Posted on 03/06/2003 10:10:50 AM PST by farmfriend
PL tells Freshwater tree-sitters to get out
By James Tressler The Times-Standard
FRESHWATER -- Pacific Lumber Co. sent climbers up ancient redwood trees here Wednesday to deliver a message personally to tree-sitting activists.
The message: It's time to come down.
At least 18 activists sitting in PL-owned trees in the Freshwater area were served notice of a hearing scheduled Friday in Humboldt County Superior Court.
The timber company is seeking a temporary restraining order which, if approved by Judge Dale Reinholtsen Friday, would order all of the tree-sitters to stay off the company's property. It also would order the activists not to interfere with the company's logging operations.
If the judge issues the restraining order Friday, the activists would have 24 hours to come down after being served the restraining order. Otherwise PL would send the climbers back up the trees to arrest them.
PL sued the activists last September, alleging that tree-sitting and other demonstration activities have caused economic damage to the company. That lawsuit has yet to be heard in court.
"Our desire would be that these kids come down out of the trees for their own safety and for everyone else's," said Jim Branham, Pacific Lumber's director of government relations. "It's a dangerous activity, and really the best alternative would be for them to voluntarily come down."
This week PL also posted signs on the trees advising the tree-sitters they are trespassing on private property, to leave, and not return unless they had written permission from the company.
At least 30 other activists and Freshwater residents watched from the ground Wednesday as PL's two climbers went up each tree to deliver the notices. Many of them tried to talk one of the PL climbers, Eric Schatz, out of doing his job.
"Don't do it, Eric -- think of the forests," one of them said as Schatz started up another tree. Other supporters played drums, sang songs and chanted encouragement to the activists high above in the trees.
A couple of Sheriff's Department deputies were on the scene, but no arrests were made.
The crackdown on the tree-sitters comes on the heels of a decision last week by the North Coast Water Quality Control Board, which granted PL permits to log on the disputed land in the Freshwater area. Critics petitioned the board to slow PL's rate of cut, a cause backed by some leading scientists.
The tree-sitters have been protesting what they characterize as destructive logging practices, which they believe destroyed ancient redwood trees, caused erosion and damaged watersheds. Some have been in the trees for months.
The activists have called PL's lawsuit against them a so-called "SLAPP suit," or strategic lawsuit against public participation.
Branham called that characterization "nonsense."
"We're trying to protect our private property rights," he said. "And trying to stop individuals from engaging in illegal activity. It has nothing to do with their right to express themselves legally."
Other tree-sitters are also demonstrating on PL-owned timber land in Grizzly Creek and the Mattole. Now that the company is cracking down on the Freshwater tree-sitters, it's likely that the other sitters can expect similar visits from PL climbers sometime soon.
"We're not doing that at this time, but it's certainly a reasonable expectation that it will happen in the future," Branham said.
Meanwhile, an activist known as Remedy, who has been in a 1,200-year-old redwood tree for nearly a year, said she has no intention of coming down.
"I'm here to defend this tree," Remedy said from her cell phone. "If (PL) is willing to take into consideration the health of the forest, the health of our community and the other property owners, then we'd see all protests on their land come to an end."
The hearing on PL's restraining order is set for Friday at 10:30 a.m. in courtroom No. 1 at the county courthouse.
What kid of a person has an entire year to take off and go sit in a tree? Who would finance such a thing? They need to eat, at least.
Or, to turn it around, imagine what good could have been done if this same person was financed to volunteer at a church or a charity for an entire year. Instead, they decided to go sit in a tree. Selfish idiots.
I guess it would be too much to ask which scientists and which fields they are "leaders" in....nah, no need to know, we'll just have to tak your word for it...
No, not pissed, just sad for the way your anger has blinded your imagination. If someone gets hurt extracting them, PL will get the heat. Here's what to do:
Allow them very limited supplies: water, bread, and maybe some cheese. DO NOT permit them batteries (no radios, no flashlights, no music, no cell phones).
Go get some beers, a sleeping bag, and some sandwiches in a cooler. Offer them a good meal if they come down. Set up a team of foresters and landowners and read to them, 20 hours per day. Read them Holly Swanson's book. Read them Ron Arnold's books. Explain to them how they are being used by the very big corporations, banks, and investors that they think they are fighting.
Arrest anyone who interferes.
Then read them my book. Have the landowners add anecdotal stories of how they have loved their land for over a hundred years, how taxes (that paid for their schools and built their parents' houses) forced them to log the old growth harder than anyone really wanted to, and how these kids are ruining their lives and their communities. Who takes over then? The big timber concerns, developers, and the government (which routinely makes a mess of things).
These kids have never had real parents. If it's done with firmness, kindness, and relentless commitment, they'll come down, and maybe even join the human race.
It's the photo-op from heaven.
It's their love of forests against ours. If we win that battle we will have taken the moral high ground and dealt a body blow to the entire movement. It's worth both the effort and the expense.
Earth First, Sierra Club, etc., etc. All supported by the big foundations. Plenty of money in the enviro groups.
Guess I'm just easily entertained.
BTW, Redwood trees are pretty d*mned impressive. I've seen some of the old white pines that the colonists used to use for tree masts. They're dwarfed by these redwoods....and the ones that we saw were the little ones. It's worth saving those in the national parks. Outside of that....they're fair game, as far as I'm concerned.
THE AUDACITY OF THE LUMBER COMPANY TO ACTUALLY THINK THAT THEY HAVE ANY PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS.
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