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Indybay Feature

Aradia and Avalon

by Flan
Before and during photos of Avalon, and Aradia. Please help save these precious areas. Call to find out how....
avalonbefore.jpg
Avalon is part of the Grizzly Creek/Van Duzen watershed, and is currently being logged and yarded. There may still be time to save the rest of the Old Growth forests in the Avalon area, which is just north and east of Grizzly Creek State Park.
The photos of Avalon were recently taken from the Aradia tree-sit, on Gypsy Mountain, which is just one ridge over from Avalon.
Both of these areas would be easy additions to Grizzly Creek State Park, and should be saved, since they are endangered species habitats, and home to the mountain lions and bald eagles, both of which have been spotted from the Aradia tree-sit.
There is an active campaign to save Aradia, yet there have not been enough people to effectively stop the logging in Avalon. More people are needed.
In the meantime, people can encourage the state to add these areas to Grizzly Creek State Park, with phone calls, faxes, e-mails, letters, etc., and encourage the state agencies to do their jobs and protect these areas, which should already be protected by the Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts, as well as by state laws and common sense. Maybe someone could convince Bill Gates to step in and save these areas, too, as well as other people who have more money than they know what to do with.
Please help to save these beautiful areas, before they, too, are gone forever.
§Avalon before Maxxam's liquidation
by Flan
avalonbefore2.jpg
Notice the delta-shaped area of Old Growth, with the hatchet-shaped clearcut just above Avalon. This is what Avalon used to look like...
§Avalon being logged...
by Flan
avalonduring.jpg
This is what Avalon looks like from Aradia now, and you can't see the back side of the ridge, which Maxxam/Pacific Lumber has also been hacking away at. This is what Maxxam/PL calls "selective cut" or "shelterwood removal." Notice how all the big trees, except for Zen(!), have been removed from the right side of the hillside. The cut area looks terrible, is obviously hacked to pieces, and this is what Maxxam/PL calls "sustainable." It's a crime, on behalf of Maxxam/PL, the CDF, and Fish & Game, that this area is being logged. If the agencies were doing their jobs, and were not sold out to big timber dollars, this never would have happened.
§A sad sight to see...
by Flan
avalonduring2.jpg
Avalon was a "Class E" stand, and parts of it still are. This plan had to be approved by the CDF, AND "released" by Fish & Game, since it is top prime habitat for the marbled murrelet. It's a crime, a disgrace, and a crying shame; a shame on the people responsible for such irresponsible logging practices and corruption.
§Aradia...
by Flan
aradia.jpge56140.jpg
Please call Maxxam/Pacific Lumber, and encourage them to add Aradia to the Gypsy Memorial. Any other direct support is also appreciated.
§Aradia...
by Flan
aradia2.jpgg56140.jpg
Pacific Lumber Co. (707)764-2222
Maxxam Corp. (713)975-7600
North Coast Earth First! (707)825-6598
§Aradia at 120'
by Flan
aradia3.jpgs56140.jpg
Even up this high, Aradia is still huge and magnificent.
David "Gypsy" Chain was helping to defend Aradia back in 1998, just before he was killed by an enraged Maxxam/PL logger, who fell trees at activists, in the end killing Gypsy.
Years later, a memorial was established for Gypsy, yet Aradia was left out, and is now slated to be destroyed.
Please help to save Aradia, and make Aradia, and a buffer zone around her, part of the Gypsy Memorial.
§Gypsy Memorial...
by Flan
gypsymemorial.jpg
Adding Aradia, and a buffer zone around her, to the Gypsy Memorial, needs to happen, out of principle and respect for Gypsy's death and life.
Extending Grizzly Creek State Park eastward to include what's left of Gypsy Mountain and Avalon would allow people to visit these areas without risking arrest, and would preserve these areas of critical wildlife habitat.
Aradia is between two landslides and two clearcuts, too, so Aradia and the area around her may be one of the only things holding up the entire hillside. Please help....
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