Humboldt county, California-Three forest activists were forcibly extracted from high in the enormous radial branches of a 600 year old redwood tree, lowered 150 feet to the ground and placed under citizen's arrest by Maxxam/Pacific Lumber (PL) employees on Saturday, Sept. 25 near Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park in coastal northern California. A fourth activist was arrested on the ground. Immediately after the tree sitters' removal, the grove of five ancient redwoods and the massive giant known as "Aradia" were cut down. The area is known as "Gypsy Mountain", named in memory of young activist David "Gypsy" Chain, killed on Sept. 17, 1998 when an irate PL logger felled a tree directly onto him.
The Aradia tree had been occupied for over two and a half years by activists who hoped to keep the trees standing until the timber harvest plan ran out in January '05, or until legislation such as the Heritage Tree Act could preserve the trees-some as old as 1000 years-in perpetuity. Activists had also made a proposal to purchase the grove as a memorial to David Chain. But on Saturday, the ancient trees, and the activists' hopes for a positive outcome on Gypsy Mountain were destroyed forever.
North Coast Earth First! activist Shunka Wakan, an eye witness to Gypsy's 1998 death has worked tirelessly to protect the grove. He described the loss as "a personal and an ecological tragedy," saying, "We grieve the loss of a friend on Gypsy Mountain once again-this time, an ancient redwood tree."
The Aradia grove contained endangered marbled murrelet habitat but lay just outside the State Park boundaries and was not included in the Headwaters Forest Agreement acquisition that more than tripled the size of Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park. Wakan had personally presented a proposal to acquire the Aradia Grove area to Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz at a shareholders meeting in Houston, Texas earlier this year. David Chain's mother also traveled from Texas to northern California to lobby PL president Robert Manne for the grove's preservation.
Dozens of contract employees and company officials arrived for the weekend raid, including the locally notorious " climber Eric" Shatz, to pry protestors from their lofty perches, and perform legally dubious citizens' arrests. The activists were taken into custody by Humboldt County Sheriffs Deputies Bolton and McCaulister, two officers with long histories of brutality against nonviolent protesters. One activist, Wessel Lewis, reported a probable dislocated shoulder after being thrown to the ground by Deputy Bolton.
Eric Schatz owns a local tree trimming business, but was reportedly paid as much $70,000 per day to extract tree sitters from ancient redwoods in Freshwater watershed last year He is being sued by long time tree-sitter Remedy for assault, reckless endangerment and emotional distress she alleges occurred during her removal from an ancient redwood in Freshwater after a year-long tree-sit.
