Greg King was still standing, but a lot of redwood trees were falling at the hands of loggers. After years of covering forestry debates as a reporter, King quit and became an activist on behalf of the redwoods.
He tells the story of the relentless cutting of the world's tallest trees--for decades--in his book The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods. The stories of 19th century robber barons and 1980s leveraged buyouts may sound familiar, but the book also contains the revelation of the early days of the Save the Redwood League: that it was not about saving the trees at all. The author joins us to flesh out the details of a story as big as the trees it covers.