The plan also addresses the need for sustainable timber employment and for a healthy forest. The pristine groves would be permanently preserved. BUT replanting trees does not make a forest. The impacts of clearcutting on forest biodiversity far exceed what replanting seedling trees can repair. One of the most signifcant, and often overlooked, impacts of industrial clearcutting is the irreparable damage done to the soil.
Healthy soil is integral to rebuilding healthy, productive, biodiverse forests.
That habitat represents a complex web of life that cannot be replaced by simply replanting trees. Studies in Redwood Parks have found it takes 1 million seedling to get one ancient tree. Although parks contain nearly 250,000 acres of redwood land in California, only 76,000 acres is unentered old-growth redwood. For example, the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt County contains hundreds of acres of old-growth trees, but has been so impacted by the tourist industry that it contains no ancient forest habitat. Headwaters Forest lies between Redwood National Park to the north and Humboldt Redwoods State Park to the south, a distance of 50 miles.