Activist's family begs for
privacy

Sep. 23, 1998

By MIKE GENIELLA
Press Democrat Staff Writer

The Texas family of an Earth First!
activist killed
by a falling tree while attempting to
disrupt a
remote Pacific Lumber Co. logging operation

appealed Tuesday for privacy during a
planned
trek this weekend to the scene.

"We're coming to grieve. We don't want this
to
become a circus,'' said Cindy Allsbrooks,
mother of 24-year-old David Chain.

Chain's death Thursday, the first in a
decade of
anti-logging protests on the North Coast,
is at
the center of a new controversy over
activists'
tactics in the woods, and whether
frustrated
logging crews are unnecessarily endangering

protesters' lives in response. Activists
plan a
protest march Thursday in Eureka, the day
Chain
is to be buried in his native Texas. On
Monday,
friends are planning a memorial in the area
where
he died.

Allsbrooks, a resident of Coldspring,
Texas, said
it's important for her family to see where
her son
died.

"We need to have some time there. We also
want to give comfort to the young people
that
were his friends. That's our sole purpose.
We
are coming to mourn and grieve,'' said
Allsbrooks.

Pacific Lumber representatives said Tuesday

they have not been contacted by the family
or
any representatives about the possibility
of
making the trek into the scene of Chain's
death,
located in rugged terrain 17 miles east of
Highway 101.

"We are certainly willing to discuss the
situation
with them if they would like,'' said
company
spokeswoman Mary Bullwinkel. "We understand

how it could help bring closure to this
tragedy.''

Allsbrooks declined Tuesday to comment on
the
controversy surrounding her son's death, or
the
pending sheriff's department investigation
into its
cause.

"We don't have anything to say at this
time,'' she
said.

Allsbrooks said her son first learned about
Earth
First! and its role in a decade-long
controversy
over the fate of ancient redwoods while
living in
Austin with a childhood friend. She said
her son
decided last year to come West and
participate
in the Earth First! redwood protests
because of a
developing conviction the old trees must be

saved.

"I feel David's conviction had to do with
the
beauty he saw on his first trip to
California, and
his desire to preserve the environment.
This is
what he believed was right,'' said
Allsbrooks.

Chain was born and reared in Pasadena,
Texas.
He graduated from high school in 1992, and
attended San Jacinto College for awhile.
"He
really was not ready to commit to
college,'' said
Allsbrooks.

Allsbrooks said her son returned to Austin
in the
winter and worked to save money to make a
return trek to the North Coast.

She said he returned to California a few
weeks
ago.

Allsbrooks said Chain's father, who still
lives in
Pasadena, and his two sisters and three
nieces
and nephews, are devastated by his death.

"There are so many people who will miss
David
and forever hold his memory in their
hearts.''



















© 1998 The Press Democrat






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