Show Notes
By the 1980s, about 95% of the redwood forest in California is gone, the result of 150 years of timber cutting. In 1985, a Texas businessman named Charles Hurwitz buys Pacific Lumber Co, plunging the company into debt. Pacific Lumber is the largest private owner of the remaining old growth redwood forest. It soon becomes clear that Charles Hurwitz intends to clear cut the trees, which would be an environmental catastrophe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from Rip Current
Toby interviews Earth First! activist Darryl Cherney. Darryl was Judi Bari’s partner in activism and music and one-time boyfriend. He was in the passenger seat and sustained minor injuries when the pipe bomb detonated in Judi’s car, nearly killing her. In the first half of the conversation, Darryl describes his experience that day. In the second half, he talks about his theory of the crime. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Private investigator Josh Morsell worked as a paralegal during the civil trial in which Judi Bari’s estate and Darryl Cherney sued the FBI and Oakland Police Department for civil rights violations. In this bonus episode, he revisits the case from his perspective inside the Bari/Cherney legal team. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Toby talks with Lucy Kerhoulas, a professor of Forest Ecophysiology at Humboldt Polytechnic Institute, about the redwood trees, their biology, the inspiration and wonder they inspire, and new challenges they face as a species in our era of climate change. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Toby talks with architectural historian James Michael Buckley about his book City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry which looks at how the logging of redwoods allowed for the building of San Francisco, the first major city in the American West. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In the final episode of the season, Judi Bari’s story continues after her death from breast cancer in 1997. Her civil suit against the FBI and the Oakland Police Department is finally heard, and a deal is struck with Maxxam to preserve an important area of old growth redwoods. We assess Judi’s legacy and present one last theory of the bombing, one that has been overlooked for decades See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.