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> Timber interests, local
> leaders criticize Earth First!
> over tactics
>
> Sep. 28, 1998
>
> By MIKE GENIELLA
> Press Democrat Staff Writer
>
> When Elizabeth Rieke and other nationally
> known experts on environmental issues are
> asked to peek behind the redwood curtain,
>they
> express amazement at how intensely longtime
>
> foes practice ritual combat.
>
> "Few places experience that level of
>conflict over
> environmental issues, and the absolute
>refusal of
> some of the parties to deal,'' said Rieke,
>former
> director of the Natural Resources Law
>Center at
> the University of Colorado School of Law.
> Rieke in the early 1990s led a federal team
>that
> successfully mediated a landmark three-year
>
> agreement on water quality standards for
>San
> Francisco Bay and the Delta.
>
> Rieke, and others like her who have played
> major roles in national environmental
>struggles,
> are deeply troubled by the Sept. 17 death
>of a
> 24-year-old Earth First! follower in the
> redwoods of Humboldt County.
>
> They feel the fallen redwood that crushed
>David
> "Gypsy'' Chain shattered an illusion that
> combatants in the state's longest running
> environmental controversy were merely
>engaged
> in a war of words. The young Texan's death
>was
> the first fatality in a decade of
>anti-logging
> protests.
>
> Not since "Redwood Summer'' of 1990 have
> tensions run as high in timber country and
>distrust
> sunk so deep.
>
> "It's a terrible time. I think we all
>thought the
> worst was behind us,'' said Claudia Lima,
>who
> runs a North Coast logging company with
> husband, John.
>
> Chain, an Earth First! recruit from Austin,
>was
> fatally crushed by a falling redwood after
>he and
> other activists trespassed onto Pacific
>Lumber
> Co. timberland and attempted to disrupt a
> logging operation in a remote area adjacent
>to
> Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park.
>
> Chain's family is to arrive today on the
>North
> Coast amid an angry chorus of
>recriminations
> about who's to blame for his death. Since
>the
> young man was killed, combatants have been
> relentless in their attempts to sway public
>opinion
> to their viewpoints.
>
> Despite activists' outcry that local law
> enforcement and Pacific Lumber can't be
>trusted
> to honestly investigate Chain's death,
>state
> Attorney General Dan Lungren has refused to
>
> step in and conduct an independent
>investigation.
>
> "We have full and complete faith in the
>Humboldt
> County Sheriff Department's ability to do
>its
> job,'' said Lungren spokesman Matt Ross.
>
> Earth First! organizers are under fire from
>the
> timber industry, and from local community
>and
> political leaders, for encouraging
>guerrilla-like
> antics in the woods that critics feel
>endanger the
> lives of young followers, of timber workers
>and
> of local law enforcement officers forced to
>cope
> with increasingly sophisticated protest
>tactics.
>
> But activists place blame for Chain's death
>on
> timber companies. Although they have
>provided
> no proof for their assertion, they contend
>hostile
> corporate bosses have encouraged logging
> crews to recklessly fall trees in the
>direction of
> intruders in hopes of scaring them away.
>
> Earth First! leaders justify disruptive
>tactics at
> dangerous logging sites by arguing the
>actions are
> needed to draw public attention to their
>claims
> that state and federal regulators aren't
>doing an
> adequate job of protecting the environment.
>
> Chain's death, and the controversy that has
>
> erupted since, has cast a shadow over Gov.
>Pete
> Wilson's signing of legislation to complete
>
> purchase of Headwaters Forest, the last
> significant grove of ancient redwoods left
>in
> private ownership, and impose the strictest
>
> environmental standards ever on a
>California
> timber company.
>
> Two days after Chain's death, Wilson and
>Sen.
> Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., publicly
> acknowledged the tragedy. Both said they
>hoped
> acquisition of Headwaters and 6,000 acres
>of
> surrounding redwood timberlands would be a
> major step toward resolving an epic
> environmental battle that's achieved
>national
> notoriety.
>
> Despite the landmark Headwaters agreement,
> however, radical environmentalists persist
>in their
> protests. They claim the government deal is
>
> giving Pacific Lumber a "license to kill''
> endangered wildlife species, and threatens
>North
> Coast fisheries.
>
> With Chain's death, the focus has shifted
>from
> disputed terms of the Headwaters purchase
>to
> Earth First!'s controversial tactics on the
>North
> Coast and across the West. It also has
>relit the
> media spotlight on Pacific Lumber's sharply
>
> accelerated logging during the past decade
>under
> the corporate ownership of Texas financier
> Charles Hurwitz.
>
> As if to underscore the turmoil around
>them,
> guests this past week on a Humboldt County
> radio talk show debated whether Chain is
> casuality of a "war'' that clearly has no
>victors.
>
> Earth First!'s tactics have been the
>subject of
> controversy on the North Coast since
>Redwood
> Summer, when an unsolved car bombing
>injured
> the late Judi Bari and organizer Darryl
>Cherney
> on the eve of massive anti-logging protests
>in
> Mendocino and Humboldt counties. Since
>then,
> Pacific Lumber logging crews have had to
> regularly cope with road blockades, people
> sitting in trees targeting for cutting, and
>activists
> using sophisticated devices to lock
>themselves to
> logging equipment on site.
>
> Costs to the company, and local taxpayers
>over
> the past decade have been staggering.
>Humboldt
> County authorities believe it costs the
>county
> treasury at least $200,000 a year to police
>the
> activists. Pacific Lumber says it's
>security budget
> now tops $800,000 annually.
>
> Similar protest tactics are used by radical
>
> environmentalists across the West. In
>Idaho,
> Earth First! activists have hung themselves
>from
> teepee-like devices to block roads and keep
>
> loggers out of a national forest. Most
>recently, a
> carload of activists traveled up and down
>100
> miles of dirt roads in Wyoming cutting
>barbed
> wire fences in an escalating battle with
>cattle
> ranchers over the fate of federal grazing
>lands.
> About the combat there, the New York Times
> on Sept. 20 proclaimed, "It's Cowboys vs.
> Radical Environmentalists in New Wild
>West.''
>
> Seldom, however, have radicals anywhere
> waged a battle with such intensity and for
>so long
> as they have fighting North Coast timber
> companies.
>
> "Those kind of heated conflicts have pretty
>much
> subsided, although there are a few here and
>
> there,'' said Ed Marston, publisher of High
>
> Country News, a Colorado weekly that's
>earned
> national recognition for its environmental
> coverage.
>
> But on the North Coast, the story is
>different.
>
> Nearly 10 years after tactics during
>Redwood
> Summer first triggered controversy, Earth
>First!
> organizers Cherney and Karen Pickett defend
>
> the continuing practice of sending young
>recruits
> like Chain into the woods to conduct
> "cat-and-mouse'' games with loggers. In
>these
> games, intruders try to slow down the pace
>of
> logging by darting through the trees,
>locking
> themselves to logging equipment, or
>erecting
> platforms in towering redwoods and defying
> loggers to cut the occupied trees. Julia
>Hill, an
> Arkansas woman who saw her first redwood
> two years ago, has occupied one giant
>redwood
> near Stafford since last December.
>
> Pickett and Cherney say recruits like Chain
>and
> Hill are first trained in non-violent
>tactics before
> being sent out to the woods. Their goal is
>to slow
> logging, while attempting to engage timber
> workers in conservation. But more times
>than
> not, loggers react angrily to the
>intruders, and
> view their presence as a threat to their
>jobs and
> livelihoods. Pickett and others blame
>Pacific
> Lumber managers for promoting a campaign of
>
> violence and hostility against the youthful
>
> intruders.
>
> But critics contend Earth First! tactics
>stretch the
> definition of non-violence.
>
> Arun Ghandi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi,
> said he's troubled by how American
>activists
> easily lay claim to non-violent principles
>made
> famous by his grandfather. Since 1991, Arun
>
> Ghandi has been director of the non-profit,
>
> non-sectarian M.K. Gandhi Institute for
> Nonviolence at Christian Brothers
>University in
> Memphis, Tenn.
>
> "To be true to the teachings of Gandhi is
>to
> adhere to a practice of seeking solutions
>without
> creating confrontations or bitterness,''
>Arun
> Gandhi said.
>
> He said his grandfather believed
>practitioners of
> nonviolence could expect to lose their
>lives
> resisting oppressors. But he said the
>deaths have
> generally arisen from passive resistance to
>armed
> authorities, rather than actively engaging
>them.
>
> "Deliberately sending people into a danger
>zone
> is troubling. I don't think that's right.
>There must
> be alternative ways of dealing with such a
> situation without losing a life,'' he said.
>
> Gandhi said he has only received sketchy
> information about Chain's death in the
>redwoods.
>
> "I'm hesitant to pass judgment without
>knowing
> more, but I fear his life may have been
>needlessly
> wasted,'' Gandhi said.
>
> Elizabeth Rieke, in her role as an adviser
>to
> government agencies and an instructor, has
> studied environmental conflicts across the
> country for nearly 30 years.
>
> She said for there to be hope for
>resolution on
> the North Coast, environmental activists
>and
> timber companies must be willing to step
>back
> from dangerous confrontations like the one
>that
> led to Chain's death.
>
> "There are no easy solutions when valuable
> natural resources are at stake, and vast
> differences in values and deep-seated
>animosities
> exist among combatants,'' Rieke said.
>
> Rieke said solutions arise only when
>participants
> are willing to come to the table and start
>fresh.
>
> "At that point, leadership is crucial. And
>the best
> leadership is usually homegrown. People
>have to
> be willing to take risks, to listen to the
>other
> person and find a common ground. It's not
>easy.
> It's not often successful. But it can be
>done.
>
> "For this dangerous period to end, people
>on the
> North Coast must come to the table. There
>is no
> other way,'' Rieke said.
>
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David M. Walsh
P.O. Box 903
Redway, CA 95560
Office and Fax(707) 923-3015
Home (707) 986-1644


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