March 1, 2003
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Humboldt County, home to 20 years of unrest revolving around clear-cut logging and the logging of ancient trees, is currently experiencing an escalation in the conflict. Pacific Lumber (PL) has filed civil suits against trespassers for interfering with their right to harvest timber on their private property, sending climbers to officially serve the tree-sitter defendants. The newly elected district attorney has filed a lawsuit against PL, alleging unfair business practices in People vs. Pacific Lumber (see story on front page). The infamous ?Pepper Spray by Q-tip? civil trial that began in 1997, is scheduled for a retrial in Humboldt County beginning May 12. Throughout 3 watersheds, activists are continuing with their struggle to save the county?s remaining ancient trees and forests. More than 20 active tree-sits are in place and operating. The following article was written by Remedy, a 28 year-old woman who has lived atop an ancient redwood tree for a year, a tree that is slated to be logged as part of a proposed clear-cut, officially know as THP 01-451. As we go to press?on March 17, Remedy was forcibly removed from the Ancient Redwood and taken into custody. Another tree-sitter subsequently occupied the Tree.
On March 21, 2002, I climbed into the canopy of an ancient redwood that is slated to be cut by Maxxam/ Pacific Lumber with the approval of the California Department of Forestry, and I haven?t touched the ground since. The tree, named Jerry by the first climber who sat in these branches, is one of the few ancients left in Freshwater Watershed, and that number is growing fewer every day. The remaining old growth, along with the recovering second- and third- growth forest around them, is being voraciously cut and the profits funneled into the pockets of Texas corporate raider Charles Hurwitz.
Tree-sitting is a full spectrum experience. Daily, I am greeted with the powerful beauty of nature?epic sunsets, fresh green growth bursting new life in the forest, visits with the birds, squirrels and salamanders that live in the tree, and the mythic fog that rolls in to shroud me from the outside world, leaving me feeling like a character in a child?s story book. And then there is the other side, the unspeakable destruction and its aftermath that is visible from sun-up to sundown. Where a thriving redwood forest stood for 20 million years, there is now a mottled landscape, characterized by countless clearcuts and the stark remnants of a vast forest so quickly devoured by ignorance, greed, and corporate domination.
Chainsaws and the yarding whistles start at dawn as multiple Timber Harvest Plans, or tracts of living earth, are devoured simultaneously. It?s the symphony of destruction in surround-sound. One-thousand-year-old trees that come crashing to the ground are not even allowed to fall in silence as the whine of other chainsaws drone on. In recent weeks I?ve witnessed days where more than one tree fell per minute, where logging continued in the rain only days after record rainfall, and the landscape around me changed drastically. They log on holidays and at times they log seven days a week.
Under the grossly misnamed Habitat Conservation Plan, Maxxam is allowed to clearcut 500 acres per year in Freshwater, where several forest defenders are working to defend the trees. By all appearances, Maxxam is working on taking those 500 acres as fast as possible. It is disturbing in light of their recent conduct in the Van Duzen watershed where they have over-cut in four years what they planned to cut in ten.
There are currently more tree-sits in Humboldt than the county has ever seen before. We?ve made it through several record breaking storms, the highlights including 80-100 mph winds, record rainfall, hail, thunder, lightning, and Humboldt?s first ever tornado warning. Despite these challenges, we remain committed to defending the last of the unprotected old growth, and standing up against the unsustainable logging practices that destroy forests, jobs and endangered species habitat.
Beyond just being a group of individual tree-sits, we have a network of tree villages. For the brave and experienced, you can travel from tree to tree without touching the ground over a series of traverse lines that connect the trees together. The ?villagers? keep in contact with each other via walkie-talkies and cell phones.
Our goals for the forest remain unchanged and are as follows: 1) an end to old growth logging, 2) an end to clear cutting, 3) an end to herbicide spraying, 4) an end to logging on steep and unstable slopes. These four guidelines would protect the health and integrity of the forest and all the creatures, human and non-human, that rely on them for survival. How strong can we be when the land and water are doused with the timber industry?s cocktail of herbicides ? la diesel fuel, when the forest is cut at two to three times the rate of growth, when the public trust is held hostage by a rogue corporation? The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our environment. The health of the forest allows the health of the people.
Representatives of both Maxxam and Pacific Lumber have expressed concern over the safety of the tree-sitters. The disingenuousness of this claim is proven repeatedly, not only by their common practice of sending hired climbers up to evict tree-sitters, using such dangerous tactics as pain compliance and zip tying the sitters? hands behind their backs at 200 feet above the ground, but also by routinely employing timber practices that degrade water quality, which endangers everyone. The safety of residents living below the steep slopes that PL carelessly clearcuts with the full approval of the state agencies ostensibly in charge of regulating such practices, is not taken into consideration. It is this disregard for public health and safety, as well as the health of the forest and all its inhabitants that drive us to taking direct action.
Sitting in a tree in the forest for a year is truly an eye-opening experience. I have witnessed the majestic turning of the seasons that has nurtured all life for billions of years, as well as the systematic force continually chomping away at it, driving species to extinction and threatening our own. Last spring I was here while a variety of birds returned to the area for their summertime stay in Northern Humboldt, and I was here in the fall when they left for their Southern migration. So many nests are no longer here to be returned to. While my radio, and newspapers report a judge?s orders to halt all PL timber operations, or a scientific review panel?s conclusion that only an immediate reduction of the rate of timber harvest will prevent permanent damage to these already degraded watersheds, the clearcuts continue with impunity. Promising headlines do not change the daily destruction of the forest. To hear, see, and feel such corrupt and arrogant injustice in the face of our collective best efforts is to deepen my resolve to stand up for the forest and resist its slaughter and the consequences will be paid by the coming generations.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2003