IndyBay - BACH Press Release

Community Residents Challenge Maxxam/Pacific Lumber's Smear Campaign
by Repost - BACH press release Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 9:22 AM
(510) 548-3113
Timber Company Branding Young Forest Protesters as Terrorists

Humboldt county, California: More than 60 doctors, lawyers, City
Council members, clergy and local residents from this rural community
have called for the cessation of ads broadcast on radio, tv and
newspapers by Maxxam/Pacific Lumber. The ads attack protesters
carrying out acts of civil disobedience against unsustainable logging
as terrorists, accusing them of "terrorizing innocent people",
urging those listening to the ads to "protect our fundamental
freedoms and rights". Their attempts to whip up public sentiment
against those who would oppose their management practices have the
backdrop of an already polarized environment, since PL's over-cutting
has put many people out of work in this timber-dependant community.

But as tree-sitters have been plucked from high altitude perches in
giant old growth redwoods by contract climbers hired by PL to
essentially carry out law enforcement activities, using pain
compliance holds and binding activists' ankles and wrists upwards of
150 feet off the ground in the branches of giant old growth trees,
the activists argue it is their rights at risk. In fact, in an
appeal of a judge's siting of an upcoming jury trial over police use
of pepper spray on protesters staging a sit-in protest in Humboldt
county, lawyers argued a fair trial is impossible in a "hotbed of
prejudice" created by the timber company's smear campaign.

Signers of the letter to PL pres. Robert Manne and Maxxam CEO Charles
Hurwitz also decried the use of images of Martin Luther King Jr. and
Gandhi in their ads as well as rhetoric trivializing the horror of
the Sept. 11 attacks by drawing parallels with non-violent forest
defense. Though civil disobedience actions in the long forest
campaign have remained non-violent, the signers say the protester's
tactics are not at issue-it is the highly-charged propagandistic
language attempting to create ill will toward protesters, and some
fear, incite violence. A letter with 60 signers (and growing) asks
Manne and Hurwitz " stop producing media material" making the "claim
that civil disobedience is an act of terrorism."

Tree-sitters are not alone in challenging PL's practices that are
laying bare steep hillsides, causing floods and degrading water
quality to the point where PL was ordered to truck in drinking water
to residents whose household sources had been rendered non-potable.
Local residents have traveled to water quality agency meetings with
photos of their flooded-out homes, and pointed to huge old growth
redwoods that have lost their footing and come down in protected
parklands downstream from PL's logging operations, threatening the
other principal economic base on California's north coast: tourism.

In addition, major lawsuits are in the courts challenging the tenants
of the Headwaters deal, which netted what PL pres. Manne called
"regulatory certainty", making their logging operations more
difficult to challenge. In a move that stunned the company and
garnered widespread community support, the county's newly elected
District Attorney in February filed a $250 million lawsuit against PL
alleging fraud in eleventh hour negotiations of the Headwaters deal,
yeilding PL a higher rate of harvest than would have been the case if
all pertinent data was taken into account.

PL has reacted to D.A. Paul Gallegos' lawsuit by launching a recall
campaign against him, and to the tree-sitters by flooding media with
smear ads. The tv, radio and print ads can be accessed at
http://htiac.tripod.com, and footage of risky extraction of
tree-sitters by PL contract climbers can be viewed at:


http://www.homepage.mac.com/davidhowitt/menu5.html

Click on "Safety Concerns".

add your comments
more lies
by The Rabbi Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 10:07 AM


All of the people that signed this letter have long had it in for thr pacific lumber company. The people listed in the letter are not being drawn togeather for the common good of the community, but rather another frontal assualt on P.L. Ellen taylor has sued P.L. many times, michal evenson is a whack job, tim mckay we all no where he butters his bread, Liz finger go figure, patty don't spray me clary and crazy ken miller and last but not least Mayor Bob I got a water quality violiation at my brewery Ornealas. With all these people's sincerely signed names who needs any enemys. When will you guys learn that you can't hide a sheep in wolfs clothing. See you in round three jerk.
add your comments
Maxxam out
by resident Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 10:22 AM


Actually, it was Maxxam that "had it in" for Pacific Lumber, and Hurwitz will be the final victor as he drives this once sustainable company into the ground.
add your comments
Will they?
by Free Thinker Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 10:44 AM


Will any of the people who signed that letter also sign a declaration denouncing Rod Coronado for his record of arson and threats, and admonishing demonstrators that nonviolent civil disobedience does not include harrassment and intimidation? It would greatly increase their credibility, but I doubt we'll ever see it. Their agenda is not to bring civility back into the debate, but to enable Earth First.
add your comments
OUCH! That's my neck you're stepping on
by Ox is a goon Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 11:28 AM


As you watch the extractions, and see PL's hired climbers kick, step on, constrict circulation, bend back thumbs and fingers, and hang tree-sitters upside down by one leg, you will not be confused as to whom lacks civility.
add your comments
Show me
by Free Thinker Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 1:17 PM


On the PL newspaper ad, please show where Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or Rod Coronado were quoted inaccurately. And what would the Gandhi and King foundations think of their ideals being invoked by a group of "forest defenders"that embraces the likes of Rod Coronado and tactics including assault, intimidation, and sabotage? Are they aware of that? How on Earth can anyone say that "forest defenders" tactics are not at issue? They are simply trying to evade responsibility for their own actions.
add your comments
Gandhi's son
by Santa Rosa man Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 1:36 PM


Gandhi's son (may have been nephew) was quoted several years ago in the Press Democrat when David Chain died about the tree sitters/forest defenders tactics. He said that what the tree sitters were doing was not in keeping with the practices of the Mahatma.
add your comments
Ox is a goon
by Same old B.S. Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 6:44 PM


Hey goon,
Would it be alright if I came over to your front lawn. I would like to set up camp there to protest the likes of you. better yet, let me build a platform on top of your house or teepee, whatever it is that you live in.
add your comments
Freedom of speech
by Enviro's Off the air Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 6:55 PM


It seems that the enviro's can't afford much air time to show the so called smear-ads. I just wanted to see what the enemy had put together. Unfortunately I will have to come back later for they used up their bandwidth time. I wanted to see what the enviro's had as far as video on the so called illegal removal of treesitters. But again, no show. I guess they want to blow smoke to the public just as they always have.
add your comments
Talk to the Residents
by Ox is a goon Tuesday, May. 06, 2003 at 8:00 PM


Does PL pay you people to monitor this site? You can "roof-sit" on my house if I am trashing the water qualilty of the neighboring properties, or creating situations where neighboring houses might be wiped out entirely. Their are people who live downstream from PL who have lost their water quality, have lost their swimming spots, have lost their fishing holes, and are watching their property values plummet because of the degradation of the watershed where they live. They are too old to sit in trees. Do you want to defend PL's liquidation logging to them? When they have two foot high water marks in their living rooms? Maybe it is all some abstract notion to you, but to the residents in Freshwater, or for those in Elk River, where PL has to deliver their agricultural and drinking water because they have completely trashed the water quality it is a very REAL and DAILY issue. Quote your bullshit "scientists" all you want. The people who live here have to live with it daily.

Why don't you get off your computer and go talk to the residents who live in Freshwater and Elk River Watersheds, and see what the REAL experts have to say. Then go update your resume, Jim Bob.
add your comments
"Experts" vs Facts
by Free Thinker Wednesday, May. 07, 2003 at 8:11 AM


So scientists that disagree with Ox are "bullshit." Sounds like somebody doesn't want their precious preconceptions disturbed with facts. Like the legacy of damage done to Freshwater watershed done by the good little eco-groovy pre-Maxxam PALCO with their outdated practices. Check the airphoto record to see what I mean. Or the fact that repairing the legacy damage on an incremental basis is a condition of PALCO getting THPs approved.
If day-to-day experience made us experts, we'd all be urologists.
add your comments
Free Thinker
by Free Tinkler Wednesday, May. 07, 2003 at 2:12 PM


I sure would love to drain my bladder on you.
add your comments
Sorry. Not gonna happen.
by Free Thinker Wednesday, May. 07, 2003 at 2:39 PM


Proposition declined.
add your comments
legacy logging practices
by Scott Wednesday, May. 07, 2003 at 3:47 PM


P.L.'s legacy rationale for the recent trend of increased flooding Freshwater and Elk R. has been thoroughly debunked by the regional board staff, the redwood science lab, the residents of Freshwater and Elk R., and most recently by the independent science review pannel whose membership was agreed upon by P.L. P.L. knew this and dragged it's feet for years by refusing to do meaningfull monitoring of suspended sediments. They know such monitoring will prove what the residents have known for years , that even age harvesting practices on the steep slopes of their watersheds result in the transportation of fine sediments from the hillsides into their homes. This is not from legacy logging, this is from unprecedented canopy removal done recently. Road repair though essential is not enough to bring P.L. into compliance with the clean water act. l
add your comments
Canopy Fallacy
by Free Thinker Wednesday, May. 07, 2003 at 4:48 PM


The canopy argument is based on an incorrect extrapolation of rainfall interception during small storms to rainfall interception during large storms. The conclusion of the UC Team reviewing the Freshwater flooding issue was that canopy loss has a relatively minor effect on peak discharge. They also concluded that skid trails and compacted soils have a much more profound effect on hillslope hydrology and the effect is even greater during larger storms. Unfortunately, much of the recent pre-HCP harvest was also done using tractor yarding, so you can still draw an apparent (but not real) correlation between canopy loss and hydrologic changes. And the legacy effects of the skid trails and abandoned roads will last for decades. Recent independent work on abandoned roads in Redwood National Park (cited by the WQB review panel) shows that abandoned roads 30-50 years old generate from 3 to 10 times more sediment than decommissioned roads. And you want to say that legacy effects are "debunked"?? In case you didn't notice, the WQB review panel also pointed out the fallacy in Leslie Reid's method for calculating sediment yield from on-going logging. Be careful what literature you cite, Scott. Somebody else might actually have read it.
add your comments
legacy logging practices
by Same old B.S. Wednesday, May. 07, 2003 at 5:13 PM


Hey scott,
Number one; the water board staff was hand in hand with the terrorist. They refused to hand over documents that supported P.L. to the water board in Santa Rosa. They (staff) was caught not once but three different times in fibs to the Board members on what was really taking place in Freshwater. Second; The Science panel was onsite for just one stinkin day. And the staff didn't hand over data to the panal from P.L. so it was stacked in favor of eco terrorist. And monitoring, Staff didn't even tell the water board that P.L. was doing 170% of monitoring. Why I can say this, I was there at the meeting when staff made a fool of the water board.

add your comments
WQB terrorists?
by Free Thinker Wednesday, May. 07, 2003 at 5:57 PM


Going a tad far, don't you think?
add your comments
Convergence
by William Blake Thursday, May. 08, 2003 at 8:04 AM


The chasm between the two dogmas expressed here will never be closed. There are too many folks on all sides who rely on the split community for their position in society. Let those who are not so entrenched realize the willful manipulation of others by such people and resist adding to the division of the community.
add your comments
WQB terrorists?
by Same old B.S. Thursday, May. 08, 2003 at 5:17 PM


Not really Free Thinker. At the meeting there was eye winks and pats on the back, hugs with the likes of Wrigley, Miller, Elkins from EPIC with members of the staff. Exchanges of notes between the two was very open. If that's not hand in hand, I don't know what is. Both had the same goal and that was to shut down logging. Miller made that very clear. The Board members in Santa Rosa I feel was left out of the loop with it's staff.
add your comments
Distinctions
by Free Thinker Thursday, May. 08, 2003 at 6:32 PM


What you're describing is certainly a breach of professionalism on the part of the WQ staff. And the people you listed certainly represent the bureaucratic arm of Earth First (EPIC, NEC, Humboldt Watershed Council, etc.). But short of the type of sabotage, threats, assaults, and intimidation that's been going on up on the hill, we don't need to describe what they're doing as terrorism. They will never denounce any of those acts, though, because they want to protect their cronies.
add your comments
WQB terrorists?
by Same old B.S. Thursday, May. 08, 2003 at 8:28 PM


I didn't mean to imply that the staff were terrorist, a little misguided maybe. I was just saying that they were just a little too cozy with the otherside. If you look at the comparison between the WQ staff and Gallegos, I would say that the tatics are similar between the two. Both parties were a little misguided by these people of slick talking on bogus topics.
add your comments
Recall of Gallegos
by concerned Saturday, Jun. 14, 2003 at 6:19 PM


Does anyone know where I can sign the petition to oust Gallegos? After reading the news today about the sentence the two people that shot into 12 houses received, I am convinced we have a soft bellied liberal DA who is not going to be aggresive in halting violent crime. He needs to be sending a clear message that violent crime will not be tolerated in our community and anyone commiting violent crime will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Im sure our law enforcers would agree with me. We need leadership from the DA , not liberal politics!