MAXXAM/PACIFIC LUMBER SLAPPS ANOTHER LAWSUIT ON CRITICS

MAXXAM/PACIFIC LUMBER SLAPPS ANOTHER LAWSUIT ON CRITICS

As its logging operations in the disputed "Hole in the Headwaters" plan barrel forward at a frenzied pace Maxxam / Pacific Lumber (PL) Co. has filed another intimidation lawsuit to curtail protest activities. In the lawsuit filed October 26, PL, along with its contractors Columbia Helicopter and Steve Wills Trucking ask for damages and restitution in the
amount of approximately $10,000. PL also filed for an injunction to prevent individuals and North Coast Earth First! from "harassing, threatening, or stalking plaintiffs; entering onto property (THP 520);
blocking or damaging roads that provide access; or conspiring or soliciting others to enter onto the described property without written permission by
the plaintiffs."

Besides nine named individuals, the suit names "Jane and John Does 1-200 and all persons acting in concert with them" as defendants, for the purpose
of adding other people in a pre-emptive effort to prevent logging critics from carrying out activities that have not yet happened.

The named defendants showed up early in the morning of Oct. 24 when news of PL's logging of the long-disputed Hole in the Headwaters became public.
They were on the public road talking amicably to the arriving workers when they were put under citizens arrest by PL security. The activists maintain they were not carrying out illegal acts, but were cited and released when Humboldt County Sheriffs Dept. arrived. Charges have not yet been filed by
the D.A.'s office. Activists are concerned, however, that District Attorney Terry Farmer is working in conjunction with Pacific Lumber to ensure that activists are sued, a breach of the D.A.'s duties as a public servant.

"Pacific Lumber is using the Sheriff, D.A. and the courts as its three headed lapdog," said EF! activist Darryl Cherney. "The Sheriff performs citizens arrests on legal protestors, the D.A files charges so that the
activists can show up to court and be served with a lawsuit, and the judges issue injunctions like 2 for 1 give-away meal tickets at Denny's."

The controversial logging plan, (THP 1-97-520), comprising over 700 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest runs alongside the South Fork of the Elk
River. Despite the fact that the Calif. Water Board set what environmentalists touted as good precedent by requiring water course impact monitoring on PL logging plans, a convoluted and politically-charged
process is allowing PL to proceed on the plan that sits entirely within the outer boundaries of the publicly-owned Headwaters Preserve prior to baseline monitoring. This area was identified as a high priority for acquisition after the State and Federal governments purchased 7500 acres of old growth and cut-over land in what has become known as the Headwaters Preserve, via the 1999 "Headwaters deal". Although heavily-impacted, the South Fork is considered one of the best coho salmon spawning grounds in California.

PL previously filed a SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) against fifty eight people who were opposing their logging in the Mattole River watershed, an area of old growth Douglas fir forest in
southern Humboldt county. That lawsuit claims over $100,000 in damages.
Some defendants have filed a counter complaint, charging Pacific Lumber with false arrest, assault and battery, theft and property destruction.

Headwaters Hotline: (510) 835-6303