Unemployment. Plant Closures. Environmental Pressure. MadRiver is a portrait of a rural community facing environmental and economic disaster. Humboldt County is in the middle of the richest timberland in America: Redwoods 300 feet tall, 400 tons, 2,000 years old - the tallest trees in the world - grow here. Once this forest seemed limitless. Today there is a shortage of timber. Mills are closing. Unemployment is over 20 per cent.