After hearing the news that Green Diamond (GD) was clearcutting young redwoods in the Jacoby Creek watershed near Arcata, CA, forest activists began taking direct action to oppose the logging. Two people blocked the single-gated entrance to the area with an elaborate rope system, whereby one person was perched on a platform over 60 feet in the air (in the beginning) and their main life-supporting rope was securely anchored only to the logging road gate. Another tree-climbing forest defender was perched in a tree nearby to send her food and water that was being stored in the branches. Shortly after this was finally set up, at around five o'clock in the morning, loggers arrived to find the gate blocked and wrapped in yellow caution tape. A supporter of the activists told the guys in the truck that someone's life was on the rope tied to the gate and warned them not to tamper with it. Later, as workers piled out of a van to inspect the situation, one of them attempted to cut through the rope. He cut over half-way through it before a supporter on the ground squeezed between the rope and the knife. (read more)
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
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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
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News From Nate Madsen: Still Up a Tree in Freshwater
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