The Bay Area Forest Activist Newsletter, Summer 2003

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The Humboldt-Houston Connection Made Real
Activists bring their message to MAXXAM and its CEO Charles Hurwitz at the corporate headquarters in Houston

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August 15, 2003

Tree-sit platform placed 110' up in a Houston pine tree. Photo: Courtesy SACRED

"We're sick of watching the liquidation of our last remaining ancient redwoods in California. We think the best place to voice our outrage is right here in Houston, where the orders come from and the money goes to." That said, two intrepid tree-sitters traveled from California's north coast to Texas to protest Maxxam Corporation's destructive logging practices that are destroying their rural community's economy, rivers, and forest habitat in Humboldt county. On July 16, under cover of darkness, two activists climbed 110-foot tall pine trees in Houston's Memorial Park and built tree sits 80 feet high in the branches. They sat in the tree through torrential Texas Gulf Coast rains and even Hurricane Claudia, eliciting response from Maxxam and lots of attention from the media.

Communication between Humboldt activists and those in Houston spawned a new Houston group advocating for old growth trees called SACRED, or the Southern Alliance for Coastal Redwood Earth Defenders. A Texas activist traveled to Humboldt to meet tree-sitters and other activists, and then brought testimony to the Maxxam shareholders meeting in May. They hosted a teach-in on Maxxam logging practices on the north coast recently, and a newly formed local Earth First! group in Houston staged demonstrations at Maxxam headquarters and the homes of corporate officials in early July, including those of Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz and president Paul Schwartz.

SACRED's contact info is www.sacredredwoods.org or info@SacredRedwood.org or 713-858-0074. Stories are on houston indymedia.



Other Articles in This Issue

• The Season in Review
  It has been a very busy year. We salute the dedicated, brave and very persistent activists who have sat in trees, writte...
  
  
• Flaws In The Headwaters Deal Finally See The Light Of Day
  On July 22, a Humboldt County Superior Court judge formally declared plaintiffs Environmental Protection Information Cen...
  
  
• Acronyms
  SYP Sustained Yield Plan ITP Incidental Take Permit THP Timber Harvest Plan HCP Habitat Conservation Plan MSP Maximu...
  
  
• DA Throws Down The Gauntlet To Pacific Lumber
  In a heroic move, Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos surprised residents last February by filing a lawsuit ...
  
  
• Mattole Old Growth
  Hello again from the Mattole! The Mattole Restoration Council's (MRC) Forest Practices Program keeps a watch on the fore...
  
  
• Maxxam Corporate Update
  If a tree falls in the forest, would Wall Street hear it? How about if the tree is occupied by a tree-sitter? Will Wal...
  
  
• Who are the Real Eco-Terrorists? Mill Closure And Job Loss: After The Boom, Who Sweeps Up The Rubble?
  As reported in our last newsletter, Maxxam/PL closed its flagship mill operation in the company town of Scotia, laying o...
  
  
• The Forests Find Some Champions In The California Legislature
  For the first time in more than a decade, a package of timber reform bills that would give an urgently needed overhaul t...
  
  
• Demonstrating What? Legal Victory Brings Relief for Jackson Demonstration Forest -- For Now
  Founded in 1947, the 50,000-acre Jackson State Demonstration Forest is the largest of eight forests in California's stat...
  
  
• GE TREES--THE NEW CHAIN SAW MASSACRE
  Monoculture tree plantations are already threatening enough to biological diversity, but things could get worse. Geneti...
  
  
• Wildfire Bill Goes From Bad To Worse HR 1904 Expands Logging
  The Senate Agriculture Committee made a bad wildfire bill even worse in April by further gutting environmental protectio...
  
  
• Enough Wilderness
  On the eve of the release of the final management plan for the publicly-owned Headwaters Preserve, the Bush administrati...
  
  
• Crisis for the Sequoias
  The magnificent red-barked Giant Sequoias of the Sierra Nevada range, relatives to the coast redwood, are among the larg...
  
  
• Activist Resource Directory
  Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters 2530 San Pablo, Berkeley (510) 548-3113; Hotline (510) 835-6303; bach@igc.org; for t...