CORTE MADERA, Calif. (July 9, 2025) — In Defense of Animals and the TreeSpirit Project teamed up with several other environmental groups to bring the tallest, most huggable tree to hundreds of children at Marin County’s largest Fourth of July Parade to expose a big deforestation project at Tomales Bay State Park on the Point Reyes peninsula. Hundreds of trees and shrubs in the wet, fog-enshrouded coastal forests are slated to be cut down this fall — unless the public speaks out against it.

The Chainsaw Ranger parodied California State Parks (Cal Parks) and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) contractors who will assault the forest under the guise of “fuels reduction” by, with industrial tools including chainsaws, chippers, masticating machines and toxic chemical herbicides.

But it was dozens of innocent, tree-hugging children of Corte Madera and Larkspur who stole the show. The kids did the most whole-hearted tree protecting, running to get and give love to the 10-foot-tall tree creature who stood — and walked and danced — head and shoulders above the annual July Fourth celebrants.

Jack Gescheidt, Founder of the TreeSpirit Project and Forest Consultant for In Defense of Animals who masterminded the stunt said, “It was a heartwarming surprise to see all the kids run to embrace our 10-ft tree-on-parade. We are all treehuggers at heart, but we have to stop this risky project and save the forest for the next generation.”

Lisa Levinson, Campaigns Director at In Defense of Animals said, “The Chainsaw Ranger is a parody, but the destruction he represents is very real. This so-called ‘fuels reduction’ project will poison and shred a fog-soaked, fire-resistant forest at Tomales Bay State Park — killing animals, destroying habitat, and increasing fire danger.”

Cal Parks and Cal Fire are preparing for what is, in effect, a 10-year logging and herbicide campaign disguised as “restoration” and “wildfire resilience” work that will actually increase wildfire danger. Rangers will be armed with chainsaws, chippers, masticating machines, and toxic chemical herbicides to cut, poison and kill hundreds of trees and thousands of shrubs in a healthy, dense, peaceful coastal forest that hasn't burned in over a century.

Industrially “thinning,” and “opening up” this dense forest will make it sunnier, hotter, drier, and windier — and as a result more likely to burn in an uncontrollable, wind-driven wildfire.

Wind-driven fires spread more quickly and aggressively through mechanically “treated” forests, and have destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of people in recent California wildfires which are caused by our heating climate and weather (heat, drought, wind), not “fuels.”

Tragically, the most effective wildfire protections of home hardening and creating defensible space are routinely underfunded in favor of costly and destructive “thinning” projects, which is just logging rebranded. Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are diverted to “thin” forests, like at Tomales Bay State Park. Nearby Inverness residents, frightened by recent wildfires, want something done to make them feel safer, but this project does the opposite, by increasing wildfire danger without treating houses.

Gescheidt added, “Our Chainsaw Ranger dramatized the destruction danger to Marinites who simply don’t know what’s about to happen. Calling moisture-retaining, shade-making forest vegetation ‘fuel loads’ is unscientific, counterproductive, and ultimately deadly. We urge everyone who cares about forests and fire safety to take action to stop these greenwashed logging projects by visiting idausa.org/tomalesbay.”  

This lush coastal forest lining Tomales Bay to the east, and the Pacific Ocean just one mile to the west, hasn’t burned in a hundred years precisely because it creates and retains so much moisture year-round. If a forest hasn’t burned, agencies call it “overgrown” and target it as a fire danger. Yet if a forest burns regularly, then it’s also considered a fire threat. So all forests, literally millions of acres of forest, are now labeled fire threats — paving the way for every California forest to be logged and poisoned. 

This is industrial deforestation on a massive scale in our time of climate crisis, which is caused in large part by “thinning” forests, which is simply cutting down trees. Unmanaged forests like those along Tomales Bay act as carbon sinks, but become carbon emitters when they are logged or degraded, releasing the very emissions we must reduce to mitigate our climate emergency.

In addition, the Tomales Bay deforestation project makes no mention of its massive impact on thousands of wild animals thriving here. 

“Endangered northern spotted owls could starve to death because their favored prey, dusky-footed woodrats, cannot survive without a dense understory. Marbled murrelets can only nest in old, undisturbed coastal trees — exactly the ones targeted for ‘treatment’ at Tomales Bay. Logging these forests will doom their fragile nests, increase predation, and push this endangered seabird closer to extinction. Please sign our alert now to stop the chop of Tomales Bay: www.idausa.org/tomalesbay,” added Levinson. 

The Tomales Bay Tree Creature represents our love of trees, while the scary Chainsaw Ranger is a darkly comic educator who shocks the public into questioning the logging narrative being advanced while our planet is heating up. Wildfire fear-mongering is being exploited to perpetuate a destructive feedback loop of chainsaws, slashing, poisoning, and burning, worsening the very fire dangers government agencies are supposed to prevent, not increase.

Act now: www.idausa.org/tomalesbay

### NOTES ###

Contact: Jack Gescheidt, jackg@idausa.org, (415) 488-4200 (no texts)

In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization based in California with over 250,000 supporters and a history of fighting for animals, people, and the environment through education and campaigns, as well as hands-on rescue facilities in California, India, South Korea, and rural Mississippi since 1983. www.idausa.org/tomalesbay

### ENDS ###