The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals and Real Estate in the California Redwoods

by Greg King

Redwoods activist and journalist Greg King's THE GHOST FOREST: RACISTS, RADICALS, AND REAL ESTATE IN THE CALIFORNIA REDWOODS, the story of the author's spearheading of campaigns to save the Headwaters Forest in California, as well as the century-long battle around these mighty, ancient trees, to Clive Priddle at Public Affairs.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Environment, Audiobook, Politics, Science

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[AnnieM · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important and worthwhile read – not only did the author and his ancestors grow up among the Redwoods, he diligently investigated and was an activist to stop the deforestation by large corporations and private equity. Private equity goes in and pillages to turn a short-term profit – spokespeople from the companies kept saying it was Old Growth Forest and once chopped down would grow back --of course, hopefully none of us are that naïve – these are trees that have been around 1000’s of years plus. The author was arrested many times for his protest actions – from climbing the Golden Gate Bridge to put on a banner to climbing trees to prevent them from being chopped down. At points, this book reads like a thriller as it becomes a David and Goliath tale. Politicians don’t show up well here including Diane Feinstein. Many of them supported an organization called “Savetheredwoods” which actually was a front for corporate interests and had founders who were eugenics proponents. Even Peter Coyote (famously known as a part of the Diggers and narrator for Ken Burns documentaries) must have been duped (I hope that is the case) as he is the narrator for a film shown at their fundraiser. This book is meticulously researched and the author was able to uncover many obscure documents that had been hidden from the public. There are many heroes in this book including the author, and the founders of the Sierra Club who fought to preserve the redwoods and establish National Parks. This book gives me hope and I was tearing up at the end reading the letter from his mother. I highly recommend this book.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very hefty and valuable read. Meticulous researching, extensive historical analysis yet scattered amongst it all - beautiful and touching descriptions of the redwoods and the efforts to save them. I would say that this is a book for the dedicated reader, but it is accessible. It is not overly academic in its language which is a relief considering the length and breadth of the writing.

[Dayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the acknowledgments, King relates that an early reader said the book is an indictment. I agree. This makes it hard to get through. The magnitude of the loss is incalculable, though King tries to quantify it with a lot of numbers. I found this overwhelming and repetitive. And maybe he meant to make it that way. I don’t know how much I could recommend this to someone to read. The TL;DR is government (CDF, various CA elected officials) and private groups (Save the Redwoods League) failed the public interest over and over again. The result was the near eradication of an entire ecosystem (and the loss of an industry.) The only entity which gained were private companies.
Really depressing stuff. File under People are Doomed.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engrossing, first person deep-dive into the heart wrenching history of the California Redwoods. I applaud the people who literally put their lives on the line to prevent the decimation of the last primeval redwood groves in California. This book is a deep-dive into the forces they took on in their fight to preserve what little was left. Be prepared to read in depth historical analysis of the governmental and financial forces that conspired to dupe the public in order to cut as much redwoods that they could get away with.

[J-Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history is exhaustive and most necessary. A treasure of humanity destroyed through the unfettered greed. A tale as old as America. Greg King is an activist & eventual journalist who develops a love for one of natures gems: the Old Growth Redwood forests of the West. These beautiful forests with trees millennia old, towering giants that grew from saplings centuries before Christ. King starts out outlining his turn from young nature lover in California to protector of the forest. The book is dense with history and chronicles the theft of a wonder of nature for corporate profits. The book outlines how the land was stolen from the federal government though privatization (false individual claims documents allowing large tracts to pass to shell companies). Then to the creation of a powerful lobbying and greenwashing effort that successfully shielded logging companies from regulations and smoke screened their annihilation of these beautiful lands for a century. These companies saw these amazing trees: 3 thousand years old, over 350 feet tall and 30 feet in diameter as good lumber for a quick buck. I try to be hopeful when I see increased awareness on any environmental issues. But, its hard not to feel an immense sadness when you realized many of these groves of the worlds most amazing trees were cut in the last 100 years when we truly understood the consequences and chose the profits. These timber barons got everything and then made the government buy the stolen land back at a premium after they pillaged it all.

King is a wonderful researcher and his tale of transforming into an activist hopefully inspires others to protect our planet and be ready for a fight. These big corporations are not going to give up anything without a fight.

[Jaime Cary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing! A history of an industry, large trees and the collusion and conspiracy that took place. This book is a story that exists at the intersection journalism and activism outlining the extents that people in power will go to make money and the expense of the land, and the actions that courageous people will take to conserve it. For lovers of the Overstory, Tree Thieves, Rachel Carson and Wallace Stegner. This was a truly amazing story.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not cheery, but likely a necessary read, no matter where you place yourself on the political spectrum.

[Tova · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be so real, I didn’t finish the book because reading it made me so sad and angry. Still, The Ghost Forest is a sharp expose of the corporate shell game that destroyed an ecosystem of the oldest trees on earth. King braids personal narrative, historical research, and journalism into a damning investigation which I would recommend if you have the stomach for it.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I visit the Redwoods as often as I can. It is the most beautiful place I know, but I will never see the groves in the same way. The names will make my teeth grind. What an eye opener this book has been. All of my small donations to Save the Redwoods are now seen as supporting a group I never would have given money to had I known their true history and their true goals. There is a lot to get through as Greg King painstakingly documents each and every travesty. The book literally made me feel like crying. I admire the activists, including Greg King, who risked everything and in the end were still unsuccessful in preserving forests because of greedy capitalists and their co players in government (wow, including Dianne Feinstein). I hope this book is widely read.

..."the total cost of Redwood National Park had reached 1.6 billion, the most expensive national park in US history....The price reflects the industry's remarkable triple- dipping into the public coffers . During the nineteenth century, capitalists orchestrated the theft of these very lands from the public domain, paying pennies on the dollar. During the 1960s and 1970s, the timber industry profited from the liquidation of more than forty thousand acres of this forest, eliminating precious habitat and leaving an eviscerated landscape. Then the timber complanies sold the plundered land back to the federal government almost exactly a century after it had been stolen. " Page 303.
It is a painful business to know the truth. Greg King is an excellent truth teller. Thank you, Greg!

[Katie Keeshen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extensively researched and detailed writing on the history of redwood logging, the incredibly disappointing history of the save the redwoods league (which was illuminating and Way Way worse than I had realized) and the author’s experiences as an activist fighting to protect headwaters forest. It’s a great resource, deeply fascinating in sections, and a book I am very glad I read.

Would struggle to recommend it to folks though because it does drag significantly in the redwood logging history section - my wish is that this book was a bit more tightly edited so it could be a better book for general audiences.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever admired a redwood, buy this book and be prepared to cry. Not only is The Ghost Forest written and researched very well, as the author lived many parts of the book, many of the episodes would shine if shot as a film. The evil alchemy to convert redwoods into revenue includes shameless public relations campaigns, greedy local and international investors, TRULY endless government corruption, and even Nazis (or at least their admirers).

The author grew up with the trees, in a family that was already familiar with the redwoods for generations. With camera, typewriter, and rope he worked to coalesce a voice loud enough to scream out from deep in the forest to say what was happening was illegal and illogical. I'll leave out all the spoilers, but I know there are a few memorials that need updating and others that need to be created.

[Randi Hermening · Rating 3 out of 5]

This really could have benefitted from summarizing most of the legal battles, and for that reason I can’t say I’d recommend this to anyone who doesn’t work in a redwood forest. As someone who does work in a redwood forest, this was fascinating and depressing, but at times a total slog.
I think there are three main focuses in this book:
-the author’s life story living among, and fighting for, redwood ecosystems.
-the history of redwood logging.
-the disappointing history of perhaps the most well-known redwood nonprofit.

[David Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greg King’s account of the history of redwood logging is thorough, engaging, and harrowing. I grew up loving these trees — feeling small and in awe in their presence. To learn how many of them were lost, and the human greed that consumed them, hurts. But it is also important, and as a Californian I’m grateful Greg King equipped me with this knowledge to keep up the good fight. Earth First!

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this in depth history of the red woods. I had no idea about many of these topics. My main qualm is that it was hard to follow. I felt it bounced around a lot and changed topics with little warning.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting!

[Tim Lagarry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book about the history of the battle to save the redwoods

[Mark Bult · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply researched (I appreciated the lengthy appendices), this book delves into the origins of the forest preservation movement in Northern California at the same time it uncovers how many of the same conservationists if the early 20th century were also the rich, white industrialists who were making their fortunes from the timber industry. It’s a sordid, if not entirely unsurprising, history of interwoven interests that likely didn’t seem in conflict at the time, but in the light of history seem shamefully shortsighted.

I enjoyed learning about the author’s family history in the area — for example I had no idea the King Range was named after a relative. Most fascinating, however, was learning the plethora of things early industrialized society used redwood for, from irrigation canals in the US southwest to telephone poles and storage for liquids. I thought I knew a lot about redwoods’ uses until I read this book.

I particularly enjoyed the recent history of the Headwaters Forest struggle, from Redwood Summer on (because it’s a longtime topic of interest), although the author didn’t go terribly deep there, perhaps because those years have been told in many other books. However I’m glad King finally wrote his take on those years, as he was a pivotal individual in the birth of a story that went on to intrigue thousands of other people.

Because of the sheer depth of historical research included, this book could be a bit wonky for those who don’t regularly foray into such tomes, but I kept coming back to it for the many moments where I’d think “Aha!” or “I didn’t know that...” and I had to sharpen my underlining pencil several times.

[Michael Howley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent if infuriating history of the redwood coast, from the first major land grabs to more or less the present day. It was also a good balance of the author's personal experiences and historical accounts. It's truly wild how much of post-Spanish California history is the same chucklefucks ruining everything for money.

However.

Not once does this book mention the indigenous peoples who lived in and around the redwoods and who played an integral part in the ecosystem that the author cares so much about. The "pristine old growth", only 4% of which is left today, was likely as human sculpted and maintained as everything else in the Americas which settlers were stubbornly ignorant of. Maybe many of them were already wiped out by European diseases before the first Spaniards, Russians, English, or Americans found them. I don't know, and this book didn't tell me. The author does mention the Olhone and Meewak peoples of the Bay Area once, and acknowledges their lifestyles and ecological roles, but sadly does not extend that thought northward.

[Carla (Carla's Book Bits) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow - this was wonderfully written! I love narrative nonfictions like these, and Greg King is definitely an author who can bring out a story with as much passion as any fictional story. Don't get me wrong, this book is meticulously researched. There are so many facts. I knew next to nothing about redwoods before I started this book, but now it feels like it's all I've been thinking about for the last couple of days. King was in the thick of all of this drama himself, as an activist who sacrificed his time and life to saving the redwood forests, so he has first-hand accounts and observations galore. But the immediacy of the writing style pulled me through so well. My head is full with redwoods and so is my heart.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free advance copy of this book.

[Nathan Taxel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have so many mixed feelings about this book. I really really wanted to love it. The topic is so important and it had moments where the authors description of the forests brought them to life, but much of the text is devoted to be careful transaction by transaction expose on how is the redwoods left public hand and ended up in the hands of logging companies. It is an important piece of journalism, but does not hold up as literature. I found much of the book very difficult to stay engaged with and boring.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched and written but too much detail for me. Had to give up close to halfway, too many bankers and financiers to keep track of. But excellent history of Humboldt.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would seriously benefit from some editing. It is essentially two tomes in one. The first is a memoir of the author's activism and work to protect the last remaining stands of old-growth redwood. The second is a history of the Save the Redwoods League and its hidden history of being allied with the timber industry. The author often goes off on tangents and goes into the weeds with details, or fails to complete a thought entirely. An example is the ties of the League to prominent eugenicists and racists of the day. A lot of background is given, but a point is never really made, other than to insinuate that because these people had some unsavory members that then translated to a flaw in the character of the entire organization. Again, this is never explicitly stated and the narrative sort of just drops off. I may just be overly critical, but I felt it was all hard to follow and the author's theses never really manifested. This isn't to say the book is without merit. The memoir aspect was certainly thrilling, even if the conclusion fell flat. I also really enjoyed learning about the ties of the League to the Timber industry and the depths of which capital and the police state are intertwined. I'd recommend this book to anyone living on the north coast of California looking for a deep dive into the history of redwood protection. For everyone else, there are shorter books out there.

[Chris Toomey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greg King's deep involvement with Earth First! protest actions and lobbying efforts to stop or curtail the disgusting near-total annihilation of California's majestic redwood forests uniquely positioned him to write in detail about those brave and compelling efforts.

In this book he's done not only that, but also chronicled the long, depressing, and ruinous history of the timber industry's theft of publicly owned redwood, infiltration and corruption of the California and federal government organizations that were responsible for protecting those lands, and duplicitous formation and stewardship of the so-called Save the Redwoods League, which in fact tirelessly worked on behalf of the timber industry to annihilate redwoods save for a few token tracts they "sacrificed" (saved) to to propagate the ruse.

Most impressively, he's done all this using an engaging, eloquent writing style that makes it hard to stop reading, no matter how depressing the material is.

I did find that the part exhaustively chronicling the history of redwood destruction was a bit of a slog to get through, but I understand he felt it was important to document this never before published history so I can understand it.

All in all a very important and readable book that really makes one wish for a do-over of the last 150-200 years of this part of California's history.

[Derek Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must admit, I was tricked into reading this book. I thought it would be a history (albeit a lurid one) about the schemes and fraud that led to the California redwoods being gobbled up during the Gilded Age. This book does cover that period in all lurid detail, but I didn't expect it to be so much about the recent past, let alone Greg King's deep and personal involvement in the fight to save the redwoods. I certainly didn't expect such a thorough takedown of the Save the Redwoods League and their greenwashing actions to stymie protecting more than a Potemkin Village of trees.

If this book opened up as just some ecowarrior's memoir, I probably would never have picked it up. But King's passion comes through the work, and he paints a very dark picture of the rot that is still at the center of the timber industry and the FBI's role in serving the interests of big business over environment. The galling acts of violence (including a carbomb), the bending of truth by the media, and the corruption committed by those against King and his fellow citizens was breathtaking. Much of this story takes place in the 80s and 90s, and by King's account, continues to this day.

For me, I like the ultra-specific histories that Ghost Forest poses as. However, this might be the most moving, personal, and infuriating one that I've ever read. Highly recommend reading it.

[Patrick Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

An infuriating, but incredibly important read. Yeah it's not cheery, but how in the world could this story be anything but dismal? There is power in seeing something as it truly is, and King gives us the window to do just that.

If you've ever been to an old growth coastal redwood grove or forest, and felt the majesty and timelessness surround you, even just once, then you need to read this book.

From that small bit of understanding, King's immense reporting and storytelling will take you on a tragic journey that is about so much more than the ancient coastal redwoods being utterly decimated. This book is a perfect example of so many issues facing our planet and every environmental movement today. From greed and powerful businessmen to complicity and corruption in government (both federal and state and local), illegal land grabs and violence (against trees and people), pervasive greenwashing to outright lies and deception with no recourse, this book has it all. You will not look at the world the same after this.

But throughout there are small bits of hope and defiance by courageous people who sacrificed so much to protect what they could. We owe it to them, and we owe it to every old growth coastal redwood standing, every marbled murrelet still nesting high in the canopy, and every salmon trying to navigate an ancestral spawning stream.

[Donovan Mattole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in Southern Humboldt County, which is at the heart of what at one point less than 200 years ago was the largest forest in the world. It is so alarming when you consider that Northern California was home to over two million acres of old growth redwoods, growing from the San Francisco Bay to the Oregon border, and that this bio diverse forest with trees that had been growing for thousands of years has been almost completely wiped out. Despite growing up in this area, until I read this book I hadn't realized the full extent of the devastation, nor did I understand the level of greed and destruction that we did to this area. Only 3-4% of it remains today.

King's book alternates between thriller and history book. Personally, I enjoyed the first and last sections the most, where he shared with us his memories as a reporter turned activist, the most. That said, the history of logging these ancient living things needed to be told and the detail he provides is incredible. I kept thinking about the long-term impact this history will have and how grateful I was for him to have done the research and documented it.

Lastly, it was quite the expose of Save the Redwoods League and I'm so glad he documented this as well.

I highly recommend The Ghost Forest!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a simply heartbreaking book, especially if you have spent time among these tallest of trees, the coast redwoods of California. They once covered the California Pacific coast, they reached up 400 feet, the tyrannosaurus rex walked among them; to explore their fern understory today is to experience the Earth as it once was.

Author Greg King gives a detailed history of the Save the Redwoods League, an organization set up to protect the lumber industry's ability to destroy all but 4% of these old-growth redwoods, all the while pretending to be committed to ancient redwood preservation. Before reading this book, I had no idea how much was lost in just my lifetime. The League secretly enabled the complete leveling of these millennia-aged giants and their watersheds, using their influence to quickly spoil areas being considered for preservation, resisting National Park preservation efforts, and instead, focusing the public's attention on (and praising themselves for) a few fragile fragments that would be spared. I regret in prior years having contributed to the effective greenwashing PR campaign that the Save the Redwoods League continues to spew out.

[Rob Lalonde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, truly enlightening as I didn't know much about the state of Redwood decimation by Business and Government over the last 150 years.
It was however a very difficult book to read emotionally, frustrating at times to hear the reality which is/was the Redwood Industry.
Kudos to Greg King and his band of environmental crusaders for helping to save the 4% of old growth that we have today.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential read, especially for those who continue to enjoy the spaces that the author and other activists fought to protect.

The book revealed so much about hidden corporate destruction of almost all the redwoods in CA in a witty and engaging way.

Section three drags a bit, but still worth reading. I wish the book ended with a way readers could continue to work to protect redwoods.

[Mathieu]

A personal story from a defender of the redwood forests in California. With great reporting of the influence of big business on the destruction of these massive trees and forests in the name of profit for the few. The details provided regarding the people and businesses is an invaluable reference for the ongoing fight to protect Nature.