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The family of David "Gypsy" Chain has brought this wrongful death lawsuit in civil court due to the failure of the District Attorney to file criminal charges. As well as monetary damages, the family is seeking creative solutions to bridge the gap between the environmental and logging communities, which has been exploited and fanned by company officials.
Since the discovery of Headwaters Forest on Pacific Lumber lands in the mid-1980s by Earth First! activists, hundreds, if not thousands, of people have trespassed to view the giant cathedrals and to protest the liquidation logging practices being carried out in the old forests. The company's treatment of nonviolent forest protesters has mirrored its disregard for the land: a history of violence and abuse has been encouraged and exploited by this rogue corporation.
Gypsy was killed on September 17, 1998, when an enraged Pacific Lumber logger felled trees at a group of protesters. This was not the first time Pacific Lumber employees had threatened protesters, felled trees at them, chased them down, and thrown rocks at them. But attempting to reach this logger, Ammons, one last time, the activists approached him; he sent a giant redwood into the group's center. Gypsy was killed while standing only feet away from his friends, who were showered with the debris of crashing branches.
To date Pacific Lumber has continued to violate environmental laws and assault nonviolent protesters. The president, John Campbell, stated in the media after the incident that he thought Ammons had acted appropriately. The company, in ratifying Ammons' behavior, has sent a chilling message to future protesters and to their employees. This trend of abuse to protesters has been been replicated across the country, from Seattle to Washington, D.C.
As with many other movements throughout history, without people taking direct action (be that by sitting at lunch counters or marching in protest) injustice will go unaddressed, if not unnoticed. One hundred years from now people will look back in disbelief at the logging of ancient forests and the degradation of watersheds, and they will regard Earth First! protesters as heroes and their actions as necessary, as we may today look back at those civil rights demonstrators of the 1960s, or the South African freedom fighters, or the women of the suffrage movement, or the American Indians who fought for their land, or the millions who marched with Gandhi.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Fall 2000