The Forest And The Trees: OGA’s Raul Hernandez and Frank Marrero harvest for the future.

Two Good

OGA saves the forest and patio furniture, too

By Bill Strubbe

A conundrum between environmentalists and loggers has long been how to supply lumber for homes, decking and furniture while maintaining viable forest habitats and watersheds for the future. This is often viewed as an either/or struggle, but Raul Hernandez of Annapolis’ Old-Growth Again (OGA) Restoration Forestry and Forever Furniture believes that his organization may have achieved a happy medium.

“We’re not a preservation organization, but rather a conservation nonprofit that restores forest lands yet also harvests timber for firewood and furniture,” explains Hernandez, 45, who divides his time between Graton and Annapolis. “Our limited harvest rate actually allows the forest to grow bigger.”

Experiencing an existential crisis in his late 20s, Hernandez jettisoned a promising journalism career in Miami to study instead at an ashram in Marin. Eventually frustrated with certain aspects of monastic life (“I realized that the guru was also full of shit”) and what he sees as the self-perpetuating politics of organizations such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, he set out to synchronize his spiritual ideals with environmental work.

Joining the Institute for Sustainable Forestry and delving into books–particularly Gordon Robinson’s 1988 The Forest and the Trees: A Guide to Excellent Forestry–Hernandez found his knowledge literally taking root in 1994 through the purchase of a tract of 40 steep acres above Sea Ranch that had been clear-cut in the 1950s and ’60s. Through backbreaking work, Hernandez and his partner, Frank Marrero of Fairfax, restored the ravaged hillsides acre by acre. Living in a solar-powered cabin, they thinned out the tan oaks, manzanitas and poison oak, and loped off hundreds of redwood trees’ lower branches to raise the canopy, allowing more light for the 5,000 fledgling conifers OGA plants annually. With the help of a sturdy pair of Percheron horses, Sparky and Ike, smaller trees were hauled out without damaging the land, and sold as firewood.

Hardwoods presently comprise about 50 percent of OGA’s trees, but over the next 20 to 30 years the nonprofit aims for stands of about 80 to 90 percent conifers. And instead of allowing some 1,000 trees to crowd an acre, as some timber growers do, their goal is to return the land to its original state of about 100 to 150 larger, higher-quality, trees per acre.

With firewood sales, charitable donations and grants covering only a portion of the thinning costs and the seedling nursery, a furniture component was initially born in 2000 as a gift for patrons. One recipient was so impressed with OGA head carpenter Antonio Toledo’s craftsmanship that he suggested the nonprofit market its redwood furniture as a means to offset conservation efforts. “It’s now become our primary funding source,” Hernandez explains.

The hefty outdoor furniture ranges in style from picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, porch swings, gliders, pergolas, planter boxes, garden benches, children’s furniture, chaise lounges and even a double chaise lounge with a reclining back.

“Pieces can be customized,” Hernandez says. “Most tables are available with benches attached or separate. Table- and benchtop corners can be squared or rounded, tabletops can come with or without umbrella holes.”

Whatever a customer’s specifications, OGA’s Forever Furniture is unique in that all boards are cut a full 2-by-6 inches thick (most picnic tables and benches are only 1 1/2 inches thick and 5 1/4 inches wide). The extra girth significantly increases the furniture’s appearance, sturdiness and durability. Pieces have been purchased by local wineries, and can also be found in a park for handicapped children in the Sierras, at the Vandenberg Air Force Base and even in the Pentagon.

The finest, tight-grain redwood that Forever Furniture makes is milled from “buckskin” logs–those trees abandoned by the original loggers that were discovered and unburied from a hillside by Hernandez and crew. Some of these well-preserved logs are a stout 4 feet in diameter and up to 40 feet long. Regardless of grade, all have a 20-year decay warranty and a plaque that reads “Proceeds Used for Forest Restoration.”

The restoration continues to grow. Currently managing about 580 acres, Hernandez hopes to expand OGA’s restorative work to neighboring forest tracts that might otherwise be felled by industrial, “liquidation” methods.

“The goal is to restore and preserve a healthy habitat while selectively logging out the over-represented species,” he says. “We’re convinced that this is, in the long term, not only better for the land, but also more profitable.”

For more information on Old-Growth Again Restoration Forestry and Forever Furniture, call 707.495.4955 or visit www.oldgrowthagain.org.

From the December 8-14, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Sweat Equity: Petaluma’s Athleta sportswear company assures that it’s possible to look good while being good.

Jock Meets Queen

Athleta proves looking great and shredding are synonymous

By Jill Koenigsdorf

When one imagines life in the corporate world, one often thinks of the “Dilbert” cartoons: a survival-of-the-fittest world of stress, wage slaves and life-sucking cubicles overseen by sadistic, out-of-touch bosses. One rarely envisions a workplace where you are greeted at the door by several happy dogs with toys in their mouths. And while there are cubicles at Athleta, the Petaluma-based women’s athletic clothing company, most of them are festooned with memorabilia from various races and sporting events. There’s even a photo of Marilyn Monroe lifting weights.

At Athleta, most employees don’t sit on chairs in front of their computer screens; they sit on yoga balls, big, colorful rubber balls purported to do away with back pain. None of the 100 or so employees working here has the pasty pallor of those doomed to spend eight hours indoors under fluorescent lights; rather, it seems like taking phone orders for a successful clothing line is just something they do between eco-challenges and triathlons.

The picture of women in sports has changed radically over the last several decades. In my mother’s era, exercise was something a woman did so her girdle didn’t have to work so hard when she put on a cocktail dress. I have a vivid memory of my mother huffing and puffing in front of the black-and-white TV, wearing my father’s swim trunks (lots of give) and the stained gray sweatshirt she saved for her twice-weekly rendezvous with Jack La Lanne.

This was long before the words “personal trainer” or “gluts” were in any woman’s vocabulary; before businesswomen packed running shoes in their briefcases; before Billie Jean King became one of the first women athletic superstars; and even before yoga, in various increasingly sweaty incarnations, took the West by storm. Now, staying youthful and healthy are almost a religion in this country, and I find myself part of a generation that couldn’t even imagine a life without hiking, biking, swimming–physical activities that challenge me and make me feel alive. Yet the eternal question remains: What to wear?

In the mid-’90s, cyclist, surfer and entrepreneur Scott Kerslake noticed that many of the women he was training with complained that the leotards and leg warmers that Jane Fonda had ushered in just weren’t cutting it any more in the outdoor-wear department. He wanted to start a business somehow related to sports, and he suddenly saw a huge need. In 1997– voilà!–Athleta was conceived. Marketing both original goods and other company’s products, Athleta has seen its own line of clothing grow over the years to support half of the company’s sales.

Since Kerslake’s epiphany, the women’s athletic-apparel industry is expected to top $38 billion next year, with Nike and other large sporting goods companies jumping aboard with their own lines just for women. According to Athleta marketing director Tami Anderson, this is merely recognizing the obvious.

“People are finally realizing that women are athletic,” Anderson says, noting that a recent study showed that most active women today regularly take part in as many as three different sports. “It’s nice to see the industry grow. One change we have seen is that women aren’t just using these clothes for athletic pursuits, but are wearing them just to hang out in because the clothes are comfortable. We realized right off that women don’t just want sized-down men’s apparel–the clothing could also have an element of style; it could look good and be functional.”

Kerslake chose to situate his company in Petaluma during the Internet boom as a good cost-of-living draw for his employees. While many catalogue companies outsource their warehousing and calling centers, Athleta’s remain in-house, with all of the clothing made in the Bay Area.

Athleta catalogues differ from many other clothing catalogues in that the women modeling the clothes come in all shapes, sizes and age groups, looking the way real women look, with perhaps a bit more glowing vitality. These real-life models are usually shown actually performing the sport the clothing was designed for–clothing that is presumably making them more comfortable while doing it. Plus, the clothes look great. If a woman has muscles in her legs, Athleta clothes show her muscles off. No more Michelin Man puffy parkas for the cold or swim suits that are only functional when sun bathing.

Athleta classifies its clothes as being appropriate for everything from running to snowshoeing to anything in between, with the possible exception of sumo wrestling. Catalogue sales make up 60 per cent of Athleta’s output, with the other 40 percent sold online.

Women make up 90 percent of Athleta’s employees, and the products are designed and developed by women. Members of Athleta’s sales and distribution team play soccer together, many of them taking part in Colorado’s famed Women’s Quest. At the very least, all definitely share a common interest in sports, which can be very helpful to customers who can speak to women with experience “in the field.” All of Athleta’s models are athletes, and the majority of the company’s workers identify themselves as such–the head of the design team is a former pro cyclist–and many have chosen to take part of their pay in clothing.

The company reinforces five “core values” of “courageous communication, families first, pushing limits, health and fitness and giving back,” which might explain the general good vibe in the office. When Kerslake started the company, he wanted to create a place that didn’t force the worker to separate what was important to her personally from what was important to her professionally. To that end, Athleta employees annually “adopt” a resident at the Pleasant Care Convalescent Home during the holidays, singing carols, decorating a tree and bringing gifts.

While Athleta doesn’t advertise and donates generously to grass-roots events, it still managed sales topping $23.5 million in 2002. The company’s philosophy stipulates an integration of mind, body and spirit, positing that sport is really a metaphor for unlimited potential, ideals that shine through in the spirit found in its offices and in the pages of its catalogues.

Athleta is located at 1622 Corporate Circle, Petaluma. 888.322.5515. www.athleta.com.

From the December 8-14, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

In the Bag: Detail from the ‘Joy Luck Club’ purse made by JiJi Lu.

Shopping Centered

Our highly selective guide to buying the good stuff at home

By Gretchen Giles

Rain sheets down darkly, slivering with uncanny accuracy into even the snuggest of turtlenecks. The burgeoning calla lilies are broken and folded from freeze. Ordinary conifers bear three-digit price tags and those who made the fiscally disastrous decision to bear children suddenly sport calculators and tight-lipped grimaces. Indeed, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or Kwanzaa or Solstice, or however the coming of the light is celebrated at your house.

While we are the first to suggest that lovely photo frames fashioned from garden twigs and twine or sheets of overbaked cookies make thoughtful holiday gifts, there is that soul or two on everyone’s list who has somehow come to expect a real gift this time of year. Furthermore, such slavishly spoiled someones prefer a unique present not readily found in mass distribution. To aid in your Grail-like quest, we herewith offer this strange assortment of goodness made right here in the North Bay.

Everyone loves a nudist, particularly when said stripee does so for charity and offers a full 365 days of exposure. This season brings two groups of naked folks from Marin available for purchase, all doffing their duds 12 different ways for a good reason. The 2005 Pink Ribbon Men of Marin, including beloved KFOG 104.5-FM morning DJ Dave Morey, strike strategically considered poses to honor the women in their lives who have been affected by breast cancer. Photographer Acey Harper donates a professional eye, and the resulting calendar is handsome, informative and poignant. Some of the Pink Ribbon men appear at a calendar signing on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at Book Passage in Corte Madera (51 Tamal Vista Blvd. 7pm. Free). Calendars are $19.99 and are also available online at www.pinkribbonmen.com.

Meanwhile, the 12 women over 40 who bravely grace the Cowgirls of Novato calendar also do so for breast-cancer awareness, as well as the Novato Unified School District and the Marin Abused Women’s Services program. Horsewomen all, this dozen are anything but dirty. The calendar, rather, features a collection of attractive, intelligent women interacting with their horses or performing chores in their stables–merely somewhat less dressed than they might usually be. Photographed by Kim Vogee (the current Mrs. December), the Cowgirls of Napa calendar is $20, comes with an art nouveau gold hoof pick (while supplies last!) and is available throughout downtown Novato as well as at Marin General Hospital and the California Grill Restaurant.

Not nude but still pretty is the Sausalito-based Antenna Theater’s ECOlogical Calendar. Wondering why the heck we continue to use a calendar that has absolutely everything to do with ancient Roman hierarchies and absolutely nothing to do with our daily revolution around the sun, the ECOlogical Calendar’s makers divided theirs into quarters, much like life itself.

This cal notes astronomical seasons, solstices, meteorological aspects and the slippery relationship between day and night. It’s a gorgeously illustrated attitude toward the world that comes in quarterly 12-by-36-inch panels, and is highly recommended for prompting daydreams and curiosity in children. Beginning for 2005 with the solstice happening on Tuesday, Dec. 21 (2004), the time is now to get into the real rhythm of the year. The ECOlogical Calendar is $14.99 and available at www.ecocalendar.info. . . .

Founded by former Section M publishers and editors Michael Houghton and Kevin Jamieson, Designed by Monkeys purveys T-shirts with decided attitude. Originally conceived as a fundraising project for MoveOn.org in advance of the recent Nov. 2 disaster, Designed by Monkeys continues to donate a portion of each sale to MoveOn as that organization decides which good fight to tackle next.

But the right livelihood part is only some of the fun: the real benefit to the ordinary consumer is getting to wear a Che Moore T-shirt, which reenvisions filmmaker Michael Moore as Che Guevara, albeit slightly tubbier; donning an image of Dubya depicted as a puppet with the elegant word “Lies” protruding from his mouth; or simply flipping the design birdie to war–all of which are featured on Designed by Monkey’s website, www.designedbymonkeys.com. T-shirts and belly tanks are $14.99 and each purchase makes an automatic donation to move us on. . . .

Cigar boxes are among the most mutable of hard-to-find everyday objects. Painter Richard Diebenkorn, for example, did some of his most beautiful small works on the wooden panels that compose ordinary cigar boxes. And now the Santa Rosa family of Catherine Alexander, sister Terry Ulitalo and daughter Evin Alexander have formed themselves into the team of JiJi Lou to design a delicious line of purses from the things.

Using drawer handles as purse handles, these one-of-a-kind sacs are decidedly more art than the typical rough-and-tumble wasteland that usually comprises the interiors of shoulder bags. Typically thematic, from Betty Boop to The Joy Luck Club to pin-up girls to the rich enjoyment of different fabrics, each purse is covered in cloth, is hand-beaded and features a small mirror fixed into the inside cover, as well as surprises like miniature Hawaiian shirts or small wrapped gift boxes adhered to the interior.

According to Catherine Alexander, JiJi Lou has so far made some 500 purses, each taking up to three days to complete, and the three women are earning a full living from their one-of-a-kind line. The purses sell for between $36 and $80 depending on the complexity of the design, and JiJi Lou happily takes customized orders. Purses can be ordered by calling 707.544.3110 or through JiJi Lou’s website at www.jijilou.com, and are featured each week once Santa Rosa’s Wednesday Night Market resumes in 2005.

Also anticipated with the resumption of the market are Susan Levinson‘s beautiful beaded necklaces, combining semiprecious stones and crystals with more ordinary beads, thus keeping the cost reasonable while the look remains high (www.slevinsondesign.com); and Karen Smith‘s very clever fiber jewelry, in which she achieves a sort of fairy tale aerie as her threads are literally woven like gold (707.579.3002). . . .

And finally, shopping for items made specifically in the North Bay is a self-confined task at the Sonoma County Museum’s newly revamped Museum Shop because every item for sale is made only by area artists. The compulsively collectible ceramics thrown by nationally acclaimed potter Aletha Soule are given large notice here and are very reasonably priced considering what one would pay at Gumps for the same thing.

But the same thing isn’t possible, as Soule has conceived a line of “black tea” glazes for the work she contributes to the Museum Shop, unavailable elsewhere. The soft, organic forms of Soule’s vases and pitchers are nearly archetypal in their draw; one feels that the form is known in a deep way. But then again, it’s just a pot. Soule’s pieces retail from $56 for a deeply desired green pitcher to $108 for a set of three ardently wanted vases.

Stefan Jonson contributes the world’s smallest pair of hand-painted shoes, replete with copper doodads ($156), and local designers Shih & Co. hang an elegant swathe of scarves, most notably a silk one poetically colored in “lichen” and adorned with semiprecious garnets (on sale for just $95). Contributing artists also include iron sculptor John Hains, wood worker Alex Wright, Zen painter Mario Uribe and others. Sonoma County Museum, 425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 11am to 4pm. 707.579.1500. . . .

Send a letter to the editor about this story to le*****@*******ws.com.

From the December 8-14, 2004 issue of Metro, Silicon Valley’s Weekly Newspaper.

© Metro Publishing Inc. Metroactive is affiliated with the Boulevards Network.

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