The Ghost Forest

Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods

By: Greg King

Narrated by: Galen Osier

Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

The definitive story of the California redwoods, their discovery and their exploitation, as told by an activist who fought to protect their existence against those determined to cut them down.

Every year millions of tourists from around the world visit California’s famous redwoods. Yet few who strain their necks to glimpse the tops of the world’s tallest trees understand how unlikely it is that these last isolated groves of giant trees still stand at all.

In this gripping historical memoir, journalist and famed redwood activist Greg King examines how investors and a growing U.S. economy drove the timber industry to cut down all but 4 percent of the original two-million-acre redwood ecosystem. King first examined redwood logging in the 1980s—as an award-winning reporter. What he found in the woods convinced him to leap the line of neutrality and become an activist dedicated to saving the very last ancient redwood groves remaining in private hands.

The land grab began in 1849, when a “green gold rush” of migrants came to exploit the legendary redwoods that grew along the Russian River. Several generations later, in 1987, Greg King discovered and named Headwaters Forest—at 3,000 acres the largest ancient redwood habitat remaining outside of parks—and he led the movement to save this grove. After a decade of one of the longest, most dramatic, and violent environmental campaigns in US history, in 1999 the state and federal governments protected Headwaters Forest.

The Ghost Forest explores a central question, an overhanging mystery: What was it like, this botanical Elysium that grew only along the Northern California coast, a forest so spectacular—but also uniquely valuable as a cornerstone of American economic growth—that in the end it would inspire life-and-death struggles? Few but loggers and surveyors ever saw such magnificent trees, ancient sentinels that, like ghosts, have informed King’s understanding of the world. On a lifelong journey, King finds himself through the generations, and through the trees.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Greg King (P)2023 PublicAffairs

Critic reviews

“Haunting … [a] wholly engrossing, urgent account of redwood preservation.”—Kirkus, starred review

“The Ghost Forest is the book I’ve long wished someone would write, and Greg King has done it luminously well. He tells the epic story of the destruction of 96 percent of the primeval redwoods in California—including the criminal and bankrupt horrors of ‘liquidation logging’ done in the 1980s and 90s by corporate raider Charles Hurwitz and the Maxxam Corporation. And he tells the story of activists and protesting tree climbers (including himself) who put their lives on the line to save the Headwaters Forest Reserve, a jewel of the redwood realm.”—Richard Preston, author of The Wild Trees and The Hot Zone

“The farther I traveled into The Ghost Forest the more convinced I became I was reading an epic. It is encyclopedic in historical knowledge and detail, deeply felt in its love of redwood country, and fierce in its passion for saving the last remnants of old growth forest from rapacious and unconstrained capitalism.”—Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain and The Trackers

An indictment of Save the Redwoods League

A careful unveiling of the twisted greed driven faces behind a major Californian nonprofit with the Orwellian facade called “Save the Redwoods” which in turn was founded on stolen lands and white racism. An astounding and prize worthy work that will not likely be fully recognized for a long time.

Greed takes out the biggest trees on earth! Sad!

King does a fantastic job detailing how the biggest trees on earth were stolen from Americans and destroyed by greed. I had no idea King was involved with Earth First! and knew Judi Bari, who survived a car bombing. The redwoods provided great wood and made many people rich but at what cost? What remains today is just a tiny fraction of the original redwood forests and sadly, I have yet to see them and touch them myself. I way late.
King tells the full story really well. If you like trees you will like this book but be warned: it will make you angry.
I had no idea that the "Save the redwoods league" was started by white supremacists and did very little to actually save the redwoods. Wow.

How the world’s most magnificent forest was destroyed!

A compelling documentary on how the world’s most magnificent forests were destroyed by the greedy capitalists, corrupted government and the dark conspiracies behind the Save the Redwood League, the FBI and the dirty politicians. While I am so shocked, angry, sad, I am also grateful, encouraged to see the truth eventually coming out to the light!

Spoiler- Lots of redwoods die

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.