Tragedy of the commons
Tragedy of the commons has befallen yet another natural resource, The Coastal Redwoods . Over logging by the timber companies can be attributed to the tragedy of the commons. Coastal Redwoods would be represented by the common pool resources (CPR). The CPR is large, unrestricted and seen as infinite and self replenishing. Each timber company is driven by self interest to cut the most trees to make the largest profit margin for themselves. They also have more or less unrestricted access to the CPR.
Each timber company does not see his actions to be harmful to the species population when compared to how many acres of trees there are out there . Even if they do realize the harm , they will not be motivated to stop their actions or bring it to a sustainable level. This is because of the mentality that a change in their action would not make a difference as the resources that they would have consumed would end up being consumed by other timber companies anyways.
Therefore, with every timber company thinking the same way and trying to consume as much of the resource as possible, it leads to rapid depletion of coastal redwoods. Furthermore, the introduction of advanced technology has increased the intensity of the logging, which further exacerbates the rate of depletion . This was what occurred in the late 1800s when the timber industry peaked , and when technology was improving in the 19th century as well .