CBS news coverage: Police back off tree squatters

07/08/2003

From 11News Staff Reports


Click to watch Nancy Holland's report


HOUSTON – In spite of storms and mosquitoes a tree sitter remains in his Memorial Park perch, still protesting a local company timbering operations. It's a standoff that shows no sign of ending.




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The protesters say they'll stay in the Memorial Park trees as long as necessary.
Houston police officers have decided to back off from arresting the two young men camping in the trees.



Officers said they will let the Harris County District Attorney’s office pursue charges on the tree squatters. Houston police also said they feared someone would get hurt if officers attempted to forcibly remove the two men clinging to the tree.



"You know it's unlawful to habitate up there, right?" hollered an HPD officer as he looked up into the 110-foot tall pine trees.

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They are environmentalists known only as Trust and Bear. The two sit some 50-feet in the sky to protest a California logging company they claim is “raping and killing the land.”



It's hard to see the protest sign for the trees but the protestor who says just call him Trust would be the last one to take away the trees to make it easier to read. "When you see trees fall that have been around 1300, 1400, 1500 years," he says. "It's pretty easy to become dedicated to the cause of stop Maxxam. They're doing so much massive ecological damage in California that it's not funny. And it's all for money."




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"You know it's unlawful to habitate up there, right?" asked an HPD officer.




He says he will stay in the tree until Houston based Maxxam stops cutting old Redwoods in California.



Police have thought about trying to bring him down but apparently have decided against it.



Some people who use the park are even sympathetic to the cause. "I agree with their idea," said one person. "I'm quite concerned about the environment, the trees."



The Pacific Lumber Company is owned by Houston-based Maxxam Corp. But the subject of the protest, Maxxam says it has sold some redwoods to the government. And nothing a protestor does will stop all cutting. "The reality is however, is that Pacific Lumber company and a lot of other timber companies throughout the Pacific Northwest are going to cut timber because people need timber," explains Josh Reiss. "People like redwood products."



Maxxam says it's a company that cares about the environment and plays by the rules. And in 1999 the company sold 5,000 acres of the California forest to the government for preservation.



The protestor who calls himself Trust says he could be up there for a month. To which police reply, "That's a long time."

And that spokesman from MAXXAM said he actually got a call from the man in the trees, on a cell phone. Just because they talked, don't expect a compromise.