Logging on Rainbow Ridge in the Mattole has begun. Helicopter fuel trucks have made their run through the gates; the sheriffs with the aid of zealous Fish and Game wardens have been tracking forest defenders in the woods for nearly a month, arresting all they can grab hold of. But resistance continues over the
logging of more than 200 acres of old-growth Douglas-fir forestland. Maxxam has five approved THPs in the area (encompassing 243 acres) and has completed only one, the salvage of trees illegally cut in 1998 before the Court enjoined them.
Litigation filed by EPIC, the Humboldt Watershed Council, and the Lost Coast League was unsuccessful in halting THP 475, and litigation filed in propria persona (that is, without the aid of a lawyer) by Dan Ehresman on THPs 031 and 020 also has not achieved an injunction.
Downstream residents are vocally opposing the logging; holding rallies at Monument and Fox Camp Gates to talk the loggers out of working the plans, and appealing to Maxxam/Pacific Lumber to begin negotiations to sell the 14,000-acre Rainbow Ridge holding.
The State Legislature is likely to re-appropriate the $13 million that was unspent from AB1986 (Headwaters Forest Appropriations) to its originally proposed acquisition of the ?unentered old-growth forests of the Mattole.? (Contact your legislators to support that funding!). Other sources of funds are being sought through the work of Ancient Forest International (AFI). For more information, contact AFI at 923-3015.
Frustrated by the large public outcry against their plans for Rainbow Ridge, Pacific Lumber has filed a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit to silence its critics, especially those who
trespass to prevent logging. PL, along with its logging contractors and two ranchers, are claiming damages incurred as a result of logging blockages by forest defenders since November. Also included in the suit are downstream residents Jane Lapiner, Ellen Taylor, and Ali Freedlund, seeking enormous financial damages that put the residents? homes at risk. This is one of the most chilling aspects of the timber conflict since it, in effect, is an effort to deny the public its right of freedom of speech, guaranteed under the US Constitution. If this suit is found to have been wrongfully filed, Pacific Lumber and its co-plaintiffs could be vulnerable to a costly counter-suit under the provisions enacted into law by then State Senator and present Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Spring 2001