Standing Up For What's Right Actually Worked!!!

[Beast]

They won’t be cut, ever. That was the word, delivered in person on Aug. 12 by Humboldt Redwood Co. President Mike Jani, who hiked into the woods to two treesitter villages with his wife and several activists to see the old trees and talk to the treesitters. He told them it wasn’t his company’s policy to cut old-growth trees such as these. He said if they hadn’t sat in these trees, the trees surely would have been cut under the former company’s plan. He shook their hands and said, “Thank you.” Then they all walked around attaching pink “Do Not Cut” tape to the trees.

Gone were the bad old days, as of mere weeks ago, when with one lapse in vigilance -- a night unattended by a sitter -- a centuries-old tree could fall to a Pacific Lumber Co. feller’s saw lickety-split. Enter the bright days of Mendocino Redwood Co., the “greener” timber outfit owned by the Fishers, the San Francisco family that grew The Gap clothing company, who’ve promised to reorganize the bankrupt, ravaged, Maxxamized Pacific Lumber Co. into an eco-conscious and sustainable prospect to be called Humboldt Redwood Co.

...these first few weeks of the new Humboldt Redwood Co. have been nothing like the past 20 years under Charles Hurwitz, with his log-it-all-now, never-mind-the-debt (or the forest) mentality. As soon as Hurwitz had junk-bonded his way into a takeover of Pacific Lumber Co. in the mid-1980s, and then tripled the rate of cut, sparing no old growth, the troubles began. Activists researched the company’s timber harvest plans, infiltrated the company’s woods to survey what could be lost, blockaded logging roads, filed legal challenges and climbed into the trees. Tens of thousands of protesters engaged against the company to save a 60,000-acre forest containing a massive stand of old growth, named the Headwaters Forest by activist Greg King. Just before the activist-organized Redwood Summer, in 1990, a bomb blew up in a car occupied by organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, crippling Bari. Julia Butterfly sat, famously, in the tree she named Luna for two years, drawing worldwide attention to the redwoods. In 1998, a tree felled by a logger, whom witnesses say was angered by forest activists playing cat-and-mouse in the woods with him and his crew, landed on and killed activist David “Gypsy” Chain. It was the darkest moment. At other times, activists were peppersprayed by Sheriff’s deputies called in by the lumber company.

In 1999, the Headwaters deal was signed, and for a moment activists rejoiced then just as they do now. But only a portion of the forest was preserved, and activists say the deal sanctified the logging of the company’s other old growth stands. In 2003, two treesit villages sprang up in the Freshwater Creek drainage to defend old growth from another round of timber harvest plans. People from all over the world, including celebrities, came to fete the treesitters. It was also the site of several frightening treesitter extractions by climbers hired by Pacific Lumber Co., and the court battles that ensued -- company lawsuits against the treesitters for trespassing, treesitter counter-complaints over rough treatment, and so on -- dragged on for years.

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/iss...ow-treesitter/

I discovered this article in a local publication today, the reading of which brought tears of joy to my eyes, as this has been a long and bitter struggle. It looked hopeless. Who'd have thought that a bunch of ragtag dready hippies could stop a multi milliondollar corporation from having its way with its own property?

Well, the hippies did, and they literally hung in there to the very bitter end. A few of them gave their lives in this struggle, others suffered injury and even torture at the hands of county officials. A couple were even allegedly framed/murdered by the FBI, as well as the whole lot of them being labeled 'environmental terrorists'.

I'll hold off on my thoughts for now; please read the article, its well written and covers the issue well.

When the Going gets tough, the Tough get going.
We owe the Forest Defenders and their supporters gratitude and respect for their persistence and perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds and resources.
Thank You!!!