With more forestland than any state except Alaska, California's history cannot be told without its forests and the wood products that built the state. A new book, The Soper-Wheeler Company: A Century of Growing Trees, chronicles the 100-year history of a lauded California forestry company.
Authored by California State University, Chico's Michael J. Gillis, the book tells the story of the oldest privately owned forestry company in California, the Soper-Wheeler Company. It begins in the 19th Century on the East Coast, where both the Soper and Wheeler families first entered the forestry business. Looking to California for opportunity, the two families jointly purchased 14,000 acres of Sierra forestland in 1904.
Weathering floods, fires and the Great Depression, the company survived by sticking to its sustainable maxim, known as Soper's First Law: "When maximum profit goals appear to be in conflict with established conservation principles and sustained yield, then in all probability the profit projection needs re-examination."
Living by this rule has enabled Soper-Wheeler to manage its forestlands in a responsible fashion that still provides a reasonable profit to the firm, now headed by CEO David Westcott, great-grandson of company founder James P. Soper.
Recognized by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the United States Forest Service, and other organizations for its stewardship, the Soper-Wheeler Company has planted about 4.5 million trees in California in the last 60 years, including its one-millionth seedling with California's then First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1973.
But Soper-Wheeler's long past hasn't kept it from innovation. Its latest venture is in New Zealand, where it is growing new trees from its best California seed stock. The company remains committed to sustainable harvesting and reforestation on the more than 97,000 acres it manages in eight Northern California counties today, where each year it grows enough wood to build 3,000 homes, and harvests enough to build 2,500.
A coffee-table size book, The Soper-Wheeler Company: A Century of Growing Trees would make a perfect Christmas gift for the avid reader interested in the history of California, the Sierra Nevada, and an industry that literally built our state.
This book is being offered exclusively through The Forest Foundation, in return for a tax-deductible $50 donation to support its forestry education efforts. For more information or to order, call 1-877-REPLANT (737-5268), email us, or send a check or money order addressed to The Forest Foundation, 853 Lincoln Way Ste 208, Auburn, CA 95603. No extra shipping and handling charges will apply.
###