Greetings! After reading the Eureka Times-Standard op-ed piece by Richard Bettis, “Scotia Pacific Land Manager”, I encourage you to write your own op-ed piece to the newspaper if you are so inclined. I forward the following comments from journalist Nicholas Wilson and the atrocious Times-Standard letter. Also, from BACH, the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, read below about Maxxam/Pacific Lumber putting land up for sale (cut-and-run! as planned) and info about the huge SPI logging plan in the Mattole/Bear river area. To get involved in protecting those forests, contact: mattoledefense@lycos.com or reply to this email. Also, I can send you a BACH newsletter via email or US Mail which has a lot of good background info about Maxxam/PL. Also, please send donations (specify if you WANT IT TO SPECIFICALLY go legal efforts (dealing with SLAPP suits), to the Mattole or Bear protection, to the Nanning Creek treesit, or any general needs (like finding a space for forest defenders in town). NCEF! P.O. Box 28 Arcata, CA 95518 You can also call the Humboldt Forest Defense/ Earth First! Hotline at (707)825-6598, or give that number to folks who don’t use email. “There is a time when the opereration of the machine becomes so ODIOUS, makes you so sick, that you can’t take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve GOT TO MAKE IT STOP” –Mario Savio, 1964 Never Give Up, Verbena —————————-
PL Spin Zone: Justice prevails against extremist protesters - R. Bettis, TS My Word 3.27.06 From: “Nicholas Wilson”
Preface by NW: Following is a fine example of corporate propaganda, supposedly a personal opinion op-ed piece by a Pacific Lumber property manager. It looks like a professional product, using propaganda techniques right out of the textbook. Hill & Knowlton, was Pacific Lumber’s PR company from the late 1980s through the 1990s. Maybe they still are. [Note from Verbena: I believe, in 2003, Morse Media ran the expensive TV, radio, and print smear campaign of protesters/critics] For those outside Humboldt County who don’t know what this is about, the piece refers to a civil verdict in a SLAPP suit brought by Maxxam/Pacific Lumber and their highly paid and skilled lawyers against a young woman activist who represented herself at trial. Kim Starr was one of a handful of activists who drove an old car up to the doors of the Pacific Lumber offices in the company town of Scotia, then locked themselves inside it using lockdown devices that would make it difficult to remove them, and so prolong the protest. It was nothing more than an enhanced sit-in, and was part of a decades long non-violent campaign to call public attention to PL’s ongoing liquidation logging of what’s left of the old growth forests in Humboldt County. This campaign has been going on since shortly after Texas-based corporate raider Charles Hurwitz took over Pacific Lumber about 1985. It has been strictly non-violent, except for the violence directed toward the protesters, including beatings, false imprisonment, torture by pepper spray and even death, in the case of David Gypsy Chain. This case was not about crime or criminal behavior, as the writer below would have you believe. It was a civil trespass civil suit by the 800 lb. gorilla Pacific Lumber against a woman doing her best to defend herself on a very tilted playing field. It happened in a land behind the Redwood Curtain, a land that has been ruled by timber barons for 150 years, where most people either work for the timber industry, or used to, or would like to, or their close relatives do. Kim reported on the radio that the trial judge continually denied her motions challenging the other side’s testimony while granting the motions by the other side. It was like holding a the trial of a 1965 civil rights activist in Selma Alabama, so pervasive is the bias in favor of the timber company and against forest activists. Note that the writer ends by thanking the jurors, the public and law enforcement for their support for the company.
———– Eureka Times Standard 3/27/2006 04:24 AM My Word http://www.times-standard.com/opinion/ci_3643718
Justice prevails against extremist protesters -Rich Bettis
I have never written a “My Word” in my life; but after living through four years of continual harassment by protesters, four years of legal maneuvering, and a three-week trial, justice has finally prevailed. This week a Humboldt County jury said “enough was enough” and ruled against extremists who had terrorized the headquarters employees of The Pacific Lumber Co. The jury’s decision to hold these extremists accountable should send a message loud and clear that their criminal actions and continual trespass will no longer be tolerated. At issue were the actions of a small group of extremists and their twenty or so support team who, with a total disregard for the safety of pedestrians, drove a car up onto the sidewalk and then up to the front entrance of the company’s headquarters, actually blocking the office doors. Since this occurred shortly after 9-11, many of my fellow employees in the office at the time didn’t know what to think and feared that the actions might be that of a suicide car bomber. This so-called “protest” was a dangerous tactic that caused a great deal of anxiety and worry to the workers and visitors at Palco. For sure it caused emotional trauma for many, and no one knew if this reckless and dangerous action could have resulted in someone getting seriously hurt. Thankfully, this time no one did. Unfortunately, this type of emotional harassment against law-abiding citizens simply trying to work and support their families is not an isolated incident. On many occasions Palco employees have encountered similar situations. While working in the woods, many of us have had to deal with threatening and menacing people wearing ski masks and harassing us as we work. We have had to avoid dangerous trenches cut deep into the main logging roads designed to cause auto accidents or injure employees traveling on foot. Our contractors’ very expensive logging equipment and helicopters have, at times, been vandalized. And of course, we have had to deal with the many tree sitters whose own reckless abandon puts both themselves and others in extreme danger. On many occasions, Palco employees have had to dodge falling debris or worse, originating from these “so-called” peaceful tree sitters. Many of these situations required a response from law enforcement or other public safety agencies, which carries a cost to the county. This response, while required, is a huge waste of money and it diverts critical public safety resources away from other needs in the county, putting us all at risk. The fake car bombing incident is a perfect example. Numerous firefighters, police officers and critical extraction equipment were tied up for almost five hours that day. Had an accident or fire occurred along Highway 101 near Scotia, other resources from outside of the area would have had to respond. That kind of delay could have meant the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, the extremists not only realize this fact, but seem to take great pleasure and pride in it. Through it all, the employees of Palco have been gratified by the continual support we have received from our fellow citizens of Humboldt County and are very appreciative of the help we have received from the local public safety agencies that have had to respond to these illegal acts of trespass and terror in the past. We are hopeful now that,following this trial and verdict, those responsible for these criminal acts will think twice before acting in such a dangerous and irresponsible manner. As a lifelong resident of Humboldt County and a proud 38-year employee of Palco, I want to thank the jury for taking such a strong stand against the actions committed by these extremists. I know I speak for my fellow employees and many in Humboldt County when I say, thank you.
Rich Bettis is property manager for Palco/SCOPAC. He lives in Fortuna. The opinions expressed in My Word pieces do not necessarily reflect the editorial viewpoint of the Times-Standard. ——————————
Further comment by NW: The claim that a trench dug by hand across a logging road is “designed to cause auto accidents or injure employees traveling on foot”; is false and ridiculous. They would be designed to block a road, plain and simple. Old logging roads in my neighborhood had trenches dug across them with heavy equipment by the logging company to keep out trespassing firewood cutters and dirt bikers. They put up no warning signs.
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Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Puts Land Up For Sale As predicted for many months by Maxxam watchers, Maxxam’s Pacific Lumber is moving to liquidateits forest holdings by selling off land held by its subsidiary, Scotia Pacific (ScoPac). ScoPac is the part of Pacific Lumber (PL) that holds the timber lands and also shoulders the still-mammoth purchase debt. Some 75,000 acres have been quietly put on the market in recent weeks, comprising over a third of the company’s lands. The Humboldt Watershed Council went public with the information, before PL could spin the announcement in the media, pulling that rug out from under them. PL owns approximately 220,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forests, which were still dense and lush in 1985, after being only selectively logged for over 100 years by the previous operators of Pacific Lumber. All but 9,000 of the 220,000 acres are held by the ScoPac subdivision as collateral for $867 million in bonds the company sold in 1998, refinancing the original purchase debt. In late January and early February, 16 properties totaling 14,631 acres were listed for sale, with parcels ranging from 26 acres up to 3,795 acres. Most of the properties, located in Jacoby Creek and Mattole watersheds, the Kneeland area, and near the Avenue of the Giants are not contiguous with the bulk of PL’s redwood forest lands and Not yet specifically identified on maps is an additional 60,000 acres apparently offered for auction to other timber companies. PL calls it a “restructuring strategy”, once again trotting out the tired over-regulation” argument. In the last couple years, PL has bucked efforts by the Regional Water Quality Control Board to limit devastation wreaked upon Humboldt’s waterways, in response to evidence brought before them by PL’s downstream neighbors documenting massive flooding, ruined fruit orchards, homes buried by mudslides and other damage. On the other hand, PL claims to have been hamstrung in getting their cut out. But PL’s harvest levels over the last 6 years have been within 2% of the company’s business plan accordingly to Watershed Council president Mark Lovelace summed it up, “Clearly, if there is any problem with the company’s finances, it cannot be blamed on a reduced rate of harvest, because they are right on target”. Looming on ScoPac’s horizon is an interest payment on the massive debt in July. Potential buyers of the large chunks of forestland are presumed to be adjacent timberland owners like Green Diamond Resources and Sierra Pacific Industries. But PL’s lands are extremely cut over, with very little merchantable timber. A disclosure released by ScoPac late last year showed that 84% of the company’s lands contained an average of just 12,750 board-feet of timber per acre, less than 1/6 of what a healthy second-growth redwood forest should hold. Alternatives to the status quo would include purchase by investors interested in sustainable working forests, with key old growth and habitat areas either bought by conservation organizations or protected via conservation easements. But any purchaser must comply with the Habitat Conservation Plan that prescribes how activity on the land must be monitored and restricted. Since the lucrative return on investment is to be found via subdivision and development, any proposed zoning changes to open the door to development must be aggressively opposed. EPIC (the Environmental Protection Information Center in Garberville and Eureka) sent an inquiry last week to Humboldt County realtors to ensure that the necessity of compliance with the Headwaters deal Habitat Conservation Plan is understood by potential purchasers. Anyone with a desire to support sustainable working forests and access to serious investment capital is urged to contact the Redwood Forest Foundation.
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Old Growth SPI Logging Plan Re-emerges in Mattole To see photos of trees in this plan, see http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/03/1809627.php And for the full story and photos of the mountain beaver, see http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/03/1808790.php For several years, a particularly devastating plan to log hundreds of acres of old growth Douglas Fir forest has been awaiting approval. On April 10, THP 1-03-232 “Windmill”– Sierra Pacific Industries’ (SPI) 538 acre timber harvest plan is expected to be approved; if that happens, logging could begin that day. An estimated 70% of the plan is old growth forest, nearly all of the remaining patches of Old growth Forest in Davis Creek. This plan has been undergoing review since 2003 by the California Dept. of Forestry and other agencies and the decision keeps getting postponed because of the size of the plan and the many ecological issues. The units are scattered across the Davis Creek and South Fork Bear River drainages, an area ravaged by logging. When BLM sold the large parcel to SPI in the 70’s it was blanketed by lush, old growth forest. Aerial photos of the watershed now show steep hillsides stripped bald from the ridge down to the creek. The westernmost logging unit is only 3 miles from the rugged beaches of the Pacific coast next to Davis Creek. 74 acres are proposed for clearcut, 96 acres are proposed for “rehab”, a logging technique where all of the profitable trees like Douglas Fir are taken and then herbicides are dumped on the remaining hardwoods. Then seedlings are planted–often clones–of a valuable species like Douglas Fir or Redwood and the transformation from a forest into a tree farm is complete. The very rare mammal the Mountain Beaver (Aplodontia rufa) inhabit this area. One subspecies, the Point Arena Mountain Beaver is federally listed as endangered. They need soft, wet soil for burrowing in and to provide lush vegetation for food. Two areas slated for clear-cut are locations known to be occupied by Mountain Beavers This kind of logging results in a dead zone of smashed limbs, logs and dead brush, all of which are tinder dry in the summer.The area is also populated with Sonoma Tree Voles, a weakly protected subspecies of the Red Tree Vole. Like their cousins, just about the only thing these mouse-like creatures eat is Douglas Fir needles and they rarely, if ever, descend from the canopy to the ground.
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– Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH) 2530 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley, CA 94702 phone: 510 548 3113 email: bach@headwaterspreserve.org http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org