Houston activist visits MAXXAM land in Humboldt

Rhea's Trip to Humboldt: Journal Entries
January 2004

Hi there!

I am currently in the California Redwoods of Humboldt County, on the Pacific Coast (home to MAXXAM subsidiary, Pacific Lumber).The following entries come directly from my daily journal.

Listen to KPFT 90.1 FM Tuesday, January 20, at 12 noon/ Central to hear an hour long show featuring updates from Humboldt activists Remedy, Bear, The Watershed Council, and more.

For the Forest,
Rhea Green
SACRED Redwood
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IN THE REDWOODS: MONITORING MAXXAM’S LOGGING PRACTICES
Week 1, January 4- January 11

Day 1: Sunday, January 4

1:34 PM- Enter Redwood Country

After a week long drive through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, my little car and I finally made it to Humboldt County. Humboldt is 4 hours north of San Francisco on Highway 101 (which at this point is known also as Redwood Highway). The drive through the forest is nothing short of amazing. The road curves back and forth as it winds up the mountainsides. Clouds hang over the mountain tops, creating a swirling pattern of mist, and the air is thick with refreshing fog. At various points, the road detours from its mountainside perch and cuts through the forest. Words can hardly describe the initial experience of driving through a cathedral of giant, ancient Redwoods. The sun is suddenly hidden by a canopy hundreds of feet above my head, the air is moist and cool, and everything is a glistening green. I am suddenly surrounded by Great Ones whose trunks would take 5 or more people to surround them.

I notice the rivers are wide and flat, a characteristic of erosion. Erosion occurs when large areas of forest are cleared, removing the canopy and allowing rainfall to hit the ground directly. This stirs up silt and washes it into rivers and waterways. As I wind once again around the mountainsides, I notice large patches of clear-cuts all around me. Some appear recent, others seem to be decades old. There are signs along the road with warnings such as "Flooding", and "Watch for Falling Rocks", which are direct results of clear-cutting and cutting on steep and unstable slopes.

5:25 PM- Women's Singing Group in the Forest

I am staying a few days with Artemis, who came to Houston last summer to work on the Memorial Park tree-sit. Every Sunday, she organizes a group of women who sing songs for the forest. Today there were seven of us, and we went to a patch of old-growths to lift our voices to them and raise their spirits. Singing is a key element in healing the world, and it is imperative that more people engage in this activity. When SACRED resumes our regular activities in February, we will orchestrate singing events in Houston to coincide with the singing group here in Humboldt, so the magic of our singing will be raised up as one voice to the universe.

7:54 pm- Meeting Mariah

After leaving the singing group, I drove to Freshwater, which is a region near Arcata and Eureka in Northern Humboldt. Freshwater and Elk Creek are the current hot spots for MAXXAM’s destructive logging practices. They are logging huge areas as I type this, with plans to cut at least 5-600 acres this year in Freshwater alone. Freshwater is also where Remedy sat in the 1200 year old Redwood, Jerry, for 361 days, before MAXXAM had her physically removed by hired contractor Eric Schatz. In this area is a tree known as Mariah, which is located just off the side of the road. I met Mariah today. The THP (Timber Harvest Plan) where she sits is surprisingly intact due to a 2-year long tree-sit with Nate, who sat in Mariah a few years ago to protect her and the surrounding area. The THP ran out while he was sitting, disabling MAXXAM to cut this area legally. During his 2 year stint in Mariah, Nate was most known for rigging a bicycle in the tree (so he could ride up and down the limb where it was perched), as well as getting his college degree from the tree top.

11:33 PM- North Coast Earth First! Meeting

There was a NCEF! meeting tonight, organized in part by Karen Picket of Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters. A concern was the word that was received of 6 helicopters and 60 loggers lined up and ready to plow through the forest at the beginning of this month. The weather has been bad, so they have not been implemented just yet, although serious logging is already taking place on the steep slopes in Freshwater, 4-5 miles into the forest, away from the main road.

We are all excited that the bridge between Houston and Humboldt is becoming stronger. We are all family working to save this beautiful forest from MAXXAM’s rape and plunder. I am so proud to know these people- they are beautiful and their souls shine brightly through their eyes. Some have been fighting MAXXAM for over 13 years. Others have only just heard about the issue, but all are motivated and determined to a degree that is inspiring.

Day 2: Monday, January 5

1:56 PM- Walk through the Redwood Forest

I woke up this morning to the sound of a rooster crowing on the farm where I am staying. What a wonderful sound to wake up to! It is so wonderful to be out of the city for a little while…

I am on my way to Redway and Garberville. Humboldt County is huge and encompasses many little towns and cities. Eureka, in North Humboldt, is where NCEF! office is located. Arcata, just 2 miles from Eureka, is where Mainstream Media Project, Redwood Peace and Justice Center, and North Coast Environmental Center are located. Redway, (about 1 1/2 hours south of Eureka and Arcata) boasts Friends of The Eel River, and the community radio station K-MUD. Garberville, 2 miles from Redway, hosts EPIC (Environmental Protection Information Center), Trees Foundation, and Earth Films.

I could not drive by the Redwood State Park without taking the opportunity to hike through the forest. I am sitting on a bed of soft, plush, green moss, overlooking a slope of ancient Redwoods, bright mossy trees, an assortment of fungi and mushrooms, and the busy whir of the highway less than a mile away. Everything here is damp and the forest holds several creeks that trickle downhill until they reach the rivers and waterways. The birds are chirping and fluttering high above me in the canopy, and the ground is covered with giant ferns.

I try to envision the spot as a clear-cut. I imagine myself as one of the locals whose stories I have heard about, who take their daily walk along the mossy-rocked trail, admiring its pristine beauty, only to dead end unexpectedly to a barren, bright, harsh spot known as a clear-cut. These clear-cuts can be so large that they can take hours to get from one side to the other. MAXXAM is infamous for them. The desolate areas leave the surrounding forest vulnerable to a plethora of problems, such as over-sun exposure, loss of species habitat, and landslides (just to name a few). The Redwood State Park is protected, but it is a small amount compared to the massive areas MAXXAM owns.

Day 3: Tuesday, January 6

9:11 am- Helicopters and Salmon in Eel River

Helicopters and Logging

I woke up today to the sound of helicopters. I am staying in Garberville, near Eel River. I asked my hostess if they were logging. She told me they don’t get logging helicopters here anymore because there are no trees left. She noticed my glance at the luscious foliage outside and said, "Oh, it looks like a lot of trees, but none of them are loggable anymore." All the old-growth redwood, pines, and other profitable trees have been logged already. She has seen many changes in the 25 years she has lived here.

Helicopters are rare in this part of Humboldt these days, because there are no trees left.They are used to retrieve felled logs from extremely steep terrain that is incapable of holding a road vehicle. Before 1964, loggers would just slide the felled trees into the river and retrieve them at the river basins, but this resulted in multiple damaging floods. After the majour flood of 1964, the government banned loggers from pushing logs into rivers and these steep areas remained intact for many years, until logging companies began to implement the use of helicopters to remove the logs.

Murky Water and Spawning Salmon

I had noticed the Eel river on my drive into Garberville. It’s brown, milky appearance is the direct result of erosion. The river is nestled in between the meeting point at the bottom of two mountain sides. This is rainy season, and the rain kicks up dirt and particles, and rushes them down the slopes and into the river. This erosion is largely contributed to logging and development. The milky brown appearance of the river that is supposed to be "fresh water" worries me when I think of the aquatic life that lives there.

I ask my host about the salmon and what time of year they head upstream to Spawn, and I am horrified to learn that they are spawning right now. The salmon head upstream when it rains, yet when it rains, erosion chokes the river. During the summer, when there is less rain, the water clears up and the river becomes narrower and deeper. In late summer it becomes mossy and green, but right now, during the rainy months, the river flattens our and becomes very shallow because all the dirt from the erosion fills it up. Yet the salmon continue to carry out their natural instinct.

Adult salmon swim upstream in rainy months to spawn in the "fresh water" These fish are unique in that their whole existence is to bring life into the world- they die after they spawn and leave it to fate to protect their eggs and bring their young into the world. As my hand strikes this keyboard, females are busy laying eggs upstream, and their male partners are busy sorting them. Soon the adults will die. The eggs that survive will hatch and their babies will live here, in this spoiled water, until the summer months when they will make their way out to the ocean. Then they will swim upstream next winter to follow the fate of their parents.

Thousands of years of instinct do not alert these fish about the very new reality of erosion and herbicides brought on by logging companies like MAXXAM’s Pacific Lumber. The baby salmon are no longer at the hand of fate, but at the hand of a corporation that is located thousands of miles away. The fish have no defense for their homes. Their numbers have diminished so rapidly that they have been placed on the Endangered Species list, but this has not deterred MAXXAM from using irresponsible logging practices that destroy their ability to survive.

9:24 PM – Environmental Show on K-MUD

At 7:00 pm, I went to K-MUD to the producers of the environmental show. The show runs weekly, every Tuesday night, and each week of the month has a different producer. Duff has this and every first Tuesday of the month, and Penny has every 3rd Tuesday. Duff and Penny are co-owners of Earth films, which produced the movies "Tree-Sit" and "Fire in the Eyes".

Scheduled to be on the show tonight was Bear, who has been sitting in Jerry since October. Duff invited me on the show to talk about Houston’s recent (anti-) MAXXAM efforts. Unfortunately, Bear’s cell phone was not working, but he will be on our show next Tuesday on KPFT 90.1 FM, at 12 noon.

Day 4: Wednesday, January 7

11:15 am- Witnessing MAXXAM’s Destructive Mess

I drove this morning into Freshwater, through Kneeland Road, which is long and windy as it heads uphill. The forest is easy to admire and impossible to ignore, even from the confinements of my vehicle. The road balances on a hillside. To my right are slopes falling downhill. To my left, they climb high and steep above me. I was admiring the beauty alongside the road when the trees gave way abruptly on the steep lopes slanting upward to my left. The slope was barren and littered with broken limbs, branches, felled trees, stumps, and shrubs. It appeared as if a giant steamroller had flattened the area. That area is known as a clear-cut, and that steamroller is known as MAXXAM. I immediately pulled over to take pictures and investigate the site.

The area was huge from left to right and continued at the top of the hill. Several huge Redwood stumps peeked out of the debris that was once their family. I began to climb this atrocious mess, completely exposed. The only life left were a few weeds and shrubs probing their way through the debris. It took me 20 minutes to climb to the top, since I had to find safe footing amidst the debris MAXXAM had left. When I reached the top, I saw a large, circular, flat area that MAXXAM had carved into a large, muddy logging road. Surrounding me were downward slopes that had been decimated.

Seeing this complete disaster brings several things to mind:

1) Clear-cutting on steep slopes such as this leads to erosion, which pollutes waterways. The mud and sludge my feet track through is proof enough of this.

2) The shrubs and new growth in the area show that this clear-cut is at least a year old. The area has not been cleared, there have been no new trees re-planted, and the sight is hideous.

3) The ground is literally covered with MAXXAM’s mess of debris from chopped, fallen, and splintered trees. This is a potential fire hazard. Fires are serious around here, and lower Humboldt just recently recovered from major forest fires that occurred a few months ago.

4) There is absolutely no chance for survival of habitat for the species that had lived in this area before MAXXAM came barreling through. There is no way for them to even begin to rebuild their homes.

5) This cut area is on the upper slope of the road, which significantly increases risk of mudslides and floods that can potentially block the road, which is a major thoroughfare in Freshwater and Kneeland.

Before leaving, two baby deer caught my eye. They were hopping over the debris with no forest canopy to protect them. As I drive further, I notice that MAXXAM's pattern of "clear-cut and run" is the norm. It presents a consistent pattern up and down the miles of road I traveled alongside MAXXAM property.

Day 5: Thursday, January 8

2:15 PM- BBC interviews Darryl Cherney

This morning I visited Mainstream Media in Arcata. Darryl Cherney was doing an interview with BBC for a story on Judi Bari. Darryl and Judi launched the Redwood campaigns here in Humboldt in the mid 1980’s. In 1990, while Judi and Darryl were promoting for the Redwood Summer event, their car exploded. They were bombed, the FBI were the first ones on the scene, and Judi and Darryl were blamed for bombing themselves.

Throughout the 2 hour interview BBC had with Darryl, I learned some interesting things about their organizing efforts. Darryl and Judi both arrived in 1985, separately, from the east. Judi was a woman of all trades- she sang, played the fiddle, was a mother of two children, did carpentry and Karate, and had the gift of gab. She was both an advocate of the forest and human rights. She fought for the rights of loggers just as she fought for the forest, and in the first time in history, the two issues were brought together and fought as one. Judi felt that the best way to meet lumbermen is to blockade them. She also felt that the best way to get someone interested in your issue is to work on theirs.

The problem with this new era of corporate rule is that big city corporations are playing forestry in small cities far way. As Darryl said in this interview, "the point of decision is thousands of miles away from the point of destruction."

Day 6: Friday, January 9

4:00 PM- The Mattole

I had plans to go out to the Mattole today, but it was pouring rain. The Mattole is a formerly pristine area of the forest that has been decimated by MAXXAM. The Mattole is where the tree, Gaia, sat. Gaia was a 150 year old Douglas Fir that was chopped down last June while trust and Artemis were in Houston. We read about the devastating news in the Earth first! Journal".

5:31 PM- Remedy’s Court Hearing

Remedy had yet another court hearing today. After being physically extracted from Jerry last March, MAXXAM/ PL (Pacific Lumber) slapped her with a lawsuit. Remedy, along with other forest activists, is being sued for trespassing. Some activists hire lawyers while others, like Remedy, are defending themselves. MAXXAM/ PL is using this tactic to tie the activists up in court and distract them from forest defense. While a few continue to fight this unfair battle, others have accepted settlements out of court. These settlements include fines and legal orders to stay off MAXXAM/PL’s land.

8:51 PM-Visit to Jerry and Everstein; Meeting the tree-sitters

After the hearing, I took a drive up through Freshwater again, this time to visit Jerry and Everstein, two old-growth Redwood trees located right off the side of the road. When I arrived, the sun was already setting, so it was difficult to make out the landscape, although it was apparent that large patches of forest were missing.

There are a handful of sitters up in those two trees right now, and I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Bear and Whisper, the two guarding Jerry, as well as Biome, who was guarding Everstein. Bear and Whisper lowered themselves to a hanging position at the base of the tree so we could chat practically face to face. We talked for 2 hours about MAXXAM’s destruction of the forest, SACRED and DSEF!’s efforts in Houston, and the technicalities of going to the bathroom in a tree.

I climbed down to the base of Jerry to see her new sprouts. Jerry used to be full of branches, but after Remedy was extracted last spring, MAXXAM/PL hacked off all his branches leaving him deformed and mutilated. The damage they have done to him will take hundreds of years to repair. I stood under the moonlight and hugged this magnificent being, and I cried. I cried for this tree and the beauty and wonder it possesses. I cried for the earth and the love she is ever giving. I cried for the dedicated people sitting in these trees risking their lives, and for all the activists devoted to defending mother earth. I cried for MAXXAM’s Charles Hurwitz, Paul Schwartz, Kent Friedman, Diane Dudley, Joli Pecht, and Josh Reiss, whose hearts have become so hardened and whose morals have become so corrupt. I prayed for healing and for guidance. I prayed that those people working for MAXXAM and Pacific Lumber will open their eyes and walk away from the terrible injustice that they are inducing.

The activists I met tonight were intelligent, caring, motivating, and inspiring. They reminded me that every little bit we do is important. We don’t have to sit in a tree to save the forest. Every single person can make a difference in their daily lives. Everyone reading this can incorporate environmental responsibilities into their lives, whether it be recycling, buying recycled paper, using cloth diapers instead of disposable, or walking to the grocery store instead of driving. You don’t need to join a group to be active. Be active in your community. Be active in your daily lives.

Day 7: Saturday, January 10

4:43 PM- MAXXAM trashes Freshwater

I went back to Jerry and Everstein today to take pictures in the daylight. I wanted to compare them with pictures I took on my trip last year at this very same spot. I can not believe what a disaster the area is. I already knew the slopes had been clear-cut- I saw them days after they were freshly cut- but I am shocked to discover that the area has not been cleaned in the 8 month lapse between my visits. It actually looks worse, now that all the debris, limbs, and logs have been piled and strewn about the land. The surrounding areas show the same thing over and over again- massive amounts of clear-cuts on steep and unstable slopes, visible right off the side of the road.

Elemental Exposure Kills the Forest Eco-system

The rainforest naturally holds huge, luscious ferns, moss and plant life, but the few remaining plants in these demolished areas can not handle the sudden exposure to the elements. The ferns are dying. The moss is drying out. The sun pours onto places that have been shaded for millions of years. The mist that has collected around the tree-stops for centuries, providing water and nutrients for the life below, has dissipated. This is no longer an intact forest. It has serious holes in it that are ruining the complex ecosystem.

These are just a few of the immediate concerns that come to mind, although they are by no means the only concerns. People are dead wrong if they think the forest will grow back as it was. The forest will never be the same after being removed. Reed Noss stated in his book, The Redwood Forest, that "environmental conditions have been static over long periods, and the condition under which today’s old-growth developed may not be replicated in the foreseeable future- thus, the "climax" Redwood forests we know today may be impossible to re-create." The climax forest is a forest in its final stages of development- a state that has taken the forest millions of years to get to. Environmental conditions have changed dramatically over the last 100 years alone, and species of non-native trees and plants have been introduced to this region. The forest that may re-generate after these logging practices will not be the same forest it once was.

Invasive Species Alter the Forest

Already we see signs of this with invasive, non-indigenous plants such as the Pompas Grass, which was brought over from South America to be used as landscape decoration. The plant, which has no competing species here, is highly productive and multiplies rapidly. They are found in abundance on hillsides that have been clear-cut. Their seeds float to other areas of the forest that are still in tact, and the entire Eco-system has been altered.

MAXXAM has no idea how to harvest a forest sustainably, nor do they care to do so. Their only incentive is economic gain, and their capitalistic greed will destroy what little old-growth forest we have left.

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ACT NOW!
Call or write MAXXAM and tell them that what they are doing is WRONG.

Call MAXXAM!

Main number (ask for CEO Charles Hurwitz, President Paul Schwartz, Vice P. Diane Dudley, Attorney General Joli Pecht, PR guy Josh Reiss, etc):
713-975-7600
Paul Schwartz, President:
713-267-3685


Write MAXXAM!
Write each person at MAXXAM a letter stating that you want them to incorporate some mandatory policies for the future of the earth:

-stop cutting the small percentage of old-growth trees remaining on their property
-Stop clear-cutting
-Stop logging on steep and unstable slopes
-Stop using herbicides
-Slow the rate of harvest to accommodate adequate re-growth

Address:
MAXXAM
5847 San Felipe, Suite 2600
Houston, TX 77057

Click herefor sample letter.

Key Players:

-Charles Hurwitz, CEO
-Paul Schwartz, President and Director of MAXXAM, Vice-president and Director of Scotia LLC, Director of Pacific Lumber
-Kent Friedman, Vice Chairman of MAXXAM, Director of MAXXAM and Pacific Lumber
-Shawn Michael Hurwitz, Son, Board Member, President and CEO of MAXXAM Property Company
-Diane Dudley, Vice-president of both MAXXAM and Pacific Lumber
-Joli Pecht, Attorney General Council (lawyer)
-Bernard Birkel, Secretary of MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber, and Scotia LLC
-Erza G. Levin, Director of MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber and Kaiser, Manager on the Board of Managers of Scotia LLC
-Michael J. Rosenthal, Director of MAXXAM
-Stanley D. Rosenberg, Board Member of MAXXAM
-Robert James Cruikshank, Board Member of MAXXAM
-Josh Reiss, Public Relations for MAXXAM