For comparison, thirty-three million people visit National Forests in California for recreation annually, generating 38,000 outdoor recreation-related jobs.

[5] Emmerson told him he was brought up in Newberg, Oregon[6] in a broken home, failed in education, was sent to a strict[5] Seventh-day Adventist[6] boarding school in Eastern Washington, from which he was expelled,[5] although not before getting a paying job driving a truck at 35¢ an hour (equivalent to $6.38 in 2023).

[6] His father, R. H. "Curly" Emmerson, endeavored to make a living in timber, which at the time dominated the economy of the Pacific Northwest, building "crude, temporary" sawmills in the backyard, but was so unsuccessful that his wife, Emily, left him and went to Alaska.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Northwest teemed with jerry-rigged sawmills, crude contraptions in logging camps and at railheads that sputtered to life and spewed diesel fumes and sawdust.

[11] A partnership with fellow Arcata lumber owner Mike Crook—which saw him invest $10,000  (equivalent to $253278.01 in 2023) and the Emmersons manage his mill as well as their own—as well as a successful lawsuit saw them finally "flush with cash".

Small mills that could not compete went to the wall; SPI "took advantage of the situation and managed to record enviable growth as other companies struggled to survive".

Contemporary industry leader and millionaire Harry Merlo summed up the reasons for SPI's growth at this time: "As people got out of sawmilling, what did they do?

[10]The San Francisco Chronicle has argued that the reasoning behind Emmerson's land purchases is his belief that as Federal regulation increases, national forests will become unreliable for timber sourcing.

[4] As of 2024[update] the company owns mills and timberland in California, Oregon, and Washington, but has also diversified into recreational parks and biomass energy.

[10][note 3] It is headquartered in Anderson, California, where it also runs its own fabrication plant, building many of the parts, spares and repairs for the mills.

A. Emmerson and his children have all donated to the National Alliance of Forest Owners PAC, which has listed them among "individual donors [who] gave 110 large ($200+) contributions" over several election cycles.

[32] SPI is the largest landowner in California, with an estimated holding of 1,700,000 acres (2,700 sq mi), amounting to twice the area of Yosemite National Park.

By the late 1980s, public opinion had begun to turn against corporate irresponsibility in the environment, and several amendments had been passed to tighten the 1964 Wilderness Act.

The San Francisco Chronicle described the results of clear cutting in the Sierra Nevada as leaving "a blank spot in the forest, a treeless zone, littered with charred stumps".

[7] In summer 2000, protestors from the Yuba Nation chained themselves to SPI logging equipment and vehicles and occupied the company's head office in Grass Valley, California; some protesters did jail time.

[34] The Earth Island Institute, through its John Muir Project, investigated SPI over several years and describes itself as "a clearinghouse for SPI-related information".

[38][note 8] Former Pacific Forest Trust director Dr Andrea Tuttle has identified 1990 as a pivotal year in the political campaign against companies such as SPI.

She recalled that several measures intended to limit logging had finally achieved sufficient public support in California to be placed on the ballot as initiatives.

The allegations related to complaints that several of SPI's mills were operating in breach of their air pollution certification, falsifying reports and monitoring equipment, and discharging waste material to the detriment of their neighbours.

After the Fountain Fire of 1992, which touched the SPI sawmill at Burney,[52] Red Emmerson commented that the company "had trucks coming down the road that had flames on the back".

[27] Forbes reported that following the Rim Fire in Yosemite in 2013, in which 257,000 acres (402 sq mi) was burned, "not long after firefighters doused the flames, a fleet of bulldozers and trucks arrived" from SPI.

[27] Due to the company's economic weight, SPI can buy large contracts in salvage logging at a heavy discount when they are announced by the government.

[27] SPI is a member of the self-regulated industry body Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which is considered less stringent than the Forest Stewardship Council.

[60] In land previously cut down by SPI, some species have apparently undergone a population boom, such as the blacktail deer and black bear as a result of new food sources being revealed.

Several scientists writing in Forest Ecology and Management stated that such a program was intended to "protect the genetic diversity of giant sequoia and expand the current range within California" for perpetuity, while monetizing the profits from the concomitant gains in carbon storage.

[63] SPI is a pioneer of cogeneration plants, which use waste including bark, wood chips, and sawdust to produce heat and power.

[64] SPI created a private foundation in 1979, with the stated purposes of raising money for its workers' dependents to go to college,[14] as well as broader investment in youth and community projects.