March 24,
2003
Remedy Rally Report
By Ellen O'Tellin
mightymouth@asis.com
A 27-year-old Michigan native calling herself Remedy spoke at the March 23
rally that would have marked her one-year anniversary sitting in an ancient
redwood tree, had she not been forcibly removed a few days earlier by a MAXXAM/Pacific
Lumber security team. Speaking at the roadside site of her former tree-sit
in the Freshwater area just north of Eureka, Remedy wore a daffodil presented
to her by a supporter and spoke with quiet conviction when she said:
"Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you for supporting direct
action, the treesitters and everyone who does all they can to get in the way
of this constant destruction of these ancient forests.
"I want to take this opportunity to encourage you to look around here
at this timber harvest plan. Everything that follows the road right here and
back for 38 acres, this is Unit 2. Back down the road in lower village is
32 acres, that's unit 1. There are 2 more acres out in the forest, 22 acres
already clearcut. Unit 3 still stands. This is one of the largest timber harvest
plans in Freshwater.
"A lot of times some of the propaganda that PL puts out is that the treesitters
are slowing them down and I hope to God someday that's true. Last summer there
were 11 active timber harvest plans in Freshwater, so we're not slowing them
down. We slowed them down in these trees, but you really can't have much sympathy
for PL. They've got more approved timber harvest plans now than ever before.
CDF [California Department of Forestry] rubberstamps every single harvest
plan that comes across their desk. The approval process is just that, they
never turn them down."
Referring to last year's ruling by California Superior Court judge John Golden
that PL halt to all logging operations, (see http://www.headwaterspreserve.org/bach_updates.php?action=showtext&id=00037),
Remedy continued, "The Golden Ruling, which came down on August 29, still
stands. It was such a source of high hope at one point, that they were actually
going to put a moratorium on those timber harvest plans. But all it did was
encourage Pacific Lumber to start logging faster, to the point where they're
putting out 200 log trucks a day in their holdings in Freshwater, the Mattole,
Elk River. Residents were reporting old growth trees being cut in their watersheds
faster than ever before.
"There are so many reasons to resist. There are less than 3% of the ancient
trees left, and every single one of them is worth saving, every one of them
is worth fighting for.
"Living in Jerry for a year was the most amazing experience of my life.
I got to see the days grow long and the days grow short again. I saw meteor
showers >from those ancient branches, a lot of full moons, rain, hail,
100-mile-an-hour winds, Humboldt county's first tornado warning. I often felt
like I was an offering to the gods for whatever was going to happen, and a
lot happened.
"Someone told me when I was first up there, 'nothing's gonna change with
you up there in that tree.' I saw a lot of thing change. I saw the whole landscape
around me change. I saw so many trees cut down, helicopter yarding &At
6:00 in the morning, six days a week, the yarding whistles would wake me up,
so I could sit here and watch and listen to the forest being destroyed, no
matter the consequences being suffered by the residents of this watershed,
the destruction of endangered species habitat, the destruction of these ancient,
beautiful magical trees.
"Thank you for loving the earth. Don't be afraid to be sad. Don't be
afraid to let this break your heart, because it will just open you up and
push you into action, whatever your action is. Whatever you're good at, whatever
you love. I loved sitting up in that tree. I loved watching the sunrise and
the sunset and having Jerry do my hair [a reference to her dreadlocks, which
brought laughter >from the crowd.] Whatever brings you joy, whatever you
can do for the woods, the forest loves you for it, and I love you for it,
so thank you." She ended with her hand on her heart to the wild applause
and cheers of her supporters.
The tree in which Remedy sat, named "Jerry" by activists for the
late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, was still standing at the rally
but had been severely damaged by having several of its larger limbs cut off.
Three more activists climbed into the tree after Remedy's extraction, but
were also removed, one of them from narrow branches at the very top of the
200-foot tree. At the time of the rally another activist named Phil was occupying
Jerry. A woman named Wren who occupied a tree near Jerry and other treesitters
>from the lower village just down the road were also removed during the
week. There have been well over 20 arrests this week alone. MAXXAM/PL also
began girdling the trees, a practice of cutting a complete circle around the
bark in order to kill the tree slowly by cutting off its circulation, even
while sitters are still perched on their platforms.
The rally took place without incident, with both organizers and CHP vehicles
driving by admonishing the crowd to stay off the road. Remedy's mother, who
had traveled from Michigan for the event along with Remedy's sister, spoke
at the rally, thanking the supporters for looking after her daughter. Three
activists who had been arrested during the week observing the tree extractions
also spoke. Karen Pickett of the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters spoke of
the wide support the treesitters have. "I'm a tree hugger, I m not a
climber. & Just like the trees, we have these branches, we have these
roots that reach out and reach far." Veteran Earth First! organizer Naomi
Wagner opened her speech saying, "No war on Iraq, no war on the environment!"
Wagner compared the brutality of war to the de-limbing of Jerry she had witnessed.
"I noticed in the end when the huge branches were crashing down, everyone
looked so sad, including the sheriffs and the security guards." Wagner
introduced a tiny, gray-haired woman calling herself Sparrow who locked down
and got herself arrested trying to keep the treeclimbers out of the trees.
"Action is the antidote to despair, and we're not going to let the bastards
get us down!" she told the cheering crowd.
Several of the tree-sitters and their ground crews have been served with so-called
SLAAP lawsuits by MAXXAM/PL. Meanwhile, Humboldt county District Attorney
Paul Gallegos is suing MAXXAM/PL for misrepresenting data in securing the
Headwaters sustained yield plan, a document which established logging parameters
in a deal secured in 1999 by the most famous tree-sitter, Julia Butterfly
Hill. The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) and United Steelworkers
are also suing MAXXAM/PL in a race against time, with direct actions both
in Freshwater and the Mattole river watershed attempting to slow down the
logging until court cases can be decided. Anyone who drives up Route 101 North
can see clearcuts in the Jordan Creek area right from the freeway and >from
the Avenue of the Giants.
On March 18, the U.S. Forest Service endorsed major changes to a conservation
plan that could lead to more logging, cattle grazing and off-road vehicle
use across 11 million acres of the Sierra Nevada.
Under the plan's revisions, overall logging in the Sierra would more than
double to 450 million board feet yearly. The following day, California Democratic
lawmakers introduced an ambitious package of timber bills that would sharply
restrict clear-cutting and protect water quality in timber-cutting areas.
SB810 (Burton) would give local water quality boards power to block logging
proposals; SB217 (Sher) would restrict logging along creeks; SB557 (Kuehl)
would impose a tax of 1 cent per board foot on wood to pay for the state's
costs of reviewing timber plans and restore habitats damaged by logging; and
AB47 would order the Board of Forestry to provide detailed information about
past logging projects so the cumulative impact of new projects could be better
assessed. The package also includes a ban on state agencies buying wood >from
ancient trees and a ban on cutting any tree over 150 years old.
Earth First! organizer Darryl Cherney announced at the rally that he had discovered
that the Northwest Insurance Company, in the Henderson Center in Eureka, provides
liability insurance to Eric Schatz of Schatz Tree Service, the man who is
climbing the trees and taking down the sitters in what observers say is a
very dangerous manner. Cherney suggested a protest might be in order at Northwest
"with this demand: if they're going to continue to engage in this behavior
their insurance premiums need to quadruple. Also we're notifying the media
so they can expect some phone calls from the press about whether they were
properly insured." Activist Sue Maloney encouraged county residents to
attend Tuesday's Board of Supervisor's meeting for the 2 PM public comment
period to ask about law enforcement's involvement in the operation and the
attendant costs.
Activists and observers are also needed at the treesit sites. Directions -
GO TO north end of Eureka. Take Myrtle Avenue exit. Go a few miles to 3 Corners
Market. Turn on Freshwater Road for 100 feet make immediate left on Greenwood
Hts. Rd. 1.8 miles uphill exactly until you get to the extraction operation.
Tree on right will have giant cave at the bottom of it but there will be many
people there. From Arcata take 101 So. to the Indianola Cut-off. Right on
Myrtle Ave to the Three Corners market. Turn on Freshwater 100 feet left on
Greenwood Hts. Rd. past roadblock. } |
