Late last week, your Lost Coast Outpost started getting a flurry of tips concerning the California Redwood Company mill out in Korbel. A number of different sources told us that the firm was going to be completely shutting down the mill out there in the small town outside of Blue Lake and also evicting people from the company-owned housing out there.

Gary Rynearson, chief communications officer and forest policy director for the CRC-affiliated Green Diamond Resource Company, told us today that this is not at all the case. Rynearson told us that rumors have been flying around since last month, when the shut down its second shift at Korbel and laid off 45 employees — but, in fact, no further layoffs are planned and at least some of those laid off have either been hired back at Korbel or offered work at other CRC/GD facilities.

Rynearson said that the layoffs were precipitated by the global slump in the market for redwood products. The company is sitting on massive inventory that it can’t move at the moment. Still, he reiterated — no more layoffs are being contemplated at the moment.

While we had him on the phone, we asked Rynearson about Green Diamond’s plans to log several spots around Trinidad’s Strawberry Rock, which is currently the subject of some controversy.

He confirmed that there have been active treesits around the popular hiking spot, which is located on private Green Diamond land. The company has met with protesters, he said, in an attempt to meet their concerns.

However, he confirmed the company will not be conducting any harvests at the location in 2013, and said that though the company does not condone trespassing on any of its land it has no plans to step up the presence of guards in the area.

For more on the controversy, see Lumberjack star reporter Lillian Boyd’s great story from last week. A group opposing the cut — the Friends of Trinidad Forests — will be holding an informational meeting next Saturday at Trinidad Town Hall, Boyd reports. The Facebook page for that event can be found here.

Timber Harvest plan map taken from the Trinidad Forest Forum website. View Strawberry Rock logging plan in a larger map