An open letter to Maxxam/PL

If you really want to end the protests, you can; just follow these four simple steps to peace....
1) Save the last remaining Old Growth. Proposition 40 just set aside $2.7 billion for the creation of parks and the preservation of critical wildlife habitat, which the Old Growth is. Instead of going for Homeland Security funds, go for Prop. 40 funds, and set aside the Old Growth in the meantime. We can work together on obtaining Prop. 40 funds for the Old Growth Redwoods and Douglas Fir areas.
2) Start using selective cuts only. This doesn't mean selecting the biggest, oldest trees, either (shelterwood and seed tree removal). Maintain a multi-layered canopy by only taking some trees out of each area. If you do this all over the land that you can cut on, in, say, fifty-year cycles, then we can maintain a healthy forest.
3) No logging on steep, unstable slopes. These areas are too sensitive to log on, and should be left alone. Some areas are just too steep to log on, and it causes too much sedimentation of the rivers and streams. It's just not worth it...there has to be a better cost-benefit analysis, and there are plenty of other areas to work on, without causing landslides and excessive erosion.
4) No more herbicides and other dangerous chemicals. If you follow the first three steps, then there will be no need for the herbicides, diesel fuel, and burning agents that are currently used. The forest will do fine without these chemicals, if you are practicing true sustainable forestry.

Viola! If you would just TRY these steps, then you would notice a dramatic change in the climate of Humboldt County. How can we have a Forest Peace Alliance when you are calling us "terrorists" and suing us? I was nearly killed by the same logger that killed David "Gypsy" Chain, yet I have been told that I cannot participate in the Roundtable meetings, because I'm on the SLAPP suit. And the only reason I'm on the SLAPP suit is because I was brutally pounced on by one of your employees; I wasn't even in an active THP area!
I was merely out there, with a video camera, trying to document what was going on, checking out proposed timber harvest plans, for the sake of TRUE public comment (for the CDF's public comment period), and trying to document what I perceived to be violations (a Columbia helicopter was flying back and forth, right over a red-tailed hawk's nest).
We do NOT call ourselves "eco-terrorists," and I'm curious as to where you came up with that.
I feel that you are starting to head down the wrong road, a road that will not bring about peace in Humboldt Co., only more strife and pain.
I feel that we, the public, should be allowed access to proposed timber harvest plans, for the sake of public comment. Where's the accountability if we're supposed to base our public comments on the industry's maps and surveys? The public comment period is part of the approval process for every single timber harvest plan, yet we can be legally tackled, put into a choke hold, injured, have our cameras broken and our video tapes stolen, just for being in the area? And not even in an active THP?!?! This does not make sense.
If we have THP maps on hand, and available to show your security guards, and are willing to hike, ride bikes, or drive(driving would have to be pre-arranged, to borrow keys to the gates), then we, the public, should be able to go out and check out the proposed THPs, for the sake of fairness and accountability. And, if you were practicing true sustainable forestry, and not trying to log the Old Growth, then there would be no problem with the THPs, and everything could run smoothly.
We do support sustainable forestry, and we are not about zero-cut, except for Old Growth, because there is so very little left.
Finally, please leave Gypsy Mountain alone. This is the place where our brother was killed, and we just ask that you leave it, and us, to heal. We've been trying to heal from that day, September 17th, 1998, for almost four years now, and, just when we thought that the Gypsy circle was closing, you decided to go back up there and gouge at these old wounds. Please be sensitive and compassionate, and realize that cutting on Gypsy Mountain is very painful to the Earth First! family, and we ask that you set the land that you "own" on that particular hill be set aside, and work together with us to get Prop. 40 funding to expand Grizzly Creek State Park. I'm sure you could get plenty of money for it, and I would bet that the state of California would go for it, with our concerted efforts, including Gypsy's mother. Please be considerate, and show us that you are truly committed to the Forest Peace Alliance...we are all trying to heal...please help in the healing process. Thank you.


Sincerely,

Shunka Wakan