Tree-Sit Uprsing in Humboldt!

Tree-Sit Uprising in Humboldt County!

A new round of Tree-sitting protests have begun on Pacific Lumber property at Grizzly Cr. where some of the largest unprotected old growth redwoods are on the chopping block. A new group of activists have emerged out of the Pacific Northwest calling themselves "The Natural Guard". They have come to Humboldt County CA to protect our common natural heritage, the ancient trees of the redwood rainforest.

The Natural Guard have set up a tree-village in an enormous (24 ft diameter) redwood. The platform is 220 feet up in a tree called Zen and is connected with a traverse to another tree (named Merlin) next to it, which is also occupied with a platform. More platforms are planned and more tree-sitters and ground support are needed immediately! Anyone who has experience with tree-sits or is willing to learn, is invited to Humboldt to help out. This is a serious matter. Please no slackers! We need hard working dedicated, enthusiastic eco-warriors who don't mind carrying heavy loads up steep hills or riding through a windy, wet storm in the high canopy.


The Natural Guard is in solidarity with Earth First! who also have 2 other new tree-sits nearby on Gypsy Mountain, named after David "Gypsy" Chain who was killed by an angry logger who felled a redwood tree on him here in 1998. the clearcuts that Gypsy was trying to prevent are surrounded by two large patches of old forest where the two new tree-sits are active. The trees are named Iradia and Isis. Iradia was the same tree that was occupied at the time of Gypsy's death, but was never cut. Now they are coming for it with their chainsaws and helicopters and the state and federal government have given Pacific lumber the greenlight to eliminate these last bits of old growth.

If you thought the struggle was over and the last giants were all either protected or already cut, think again! These Trees are irreplaceable, ecological remnants of a rainforest that has stood since the days of dinosaurs 140 million years ago. Less than 4% of the ancient redwoods are still standing and the species that rely on them are going extinct!

Please do not let this happen in your lifetime without helping out and rising up against it. We need help! NOW!!!!!!!!

Contact: The Natural Guard - c/o Ben White (cell phone: 360-317-5685)
or North Coast Earth First! 707-825-6598


To learn more keep reading!

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The Natural Guards Call to Action

Dear Friends,

Over the last few years, I have contacted some of you to join in stopping a particularly horrible act of aggression against the Earth and her greater family. Such was the case with organizing swimmers to block the sound-blasting of humpback whales in early 1998 as part of a Navy test of their Low-Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) and with recruiting 240 volunteers to don sea turtle costumes and hit the streets of Seattle to block the meetings of the World Trade Organization.

This alert is even more urgent and your participation even more critical. One of the greatest natural treasures on Earth is in imminent danger and will be destroyed if enough people do now find it in their hearts to respond and respond now.

The federal and state government are at this moment releasing a letter to Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO) of Humboldt County, California that allows them to begin cutting seven hundred acres of the largest unprotected redwoods in the world. Called the E stands, these are the best unprotected trees of the 211,000 acres PALCO owns, the crËme de la crËme: trees 15' in diameter, some over 2000 years old, some groves perfect, unentered, no stumps- the forest primeval.

Even though the trees are known habitat for the marbled murrelet and other endangered creatures, PALCO is being allowed to cut these stands under the deal struck for the Headwaters about three years ago. Progressive-sounding "habitat conservation plans" or HCP's create loopholes in the Endangered Species Act and give the company permission to destroy hundreds of marbled murrelets even though their population is crashing in California. Any cutting of trees must be suspended when the murrelets come back to roost in the trees on March 24. So the chainsaws and bulldozers are rushing to cut and drag these monarchs as fast as possible.

For dealing with this and other assaults on our sacred Earth, we have banded together into a new all-volunteer organization called the Natural Guard. The idea is that we organize to protect life in our home towns- whether the threat is chemicals in our bloodstreams, opposing war, or the destruction of forests and rivers. We recruit our friends and families to join in the "reserves" to be called up when needed. Our approach is to fight like water- tenacious and non-violent opposition to the infliction of violence to families and the Earth.

This particular fight brings every element of our current struggle on Earth into focus: an irreplaceable natural treasure about to be destroyed, a corporate villain bent on cutting and running, state and federal governments happy to craft a deal if you have enough money and lawyers, laws circumvented and sheer brutality used to curtail dissent. Humboldt County Sheriffs have used pepper spray in the eyes and pain compliance holds to torture forest defenders into surrendering. One of the unentered groves about to be cut is just up the hill from where David Gypsy Chain was murdered by a PALCO logger a couple of years ago.

This is the culmination of a seventeen-year old fight for the ancient redwoods of California, ever since corporate raider Charles Hurwitz staged a hostile takeover of Pacific Lumber Company with the help of the infamous Michael Miliken and Ivan Boesky. He immediately raided their pension fund, more than doubled the cut of timber, instituted clear-cut logging and the subsequent dousing of the denuded land with herbicide mixed with diesel fuel. Just before Christmas he closed the 104 year-old mill in the company town of Scotia, not only taking jobs away from those who worked there but their homes as well. Now, having silted the rivers, poisoned the fish, shattered the forests, and destroyed the economic base of Humboldt County, Hurwitz is preparing to announce bankruptcy for PALCO and take his millions back to Houston.

Some say that the destruction of these ancient forests is a done deal and that any opposition will be futile. Maybe so. The forests are on PALCO's private property. Both federal and state permits have been issued. Stopping the logging by climbing the trees and setting up platforms to live on is exceedingly difficult- often the first branch is 150' up.

Many of us, however, do not see how we can sit and watch TV while the last of the biggest trees on Earth and the creatures that depend on them are wiped out. So we are mobilizing. We are calling on everyone who cares to join us at either Grizzly Creek or Swimmer's Delight campgrounds from now until March 24 to do everything peaceful in our power to stop this cutting. These campgrounds are located 12 and 17 miles east on route 36 from the Fortuna junction of 101. We are setting up a kitchen and training in tree climbing and survival techniques. We hope to make a strong enough stand to buy time for these trees and the life they hold. A California referendum is pending that would ban the cutting of old growth trees, of which barely 3 percent remain.

To you now reading these words- I call on you. Come on down and join us. Bring what skills you have- even if you are not prepared to get arrested or climb trees, we badly need support people. Come with enough camping gear and clothing to live in the woods for a month. Our goal is to put a peaceful army of 1,000 souls in tree villages over the next month and stop these trees from falling. For those of you who have volunteered before to join others in defending the Earth, you know that there is precious little else that brings such joy.

Don't come out of obligation. Do it for yourself, to refuse to acquiesce in your heart to the surrender of the wild and wonderful. Be the revolution.

This is your wake-up call. Your presence is urgently requested.

What do we need? Just about everything, including:

Doctors Riggers Cooks
Survival Experts Lawyers media contacts
Funding Ropes cameras
tents climbing saddles cargo nets
tarps musicians food
warm clothes an office
raingear a camper
propane stoves helmets You

See you there. Please send this alert far and wide.

Love and Revolution,

Ben White
International Coordinator for the Animal Welfare Institute
home office: 202-337-2332
regional office: 360-378-8755
cell phone: 360-317-5685
email: freedom [at] rockisland.com