Towering majestically over 1200 ft high, NetUno's corporate office casts a peaceful shadow on the concrete and steel background of Sunnyvale's booming downtown. "We started off in a small, 3 story office building 8 years ago, and now we've grown to this." commented John Gliesks, NetUno's CEO. "8 Years ago, land was still somewhat affordable in Silicon Valley, and we could afford a $700,000 office building, but no more. Prices have shot through the roof, and we're all pretty sure we know why."

For the last zillion years, huge, towering trees filled with bugs, slugs and chunks of decomposing branches have been choking a large 17,000 acre area not too far from the Bay Area. For tourists, it's a fun place to hang out and take cheesy snapshots. But for Silicon Valley Exec's, it represents a huge potential breeding ground for new companies.

"If you wanna make money in the Bay Area, buy some heavy machinery stocks." laughed Marcus Brodling, a local developer spearheading a plan to clearcut the redwoods. "Sure, they're really big trees, and I guess that's kind of neat and stuff, but c'mon? 17,000 acres sitting around not getting used? How about if we leave 500 acres untouched and chop down the rest? I mean, 500 acres of redwoods is more than enough for anyone to walk around and take pictures of. It's like the ex-pres Ronald Reagan said: You've seen one redwood, you've seen 'em all."

"It's not that I'm anti-nature." commented John Gliesks. "I saw "The Edge" with Anthony Hopkins and that big bear, and thought it was cool. I even drove through the redwoods once and looked at a big cross section of some big old tree they cut down. But enough is enough: there's plenty of companies chomping at the bit, ready to start up and bring even more money into this area, but they can't, because land is too expensive. And the whole time, you've got all these stupid trees standing around doing nothing.

As part of an educational program, Webside Up!, a Silicon Valley based Internet company with a market cap of millions, has committed 11 terrabytes of storage to a "Virtual Redwoods" world, where future generations can walk through a virtural mock-up of the Redwoods. "Though I'm not sure why they'd want to." commented Gliesks

The New Face of The Redwoods? This digitally
created mock-up looks like the real thing.

"When I think of all of the paper money that can be generated by turning these huge giants into pulp, I cry." added Brodling.