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Meanwhile, Charles Hurwitz, CEO of MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber, is trying to squirm out of two Savings and Loan court proceedings by falsely claiming that environmentalists put the regulators up to it in order to seize trees. In 1999 and 2000, Hurwitz made campaign contributions to key congressmen who in turn wrote to regulators and threatened hearings. ESP dubbed the scandal the "Hurwitz 5" and has obtained materials documenting the corruption. Hurwitz stands to lose an $821 million judgment before February. (See our website
www.jailhurwitz.com).
ESP often assists less-experienced groups in media outreach, issuing
approximately twenty press releases a year and successfully placing stories. With ESP's promotion, a wild, bare-breasted women's poetry reading and "art attack" against Hawthorne Timber (Mendocino County) drew national press (e.g., the Associated Press, LA Times, Jay Leno, and TV news). Even better it slowed down logging!
On the horizon is the California Private Land Forestry Reform Winter Gathering January 19-21 2001. Co-sponsored by the Humboldt Watershed Council, this confab will provide workshops in media, lawsuits, and rallies as well as providing essential networking for forestry groups affected by the governor, the Legislature, and the California Board and Department of Forestry.
News flash! The Headwaters Forest Story Coloring Book is finally in print (and also posted on www.jailhurwitz.com). Copies of this popular book for children of all ages are available for a donation of $5 (sliding scale) from ESP, P.O. 2254, Redway, CA 95560.b