For Immediate Release -
Contact: Contact Sue Maloney 310-926-0090
Maxxam/ Pacific Lumber Company continued its assault on the treesitters in Freshwater, a rural-residential area between Eureka and Arcata in Humboldt County that has captured national and international attention, as well as the local front pages for weeks, even as war loomed and bombing began in Iraq. Activists have been occupying 18 enormous ancient redwoods, including one tree called "Jerry" lived in by the well known sitter, Remedy, for almost a year, hoping to save them from destruction.
This morning at 8:00 a.m. for the fourth straight day this week, a crowd of over 80 people gathered on Greenwood Heights Rd. to witness yet another extraction of a sitter who had reoccupied Jerry after Remedy was removed on Monday. Witnesses sang, drummed and called out support to "Amadi," a young woman who had climbed to the very top of the tree to get away from four company-hired climbers. It took hours to reach her and she was finally placed in a harness and lowered to the ground during intermittent showers that created slippery and hazardous conditions.
Other activists went into the woods when the roar of live chainsaws was heard in the nearby clearcut . When they made their presence known to the logger named "Dave" he continued falling trees very close to them and was verbally threatening and combative. Men with chainsaws massed around the bases of the trees, removing makeshift barricades activists had built out of branches and slash to protect the trunks from "girdling." The PL/ Maxxam workers plan to remove all the inner bark around the base of trees which will slowly kill them.
Over 20 protestors have been arrested so far, many jailed for trespass, and some for nonviolently resisting by "locking down " with steel sleeves to the tops and at the bases of the trees. A dozen county sheriffs vehicles, six highway patrol cars, numerous security guards and an ambulance lined the narrow two-lane road, but the road was kept open to one- way traffic, after residents complained about law enforcement blocking both lanes earlier
