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| Corporate Lawsuits Against Forest Protesters Begin 3-1-06 For Immediate Release - Contact: March 1, 2006 Wednesday, March 1, 2006 For immediate release Corporate Lawsuits Against Forest Protesters Begin Maxxam/PL Has Filed Numberous Lawuits to Quell Protests The trial of Pacific Lumber (PL) and Scotia Pacific (ScoPac) Corporations versus Kim Starr began jury selection this week in Judge Watson's Superior Court in Humboldt county. This is the first of three civil lawsuits, known as S.L.A.P.P suits, filed by the corporation against forest activists. "S.L.A.P.P" stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation and are a strategy employed by corporations, usually corporations in the extractive industries, to quell opposition against their practices. Starr, a well known local forest activist, is representing herself against a the harassment lawsuit for alleged civil trespass and conspiracy to commit trespass related to a protest at PL headquarters in Scotia in in 2002, to call attention to damaging logging in the Mattole River watershed. The case number is DR020478, Pacific Lumber et al v. Jonathan Laine, Kimberly Starr et al. A second SLAPP suit revolves around dramatic forest protests that took place in the Mattole area itself in 2001. The company's harvest plans in Mattole attracted much public concern as the area is considered especially sensitive to industrial logging due to its extremely steep and geologically unstable terrain. With the most seismic activity in the continental U.S., steep slopes, it contains some of the county's last remaining pristine old growth Douglas fir providing habitat for endangered Coho salmon and other old growth dependant species. The third SLAPP suit is focused on the Freshwater protests of March 2003 when treesitter Remedy and others were removed from high up in ancient redwoods they had occupied for up to a year alongside Greenwood Heights Road. Over forty people were arrested at that time during intense public protests. Large crowds turned out to witness and protest the cutting of the ancient trees as well as the sometimes brutal and always reckless extractions performed by Mr. Eric Schatz of Schatz Tree Service and his employees, under contract to PL. Videotaped recordings of the extractions were secretly made by Schatz and other contractors in the now notorious head-cam footage later shown on Channel 6 TV news. The tapes have been the subject of a legal tug of war between the litigants during the discovery phase and are the basis of numerous cross-complaints filed by the defendants. In the Freshwater legal action, Maxxam/ PL's ownership relative to the easement alongside the county road has also been called into question. In 2003, a jury found two activists, one arrested in a tree and the other on the ground below in the contested Freshwater area not guilty of trespass. Maxxam/PL has filed at least six of these SLAPP harassment lawsuits against critics of their liquidation logging practices, the first in 1987. The suits currently in court were filed between 2001 and 2003.  << Back to Press Release Archive | Latest Press Release | Newsroom | | 
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