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 ForestNorth America’s Forests: Page 12 The Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia), found only in these forests of the Pacific Northwest, is considered a "trash species" by foresters who clear it away to make room for more valuable species. This plant grows in the undergrowth of old-growth forests from California to southeastern Alaska (Jonas 1993). It has recently been shown to contain a chemical substance, Taxol, that has proven effective in treating ovarian and other cancers (Middleton 1992). A rush to cut these trees and strip their bark to obtain Taxol threatened them with extinction until the chemical was successfully produced synthetically. Taxol will be a major new tool in treating cancers and will result in sales totaling many millions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry.
These discoveries have taken place as the fate of the last stands of old-growth forests is hanging in the balance. Ninety-five percent of these forests in the United States, and more than 60 percent in Canada, have already been cut. Opposition to clearcutting is increasing, however. Lewis H. Nash is a member of an organization known as the "Environmental Air Force," which chronicles illegal cutting of Coastal Redwoods. Members pilot small planes over clearcuts and document the damage with photographs. Nash's work enabled an environmental lawyer to obtain an injunction in 1995 stopping logging the same day (Goldberg 1996a). In 1996, flying over the devastated forests of northern California, Nash remarked: "When I first started flying here 10 or 15 years ago, this was all the same, all primeval forest. All this has been pretty well hacked over" (Goldberg 1996a).
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