The 1995 Round River Rendezvous site on the Mad River: the half moon had set, and I could almost hear, though it was in my dreams, the frantic activity going on in another campground 75 miles away. Fifty or so EF!ers, fresh from a week at the Rendezvous but operating on precious little sleep, were scurrying around in the moonless dark. They divided up gear, wolfed down a little breakfast, and counted out the lockboxes, handcuffs and bike locks.
"They're pounding and screaming, dancing on the roof," exclaimed a worried California Department of Forestry (CDF) office assistant as at least a dozen Earth First!ers took to the roof of the Fortuna office building early on July 5. "They're all over the place."
CDF is the agency that oversees the logging plans on private lands in the state, and of late has "overseen" (to be generous), many plans for the ancient redwoods in the Headwaters Forest of northern California.
While those on the roof unfurled banners, others took over two administrative offices, announcing to the dumbstruck employees, "We're here with some serious complaints. Sorry, no business as usual today." A few wily activists proceeded to play secretary until CDFers managed to disconnect their phone lines, and some people locked down to desks. Out in the parking lot, folks hauled drums and guitars out of their cars. It truly looked, felt and tasted like a total occupation. We settled in for a few hours.
Meanwhile, a band of Earth First!ers quietly hiked to the active Pacific Lumber logging site in the Yager Creek watershed of the Headwaters Forest. A special order item accompanied the activists, a wrecked four- door Chevy painted with slogans like "MAXXAM out of Humboldt County." The car found its resting place at the Newburg gate. Support people helped a blockader lock himself to the steering column in the Chevy while two others locked to other parts of the body. Click, click, click. Two more people secured themselves to the gate. Another gate was buried in three feet of rubble.
Soon a Pacific Lumber truck drove up. The driver spewed an epitaph about EF!ers being fools, turned the vehicle around, and drove down an adjacent driveway. Aaaiiee! A breech in our blockade! Always at the ready, two more people with bike locks raced to the third gate and closed it with their bodies. As loggers arrived to go to work, a couple seized the opportunity of a captive audience and treated folks to proselytizing about god. Meanwhile, PL security and the sheriff showed up. They cut the first gate but just as they were about to let vehicles through, a quick thinking blockader slipped under the cop car and locked herself with handcuffs to the axle.
By the time protesters were arrested and removed from the gates, nearly a hundred vehicles, including log trucks, had been backed up for several hours. When police had loaded the blockaders into the police van, a brave soul dove under the van and locked to the axle, delaying them further. No business as usual.
Things got a little hairy at CDF during the arrest scene. There were cops from three jurisdictions and no one wanted to say who was in charge. They waited for the yelling, chanting supporters to clear the way so that the van carrying arrestees could proceed out the driveway. John wiggled out of his plastic cuffs and climbed out the window of the paddy wagon onto the cab. The crowd went wild as he raised his fists in salute to his friends on the ground. He then quietly sat down, non- violent blockade style, while a couple of very embarrassed cops scrambled up to get him.
Being embarrassed is something cops don't like. After conferring with each other about ways to disperse the crowd, several officers then indiscriminately sprayed pepper spray directly into the eyes or mouths of at least a dozen people. Within a few minutes, the scene looked like a battlefield. Injured people lay on the median strip or sat on the curb, moaning and clutching at their eyes.
In the chaos that ensued, the paddy wagon managed to break away, careening over the grass median toward Humboldt County Jail in Eureka. Once the injured recovered sufficiently, we raised an Earth First! flag up the flagpole on CDF's front lawn, and moved the crowd to the courthouse in Eureka for a support rally. When the dust settled, more than forty people had been arrested, ten at the gates and thirty- four at CDF.
The only thing stopping a massive assault on the redwoods right now is the marbled murrelet nesting season, April 15 through September 15. The marbled murrelet is listed as an endangered species on both the state and federal lists. Get ready for more direct action as soon as nesting season officially ends. Support EPIC's lawsuits. Write the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and demand Debt for Nature swaps in the Headwaters forest and an investigation of Charles Hurwitz, CEO of MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber, for savings and loan fraud. We must defend this forest!
Several important habitat areas are scheduled for cutting this summer and fall, including Headwaters grove and other important old growth groves.
Contact the Redwood Action Team, PO Box 34, Garberville, Ecotopia 95542, (707) 468-1660 if you would like to help protect this important wilderness area.