As in the past, the focuses of our protests will be the slaughtering of the last old-growth groves; the massive clearcuts and resulting mudslides and siltation of creeks and rivers; and the imminent extinction of Coho salmon, marbled murrelets, spotted owls and dozens of other species. Other important issues are the torturing of nonviolent activists with liquid pepper spray rubbed directly into their eyes; the killing of David "Gypsy" Chain; the harm done to neighboring property owners; and the unemployment and local economic depression that will follow the liquidation of the forest.
The fate of the Headwaters Forest Agreement (the notorious "Deal") is still uncertain as this newsletter goes to press. Several weeks after their "final" deadline, Senator Diane Feinstein and representatives of Maxxam and the Interior Department have been unable to come to terms. Most environmentalists didn't like the draft versions of the "Deal" anyway, and it is unlikely that whatever tinkering the Interior Department has done will make much difference to the trees, the critters, the neighbors or the workers.
The locations of the Rally, the Mass Civil Disobedience and the Action Training Camp are still being finalized. Call the MEC at (707) 468-1660 or North Coast Earth First! at (707) 825-6598 for information.
On Thursday, December 10, Julia Butterfly Hill set an incredible recordÑliving one full year on a tiny platform, 180 feet up in the top of a giant redwood named Luna.
She endured torrential rains, gale force winds and freezing temperatures, dangerous harassment by a log-burdened helicopter, and a ten day siege by company security that failed to intimidate or starve her out. She bore witness to the slaughter of Luna's sister trees all around her, and grieved as other clearcuts appeared as blights on neighboring slopes. She watched as the massive mud slides that devastated the community of Stafford continued to erode and dump silt and debris into waterways below.
Yet, Julia is not concerned with records, has not given up hope, and is not about to come down: "When I climbed Luna, I gave my word to her, the forests, and all people that I would not allow my feet to touch the ground until I felt I have done everything I possibly can. I feel there is still much more to accomplish, and I have no immediate plans to descend."
What this remarkable young woman continues to accomplish is to speak truth to power, and to compel others to listen. Pure and clear (she prays every day and is facile with facts and figures), Julia has gained the respect of loggers who once ridiculed her, and has grabbed the attention of mainstream media previously unimpressed by the "antics" of us civil disobedient protestors. Good Housekeeping magazine nominated her as one of the "Most Admired Women in the News."
On December 12, the Saturday after Julia's one year anniversary in Luna, over 500 people rallied in Stafford to support her and to protest the Headwaters Forest Agreement and species killing Habitat Conservation Plan.
On the day of the Winter Solstice, December 21, Julia placed dozens of flashing battery powered lamps on Luna's branches, creating the world's largest, oldest Christmas tree. Clearly visible from Highway 101 in the Stafford area, Luna shines as "a beacon of hope for our forests, communities and our children."
The day after Gypsy's killing, a vigil and blockade were established at the road head leading up to the logging site. Soon thereafter, a support camp was set up at a nearby campground, the blockade was expanded and a tree-sit went up. Gypsy's killing evoked mass outrage and renewed criticism of PL/Maxxam's logging practices and the "Deal", including a sympathetic story in Time magazine.
Three months after company logger A. E. Ammons intentionally felled a large tree in the direction of Gypsy and his friends, the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office absolved Ammons of guilt; they based their "findings" almost entirely on Ammons' account of what happened and ignored the statements of seven activist eyewitnesses. In fact, a few weeks earlier, District Attorney Terry Farmer suggested charging the surviving affinity group members with manslaughter!
"The PalCo Papers", a chapter in Judi Bari's book, Timber Wars, documents the callousness of PL/Maxxam's management in condoning and encouraging violence against nonviolent protestors during Redwood Summer in 1990. A couple of weeks before Gypsy's killing, at the State Legislature's Headwaters appropriations hearings, Pacific Lumber president John Campbell told Darryl Cherney that his workers were very angry and he didn't think they could be stopped from lashing out at protestors. It was more like a threat than an expression of concern.
The vigil at Gypsy Mountain continues where Gypsy left off, challenging and exposing PL/Maxxam's illegal logging practices, assuring his spirit that his sacrifice was not in vain. It is also intended to prevent destruction of evidence (Ammons wasn't falling trees in a rational sequence, although he is a seasoned professional), and to focus on the need for an impartial reinvestigation by the State Attorney General.
Meanwhile, Gypsy's family is filing a civil wrongful death lawsuit against PL/Maxxam. Though they have no background in "radical" involvements, they approved of his efforts to save Headwaters. Gypsy's mother, Cindy Allsbrooks, speaks out publicly and eloquently in support of environmentalists and against what PL/Maxxam is doing to the forest. She has asked that donations in Gypsy's memory be made to Earth First!
Julia Butterfly is not the only concerned citizen living in a tree. A local resident in the Freshwater area is in the third month of a tree- sit organized and supported by people who live in the area.
A very significant shift is occurring in the movement to stop PL/Maxxam from ravaging Headwaters Forest and the rest of their holdings. More and more established Humboldt County residents are speaking out against the way the company is doing business. What they have come to realize is that since Maxxam took over PL in 1985, only the name is the same. Pacific Lumber used to pride itself on practicing sustained yield forestry; PL/Maxxam prides itself on clearcutting.
On December 2, 1998, residents of the Freshwater and Elk River areas sponsored a press conference to publicize new reports by respected scientists critical of PL/Maxxam's draft Habitat Conservation Plan/Sustained Yield Plan. The reports conclude that these combined plans could cause the extinction of threatened coho salmon and marbled murrelets, and would increase mud slides and flooding suffered by downstream property owners. Some residents are suing PL/Maxxam. If found guilty, the company will not only be responsible for restitution, but also for substantial punitive damages.
One of the main reasons timber corporations like PL/Maxxam manage to do so much damage is lax enforcement of laws and rules on the part of state and federal agencies. Occasionally, however, one of these agencies takes its mandate seriously, and the North Coast Regional Water Control Board is acting vigorously on complaints lodged by downstream residents. Last spring the agency issued a Cleanup and Abatement Order on Freshwater Creek and the North Fork of the Elk River. The Board met again on December 10, chastised PL/Maxxam for failing to obey terms of the order, and instructed their staff to force the company into compliance. They also communicated with CDF, urging that agency to do its part to keep watersheds from being trashed.
This month, the Humboldt County Watershed Council and Forests Forever will petition the State Board of Forestry to adapt emergency rules governing cumulative impacts of logging, water quality and flooding in several watersheds. The State Forest Practices Act mandates such rules, and the California Endangered Species Act requires actual measurements, but the BOF has done neither.
Frustrated by the persistence and effectiveness of the Headwaters campaign, the powers-that-be have begun to seriously crack down. Besides the ultimate violation of assaulting us with falling trees and finally killing one of our brothers, PL/Maxxam, via "law enforcement," resorts to torture.
On several occasions sheriff's deputies have rubbed and poured liquid pepper spray directly into the eyes of nonviolent activists engaged in passive resistance. Heretofore, pepper spray was reserved for violent persons posing an immediate threat, or for out-of-control riots, neither of which has ever been an issue in Earth First! actions. Pepper spray has caused numerous deaths, leading civil rights advocates to urge that it not be used on anyone.
This is intimidation by torture, plain and simple. The desperate tactic was used in August and September of 1997 against protestors who had "locked down" (joined their arms together in metal sleeves) in Pacific Lumber's Scotia headquarters, in ex-congress member Frank Riggs' Eureka office, and at a logging site at Bear Creek. The police claimed that pepper spray was the "safest" way to force the activists to release themselves and that they (the police) didn't have any other choices. The reality is that over the years they have cut literally hundreds of us loose using little Makita grinders, with no problems.
For a while, it seemed that PL/Maxxam and the police wouldn't dare resort to this sadistic practice again. Stark footage from a police video obtained by lawyers of the victims evoked mass outrage and criticism when it was shown on network TV newscasts. In August of 1998 a civil trial resulted in a hung jury when four out of eight jurors agreed that pulling young women's eyelids open and swabbing them with pepper spray as they screamed in agony constituted "excessive force."
The victims were looking forward to a retrial, but before it could commence Judge Vaughn Walker dismissed the case, stating that pepper spray in the eyes is a reasonable way to deal with nonviolent protestors. Shortly after Judge Walker's ruling, the Police Officers Standards and Training Commission came to a similar conclusion, stating that there is no difference between active and passive resistance. If you don't obey an officer's orders you get pepper spray in the eyes, even if you are immobilized and posing no threat to anyone.
On October 7 and 8 of 1998, Humboldt County sheriff's deputies again used pepper spray in activists' eyes as they were "busting" the multi-staged blockade of the road leading up Gypsy Mountain. One young woman withstood repeated pepper spray assaults over the course of a full day and was eventually cut out the old way.
Now we must not only nonviolently defend the forest, but also ourselves from deadly assaults and torture. An appeal of the civil suit on behalf of the pepper spray victims is set for this month, and an excellent video, "Fire In The Eyes" is circulating.
This is a critical time in the Headwaters struggle. In their desperation, PL/Maxxam is saying, in effect, "If you try to stop us or expose what we are doing, we may torture you or even kill you." We must remain strong, must keep putting ourselves in the path of destruction, and must demand that we be treated as what we areÑprincipled, nonviolent forest protectors.
With PL/Maxxam logging at a frenetic pace, this is boom time for timber workers. Cutting and milling are proceeding at two to three times the sustained yield rate of the old Pacific Lumber, and labor has been imported from other states.
Of course, the flip side of boom is bust, and bust will come in a few years after PL/Maxxam has stripped off most of the remaining old growth and mature second growth trees. The corporation claims they are converting their clearcuts to even-age monospecied tree farms. But even if this biologically bankrupt plan were to work for a while, it wouldn't take very many workers to harvest crops of "pecker poles."
Even now, there are tensions between workers and management. When CDF did a rare turnabout and pulled PL/Maxxam's Timber Operator License in November, 180 workers lost their jobs. Boom-time logging is erratic, with winter layoffs that the old PL did not resort to. And there are still lingering resentments and a lawsuit over the $55 million that Hurwitz ripped off from the employees' pension fund when he took over PL thirteen years ago.
A few workers have seen the writing on the wall and have spoken out. Stan Chandler, a third generation old-growth timber faller went public after he was fired for protesting cost cutting moves that compromised worker safety. And Doug Thomas quit working for PL/Maxxam out of conscience, relocating and taking a lower paying job. Doug has voiced his concerns before the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and at Headwaters rallies.
For ten years, starting with Judi Bari, activists have consistently tried to bond with workers, pointing out that long-term job security is totally dependent upon sustained yield forestry and healthy forest ecosystems. For over six months, Earth First!'ers sat at a table in Scotia with signs that read "Pro Worker/Anti Maxxam" and "We Will Listen."
A very heartening alliance is developing between environmentalists and the United Steelworkers of America, and it directly relates to Headwaters and to Pacific Lumber employees. Maxxam Corporation leveraged a takeover of Kaiser Aluminum with profits gained from the liquidation of Pacific Lumber forests, and is presently trying to bust the USWA from five Kaiser plants. Seeing the connection between their struggle and Headwaters, steelworkers sent out a thousand letters demanding denial of PL/Maxxam's Habitat Conservation Plan during the public comment period. Earth First! reciprocated by helping blockade the unloading of a ship carrying bauxite to Kaiser's plant in Tacoma, Washington.
A contingent of 150 USWA members visited Humboldt County early in December, conducting informational pickets at PL/Maxxam mills in Scotia, Carlotta and Fortuna. Their purpose was to encourage PL workers to unionize and to ask them not to "scab" at the Kaiser plants the USWA is striking (after PL/Maxxam lost their Timber Operators License, the corporation offered their laid-off employees big bucks to become Kaiser "replacement workers"). In a blatant affront to free speech, management locked PL workers inside the mill buildings at lunchtime and after work, denying them any contact with the picketers.
The USWA people did have lots of good contact with local environmentalists, who are rooting for PL employees to form their own union. If that happens, workers will be much less subject to corporate intimidation, and much more open to allying themselves with us forest defenders.
It's outrageous enough that if the Headwaters "Deal" flies, Charles Hurwitz will be rewarded to the tune of $480 million for circumventing the Endangered Species Act. The real travesty is that he owes us taxpayers for the $1.6 billion bail-out of a failed savings and loan.
Hurwitz has been charged in this connection by the Office of Thrift Supervision, and is currently on trial in Houston. Should he be found guilty, many feel that, at the minimum, he should cede Headwaters to the public as a "debt for nature." Others also believe he should be imprisoned for his fraudulent financial activities, and a $50,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest, conviction and incarceration. Check out Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited