundup or Dow Garlon formulations, which rains wash into streams and an adjacent (Tomales) bay, poisoning fish and marine mammals.
The chemical run-off would poison the forest soil, which sustains thousands of plants, microbes, insects and fungi living symbiotically. In addition, the thick, spongy forest soil would be compacted by machinery and worker boots on the ground for 10 years — the project’s duration.
I’d call it a deforestation, because there will be less forest left standing in the wake of the assault by chainsaws, masticators and chippers and herbicides. A decade of high-volume heavy machinery noise scaring off hundreds of animals — songbirds, foxes, bobcats, skunks, raccoons, spotted owls, hawks, woodpeckers, woodrats, mice, bats, coyotes, opossums and more — all sent fleeing their woodland homes.
But the environmentally aware community of Marin County, California, which loves wild animals and forests, would never approve such ecological destruction, right?
Wrong. Community support is already being won, and easily, by using a magic word. Speak the magic word, and science, reason, and plain common sense are abandoned or ignored. This magic word grants a free pass to any deforestation — aka, forest “thinning” — project, even one that masticates hundreds of acres of healthy forest understory plants. This word is so powerful, it ignites fear in the hearts of men, women and children. It is winning approval for dozens of multi-million dollar, thousand-plus-acre deforestation projects throughout California. The magic word is wildfire.
Yelling “Fire!” in a crowded forest.
Any remedy promising to tame the wildfire demon, and thus reduce people’s fear of wildfire, is swallowed whole. Wildfire fear is (understandably) strong, equal to the craving for relief from it. Frightened people don’t think clearly, nor analyze proposed remedies. A mishmash of pseudo-science claiming that the forest is unhealthy is offered up by those selling a chainsaw cure, and the public swallows it all whole and unexamined.
Chainsaws, masticating machines and toxic herbicides are the industrial forester’s snake oil. All they do is damage forests.
Finally, wrap the Marin County cure-all deforestation project in a ribbon of a name, which promises to fix everything; a term of art any adman would admire. California State Park’s industrial deforestation is billed as the, ”Tomales Bay Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Project“ Only unicorns and rainbows are missing from the title. READ MORE ABOUT CalParks’ deforestation project.
Never mind the project’s details; those aren’t provided to the public. Presumably, those will be back-filled later, after the project is approved. Or not at all. Once the saws are out and the trees are being felled, who’s going to stop the assault, let alone monitor it.
No third-party, validating science is offered. Nor is it even requested by a frightened, pliable populace. I personally have watched citizens thank Cal Parks for helping keep them safe even thought the project will do no such thing. How does cutting down hundreds of trees prevent a wildfire, or protect that grateful person’s house near the forest?
Notably, the government agencies and their hired, third-party contractors who will benefit from the multi-million dollar project, are the same parties claiming chainsaws and poisons are necessary. What consultant would speak out against a project that profits him? The bias and corruption are baked into the bureaucratic approval process.
Any and all critical, independent scientists are ignored. One example: biologist Laura Cunningham, California director of the Western Watersheds Project, has written a detailed scoping letter debunking the Tomales Bay deforesation project’s grandiose claims. [READ IT HERE: https://treespiritproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/WWP-et-al-1.19.23-Tomales-Bay-State-Park-draft-plan-COMMENTS-PWP.pdf ]
Wildfire science ignored
Established wildfire science is also ignored. This includes the U.S. Forest Service’s Jack Cohen, Ph.D.; Dr. Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage; and Dr. Chad Hanson, Ph.D. of Earth Island Institute’s John Muir Project, just three of the many scientists who teach that logging — again, called “thinning” — forests doesn’t protect houses from wildfires. Only defensible space and home “hardening” does.
Never mind that felling hundreds of trees only makes a forest hotter, drier, and windier — and thus more wildfire ignition-prone.
Never mind that herbicides kill plants which retain moisture and make forests damp and fire-resistant.
Never mind that dead trees (snags) are essential components of a healthy forest ecosystem and animal habitat. Cut ‘em down, move ‘em out.
Just, please, deliver us from the danger of a wild forest. Cut it, tame it. Build the wall! Vote for me and I’ll set you free.
Teaching people to fear forests. Then attack them.
And because words influence thought, and negate reason, don’t even call a forest a forest; call it a “fuel load.”
We humans seem Hell-bent on creating a brave new world, where Nature, even dense, lush, cloud-condensing forests like the relatively wild one alongside Tomales Bay, are demonized, then “treated” with machines and chemicals. Controlled. “Managed.” And always, always, with killing.
Waging war on nature, with industrial weapons, to deliver us from the peril of wild, messy, untamed Mother Nature. Death, to promote life; war, to bring peace. Orwell lives, and another forest dies.
YOU CAN HELP during the Public Comment required by environmental (CEQA) laws. Email Cal Parks’ Bree Hardcastle — Bree.Hardcastle@parks.ca.gov — before 5pm P.T., Friday, April 5, 2024, to say that you oppose any and all chainsaw management, and herbicides use, at Tomales Bay State Park.
– Jack Gescheidt, TreeSpirit Project founder and a consultant for In Defense of Animals
• READ MORE about CalPark’s deforestation project at Tomales Bay State Park HERE.
A shorter, edited version of this essay appeared as a “Marin Voice” opinion column in the Marin Independent Journal on January, 20, 2024.
