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Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Granted Temporary Restraining Order Against Tree-Sitters
A Preliminary Injunction and Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) requested by
Pacific Lumber (PL) against tree-sitters was granted this morning. PL went
before in Humboldt Superior Court by Judge Dale Reinholtsen last Friday seeking
an ruling ordering tree-sitters to vacate their perches and remove their gear
within 24 hours, and to further restrain forest defenders from
ð interfering with PL's timber operations;
ð entering PL's property;
ð blocking or damaging roads;
ð engaging in tree occupations;
ð entering property for purposes of providing supplies to those engaged in
tree occupations; or
ð conspiring or soliciting others to enter PL's property.
Presumably, Pacific Lumber would take action when that 24 hours is up.
There at least 20 activists sitting in trees in the Freshwater watershed,
in a last ditch effort to bring attention to continued logging in the area
that long-time residents, scientists and environmental groups alike contend
is devastating the watershed. Floods, debris torrents and extreme sedimentation
of streams has become the norm, as steep unstable slopes are denuded. The
logging prescriptions in Freshwater are also setting the precedent for other
watersheds subject to PL logging in their 211,000 acre ownership.
The TRO is based on a SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation)
that PL filed against tree-sitters last August. PL security served papers
on additional activists on Wednesday March 5, in some cases nailing the legal
papers nailed to trees with platforms hung high above in the branches.
The Freshwater watershed has been embroiled in controversy over the rate of
cut by Pacific Lumber, whose Habitat Conservation Plan/Sustained Yield Plan
(part of the Headwaters deal) allows 500 acres to be clear-cut per year. After
hearing from a scientific panel confirming a direct correlation between rate
of harvest and damages to water quality values, and hearing from scores of
residents with pictures of flooded roads and homes, the Regional Water Quality
Board nonetheless gave PL the green light last Thursday to log in 3 contested
Timber Harvest Plans by granting them a waiver of sediment discharge permits.
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Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters |
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