Redwood Mary

Mary Rose Kaczorowski, known as Redwood Mary originally based for a number of years in Redwood Country on the Mendocino Coast has been working from the local to the global—from the
grassroots to the U. N. Her work has included being on the frontlines of the struggle to protect watersheds and forests, endangered species and also has included the struggle for grassroots women's participation in sustainable development. In 1998 she founded the Plight of The Redwoods Campaign and worked with many organizations and on advocating for saving the redwood forests, watershed and salmon habitat protection in Northern California from Humboldt County down to Santa Cruz.
In The fall of 1998 Redwood Mary was one of 14 founders of the original Save the Redwoods Boycott the Gap Campaign including Mary Bull, Mary Pjerou and Anna Marie Stenberg . This campaign was launched after the Mendocino Coast Community had a failure of a positive outcome meeting with John Fisher and his son - the new owners who came up from San Francisco to meet with the coastal community - a community who eagerly looked to a friendly and welcoming partnership with the new owners. Mendocino Redwood Company LLC was started by the Fishers’ after their purchase of the Louisiana Pacific Forest Holdings in Mendocino and Sonoma counties (after LP said their land held little merchantable timber with majority of trees less than 19 inches in diameter and abruptly put the land up for sale).
Redwood Mary and several local residents proposed to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, who were considering acquiring the land, and presented an offering of a free unbiased professional land assessment in order to utilize the former LP land for eco recreational enterprises, critical habitat restoration and protection and limited restoration and limited sustainable long term rotation sustainable harvesting. Before that was able to happen, the Community learned that the Fisher Family (Gap, Baby Gap, Banana Republic) had acquired LP’s land and was set to continuing logging the severely clear cut and over logged land under the guise of Sustainable Certified Practices.
The Community put together an impressive assessment of the holdings and presented a
10 point plan to the Fishers including suggestion for habitat restoration and to hire local unemployed fisherman and loggers. Also Coho Salmon habitat was at risk as well as the Spotted Owl and several other endangered species. The Fisher’s rejected all the community concerns and hopes for a partnership. The community than learned of the run on filings and continuing Timber Harvest plans still in effect by MRC.
That is when a community decided to take a further stand that already had been devastated by the decline in fisheries and the cut and run bad logging practices of the 1980’s and mill jobs moved to Mexico, and who had been fighting to return back to getting the logging practices back to Sustainable logging (80-100 year rotations, mixed stands etc.) and to protect old growth redwood wood and Douglas fir watershed habitats so they could recover (see Redwood Coast Water Shed Association (RCWA), Judi Bari (Earth First!), Judith Vidaver (Friends of The Ten Mile River, Friends of the Albion River, Mendocino Environmental Center, Redwood Summer Ft. Bragg CA, etc.) .
Save The Redwoods Boycott the Gap aimed to take their plea outside of this rural coastal forest community to the larger world and ask for assistance in their cause.
Redwood Mary, in November 2008, founded Plight of the Redwoods Campaign
Plight of the Redwoods Tour and "Have A Heart - Save The Redwoods" Valentine's Day Campaign
References or related articles
*It’s Time for UC to Call a Truce!- by Redwood Mary
*Mary & Julia by Singer songwriter Sharon Abreu - Honoring forest defenders trying to save the Redwoods. This song is about California Redwood Forest activists Redwood Mary and Julia Butterfly Hill.
*Activists Increase Efforts at Ramsey Gulch Tree Sit
*Redwood lovers take the stage to plead case
*Redwood Mary Calls for Protection of Redwoods - Ulster County NY
LUNA ATTACKED: 2000: Redwood Mary describes attack upon Luna... "The news hit me in the heart. Someone took a chainsaw to trunk of Luna and cut her about 2/3rds to 3/4's but she is amazingly still standing as a beacon to the world. This is as an assasination attempt to all that Luna stands for -- a strike against our movement, at the families of Stafford Village and an attack at the work of Julia Butterfly Hill. I talked and cried to folks at Circle Of Life Foundation..."

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