Action Camp on the Klamath River
On a cold December morning, the Klamath Justice Coalition blockaded logging operations that were causing ongoing damage to Karuk sacred sites. The Orleans Community Fuels Reduction plan, or OCFR, had included an agreement between the Forest Service and the Karuk Tribe to protect the sites, but the Forest Service failed to communicate that to their logging contractors. The contractors were cutting oaks that were supposed to be left, and cutting towering old conifers outside of the approved logging areas. This is just one of a series of incidents in which Forest Service activities have led to the bulldozing of Karuk ceremonial and cultural sites. (read more)


Tree-Sitters Descend Victoriously From Freshwater Tree-Village

Following 20 years of intense front-lines struggle to defend Ancient Redwood and Douglas-fir forests from the liquidation logging of Maxxam/ Pacific Lumber, tree-sitters can safely come down from their perches and forest activists of all stripes can turn their attention to other threats. (read more)


Forest Activist Update: Mattole SLAPP* Suit Update *(Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation)
Maxxam's Pacific Lumber (PL) and their subcontractors Columbia Helicopter, Steve Wills Trucking, Russ Timber, and Lewis Logging, along with two ranch owners, filed a civil trespass and conspiracy action against 200 named and unnamed forest protection activists and residents of the remote Mattole River watershed on California's north coast. Arising from protests and actions performed to stop logging of Mattole old-growth Douglas-fir forest, the civil suit demanded injunctive judgments against Defendants and several hundred thousand dollars in alleged monetary losses. (read more)


North Coast Earth First!
As we move through the winter of 2004-2005, the tree-sitters in the Freshwater Creek and Mattole River watersheds continue to maintain their vigils. A tree-sitter named "Willow" has surpassed his one-year anniversary (Nov. 11, '04) in "Jerry," one of the old-growth redwood trees remaining in the "Upper Village" of Freshwater Creek. In addition to the Jerry tree, three more ancient redwoods stand in Upper Village, so close to a public road that they are most likely in the public easement, yet Maxxam/Pacific Lumber claims to own them and plans to destroy them. (read more)


Keeping Abreast: North Coast Earth First!
NCEF's main focus this spring has been in Freshwater, the small, rural community near Eureka whose wildlife and water quality are paying the price of Maxxam/Pacific Lumber's unsustainable forestry practices. At mid-March, some twenty-five treesits had sprung up in the beleaguered watershed to protect the last remaining ancient redwoods from the relentless onslaught of chainsaws clear-cutting on steep slopes. Well-known treesitter Remedy was looking forward to her one-year anniversary in the tree named "Jerry" and a celebration rally was planned. (read more)


Madsen Descends After Two Years in Mariah

	Nate Madsen

After two years living in Mariah, a thousand-year-old tree, Nate (read more)


News From Nate Madsen: Still Up a Tree in Freshwater

Photo: Shaun Walker

Despite a moratorium on new timber harvest plans in the Freshwater Creek and Elk River areas, a PG&E exemption is permitting cutting along the utility company's right of way, so I am once again bearing witness to the destruction. (read more)