Letter to the Editor: Unite — and Don’t Be Afraid to Dream Big for JDSF
Editor’s note — Polly Girvin was the life partner of Priscilla Hunter, a long‑time Mendocino County Indigenous tribal leader and elder. Originally from Berkeley and trained in law, Hunter was a central figure for years in the debates over the management of Jackson Demonstration State Forest. She died in November 2024 at age 77.
I believe our movement should feel emboldened by securing a bill that reflects the concerns of a wide range of stakeholders — from Indian tribes and Native American traditional ecological experts to climate‑change scientists and the many people who cherish Jackson Demonstration State Forest for recreation.
Unity of purpose must be the drumbeat we follow now.
I’m looking forward to helping advance Assembly member Rogers’ bill, and I’ll continue working to bring additional tribal support to the movement while strategically contributing my knowledge of Indian and environmental law as we move forward.
Priscilla always urged us to “go for the pie in the sky” — meaning, in the context of this movement, to assert and substantiate that the entirety of JDSF is a tribal cultural landscape under the AB 52 amendments to CEQA, rather than limiting the analysis to scattered Timber Harvest Plan sites viewed in isolation. She was deeply concerned about the cumulative impacts of decades of destructive logging at JDSF — on her cultural heritage, and on the forest’s trees, waters, and creatures.
Priscilla is with us in spirit as we move forward — and so are her ancestors, who lived along the Coast and traveled the ridge‑top trails to reach it for thousands upon thousands of years.
The redwoods were being ravaged at JDSF at the same time her people were being brutally removed from their lands.
From its inception, the Save Jackson Coalition has advocated not only for the protection of the remaining trees and the forest’s creatures, but also for social justice — confronting the brutal legacy of the genocidal years our local tribes endured at the hands of unchecked colonizer greed.
As Priscilla often reminded us, Native people lived in harmony with the coastal forest lands for countless thousands of years — and they never viewed the forest as a tally of board‑feet to be hauled to market.
The spirit of both Priscilla’s ancestors and the deep love Coastal folks feel for the forest will see us through to victory, of this I am sure.
Forward Ever, Backward Never
Polly Girvin
Editor’s Second Note — AB 52, referenced by Priscilla, passed a decade ago and requires the State of California to consult with tribes on forest management and other major decisions. The law has been transformative. The bill referenced here, authored by Assemblymember Chris Rogers, is AB 2494. It proposes to reshape JDSF into a sustainable community resource managed in the spirit of how Indigenous people cared for these lands for millennia — a model that could generate more revenue through carbon credits, fire protection, native herbs and mushrooms, and tourism than logging ever did. We will continue to follow its progress closely. Info on the JDSF Rogers Bill
