One year in a redwood for man named Willow

One year in a redwood tree for man named Willow

Eureka, Humboldt county-A young Arcata man named Willow is quietly observing his one-year anniversary living in an ancient redwood tree named "Jerry." This 1,500-2,000 year old redwood stands on Greenwood Heights Road in Freshwater, Northern California, east of Eureka. Maxxam Corp./Pacific Lumber Co.'s ownership of this and other nearby ancient trees, is in dispute because of the proximity to the public road; nonetheless, they attempted to cut down the Jerry tree under a controversial timber harvest plan.

On March 17, 2003, long-time tree-sitter Remedy was forcibly removed from the same tree. She hadn't touched the ground in 361 days. Immediately after her extraction, hired contract extractor Eric Schatz limbed the giant tree, but Jerry was reoccupied by other forest defenders the same night. After a succession of occupants, Willow has made it his home ever since. He has now spent 5% of his life in the tree.

"I've really come into the rhythm of the changes of the seasons and watching the sun rise and set each day," said Willow. "I see the wildlife that depend on these trees and the birds' migration north and south. Because of that connection, I feel in a deeper way the pain of each clear-cut and how sore and bruised the land is."

The rural residential Freshwater watershed is one of the most heavily impacted by Maxxam/PL's industrial harvest practices. The company's flawed and illegitimate sustained yield plan (SYP) calls for liquidation logging of all remaining old growth over the next five years. A lawsuit challenging the SYP was recently won by the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), a grassroots legal organization in Garberville, Calif., which has now filed another lawsuit against PL's Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). In addition, a lawsuit for business fraud against PL, by Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos, is pending.

The company's timber harvest plan runs out in April '05; however Maxxam/PL has the option, between March 1 and April 1, '05, to extend it for one year. Activists have disputed PL's claim of ownership of the trees, which line the public road, suggesting instead that they are in the public easement. In court cases stemming from the weeklong public uprising on Greenwood Heights Road following Remedy's and other tree-sitters' extractions, the prosecutor was unable to prove that PL owned the area. Trespass charges were subsequently dropped.

"This is global deforestation going on right here in Northern California and I think it deserves the world's attention," said Willow.
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