Join us for Judi Bari Day May 24, 11:30 am in Oakland

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May 24 is Judi Bari Day* **Please share with your networks** Please join us to COMMEMORATE the anniversary of the 1990 Oakland bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney CELEBRATE and STRENGTHEN Revolutionary resistance and movement solidarity May 24, 2018 is the 28th anniversary of the attack on Earth First! and Judi and Darryl by car bomb in Oakland in 1990 as Redwood Summer, a summer of resistance to forest liquidation logging, dawned. At 11:30 am, people will gather to mark the moment of the bombing itself (12 noon) at the actual location the bomb blew up Judi’s car, in an …

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Mattole Forest Action Training May 24 – 27

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Mattole Forest Defense Training Camp May 24-27 We just got this call out from the forest defenders in the Mattole: Come hang out, learn awesome skills, and get plugged in with your local forest defense campaigns! We will be gathering from the 24th until the 27th of May for an Action Training Camp in the Mattole River watershed.  We recognize this land was stolen from the indigenous Mattole people. Please RSVP for directions. Workshops and discussions will include: Strategic non-violent direct action Know your rights and security culture, Plant walk! Tree climbing training and knots Ground-truthing Navigating in the Mountains …

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North Coast Forest Update–Mattole, Gualala and more

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Old Trees, River Habitat and Action: They Go Together No New Road for the Mattole!  Forest Defenders on Alert for Logging Season Our last update to you concerning the magnificent old forests in the Mattole watershed [http://headwaterspreserve.org/2018/02/comments-needed-on-mattole-forest-road-building-offshore-oil-and-wild-smith-river/] addressed Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC)’s new logging road proposal, which seemed to have no rational foundation for construction, except to get around forest defenders’ blockade. Thanks to strong public and organizational challenges, HRC withdrew their construction proposal. This is good news! But after a too-brief sigh of relief, Mattole area activists are shifting into vigilant alert mode, as the rains stop and logging season …

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Court hearings on Richardson Grove and new alliance

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Rumblings about Richardson Grove Redwoods from Caltrans Also: New Indigenous-Enviro Alliance Sees Success We were alerted by our colleagues on the North Coast that, after a long respite of no activity on the Richardson Grove front, there are things happening behind the scenes, in the courts, and in the County Supervisor’s chambers.  Most of you will remember that Caltrans’ backward-looking ruminations for bigger, faster roadways yielded a plan announced over a decade ago, to widen and “realign” Highway 101 through the towering ancient redwoods of Richardson Grove State Park in southern Humboldt County. That plan, controversial from the beginning, has been …

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Comments Needed on Mattole Forest road building, Offshore Oil and wild Smith River!

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Deep in the fog-shrouded coastal forests in the hills above the ocean in southern Humboldt county, a new logging road is planned that has no good reason to be built.  This area of old forest, mostly Doug Fir and other species in the Mattole River watershed, is one of the few areas outsides of the now publicly-owned  Headwaters Reserve that was left in fairly pristine shape by the old, rapacious Pacific Lumber. But the timber company that bought the forestland from PL/Maxxam—Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC)—is not leaving it alone.   Activists have had a long-standing blockade (see previous Mattole BACH …

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Action Updates: Mattole Forest Blockade and Richardson Grove!

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UPDATE ON  MATTOLE  FOREST DEFENSE! An area in the Mattole River watershed on  Northern California’s forested coast is called the “Lost Coast”, because of its relative remoteness from major highways and population centers. There lies mature Douglas Fir forest, unmolested by logging—left behind even by the rapacious Maxxam Pacific Lumber, in favor of more accessible redwood forest. Humboldt Redwood Co. (HRC), the current owners, have been threatening to log in an area known as Rainbow Ridge. They have been met with staunch opposition from local residents and stalwart forest defenders who have maintained a formidable blockade for five months.   HRC recently …

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More on Richardson Grove Redux: Trucks vs. Redwoods

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Caltrans has been adamant ever since they lost their Richardson Grove Highway Realignment case* in Federal Court in 2014 and were chastised by the judge for their false data and sloppy analysis. The agency was determined to resurrect their plan to accommodate oversized STAA big rig trucks on Hwy. 101 through the heart of redwood country. So their announcement in May 2017 of new documents outlining the same plan many organizations fought for years came as no surprise—but it makes it no more palatable. *Plaintiffs in the case challenging Caltrans’ project were EPIC, the Center for Biological Diversity, Californians for …

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Here we go again. New documents on Richardson Grove highway work, mirroring the old documents rejected by Federal Court

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  Breaking News: Caltrans has just announced the re-launch of their Richardson Grove Highway Project  in southern Humboldt County, through Richardson Grove State Park. The Park is home to towering ancient redwoods that people travel from all over the world to see, and home to many species facing shrinking habitat. After a long, fiercely fought, years-long battle over that plan to accommodate larger trucks through the stretch of Highway 101 that winds through the stately forest, Caltrans’ lost their case in Federal Court when the Court found their environmental documents to be arbitrary, capricious and riddled with faulty data. After …

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Radio towers and murrelets; climate and deforestation

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Clearcuts in Redwood National Park—really?  The state of California has a project for construction of three communication towers in the far northern coastal corner of the state, including one in Redwood National Park. Because of maintenance and access issues, these towers always come with clearcuts that must be perpetually maintained. A total of three communication towers, with a height range of 120 to 270 feet and with adjacent clearcuts are proposed for Rodgers Peak (in Redwood National Park), Alder Camp (a state-owned prison facility), and on Rattlesnake Peak (owned by Green Diamond Timber Co.). The towers would provide radio coverage …

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Raise Your Voice for Wildlands Plans

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Speak Up to Keep Your Voice in Wildlands Planning People often think of grazing and resource extraction when they think of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in the west. We are lucky enough in Northern California  to have wild lands and critical wildlife habitat under BLM management, along with a local (Arcata) BLM staff with an appreciation of wild forests and rivers and a drive to work with environmentalists to craft protective management plans. However, that collaborative spirit could change—those changes coming from Washington DC. The Senate is considering a resolution—S.J. Res 15—to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s …

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