What Happened That Day

The following is the affidavit of Jeremy "Farmer" Jensen describing the events of the day Gypsy died.

I, Jeremy Jensen declare: I am a resident of Humboldt County, California, the age of 16, a citizen of the United States.

I arrived at the drop-off point and started hiking up the hill. There were nine people including myself and a camera person... When we arrived at the tree the loggers shouted obscenities at us while someone tried to reason with them. That person said that they [the loggers] should stop logging until CDF [California Department of Forestry] showed up because John Marshall said that they [CDF] were going to come today, and although they hadn't shown up we thought they might soon. The logger who was cutting, "Big A", replied that the THP [Timber Harvest Plan] had already been approved and that he didn't do anything that was illegal because then he would get sent to jail and that was where we should be, not him. Someone continued to talk calmly to Big A until he became aggressive and started chasing us back the way we came. He gave up and stood in place shouting at us, and then he walked back to the tree and started cutting again.

We regrouped and decided to try to talk to him again. This time a different person talked to him, and he seemed less angry, but he threatened to fall a tree in our direction and [said] that we had better leave. We all scrambled out of the way as the tree fell dangerously close. I was hiding when I heard Big A start on another tree and yell out that this tree was a tall one and would easily reach us. We again regrouped and had a meeting/snack break to decide what we would do next. As we were eating, we heard the next one starting to go. It sounded as though it was next to us, and I froze in fear. Gypsy and another [person] both started to move, but the tree hit the ground before they got far. Luckily that one didn't come close enough to hurt us, although, if we had been sitting in its path, we would not have gotten away in time. After that last one fell, we decided to go and talk to the loggers one more time before leaving. We all got up and broke into two groups-one group would be uphill from the loggers and one would be downhill. Three [people] would be down hill. Three would be uphill, including myself and Gypsy. Gypsy and another were close to the loggers, and I hung back a little ways from them. We were all shouting at the logger that we were coming to talk and that he should stop cutting this one, then I heard the tree about to go. I dove into some underbrush and under some small trees. I looked up just in time to see a huge tree coming down nearly on top of me. The main trunk came within 10 feet of me and if I hadn't been under the small trees the Douglas fir's branches would have hit me. I brushed myself off and walked out into the steep clearing that the tree created when it fell. Almost instantly the protesters and Big A congregated on the scene. Someone was shouting at him that he could have killed us. It was then that I heard someone frantically calling out "Gypsy, Gypsy, where's Gypsy?! He was right behind me." I called out for him, but there was no answer. It was then that his body was found by the logger, Big A. He [Gypsy] was about 15-feet farther down the slope then when I had last seen him. And when I caught sight of him I saw that he had massive head trauma. I ran all the way to Grizzly National Park to get the news out about what had happened.

Gypsy died doing CDF's job.

The following account from Carey Jordan was recorded on September 29, during a radio interview in Berkeley, CA with KFPA's Flashpoint.

"I only knew the logger by his logging name, which was 'Big A.E.' We went there to talk to the loggers. We [had] demonstrated the day before at California Department of Forestry to make them aware that we thought PL was logging illegally... A road was punched in before September 15. That's the official end of marbled murrelet nesting season. They're not supposed to do any work before then. Plus they hadn't finished the murrelet surveys before they started, and also there was the danger of landslides because the slope they're cutting on is practically straight up and down.

"The day before when I was in there, I talked to Big A.E. 'Listen it's illegal to be cutting here, and you're the one who's going to get screwed because the company doesn't give a shit about you guys. They're sending you in here to log illegally, and then when it all comes down, you guys are the ones who are going to get fined for it.' So basically we were trying to build bridges. When we went back the next day, we were just going to lay low to see if CDF actually came out like they said they were going to."

"We basically had three interactions with the logger, including one the day before Gypsy was killed. In the first two, we ran away when he chased us. After the second one, we were hiding under a thicket and took about a 15-minute break to try to calm down. I heard maybe one or two trees fall during that time. Gypsy said, 'Let's wait until he's done with the one he's cutting now and then go out and talk to him before he gets to the next one.' So when we heard the chainsaw stop, I said, 'Okay, let's go now, it's silent,' and we came out from the thicket and there was the tree right there, like maybe within 50 or 100 feet of us. I swore because we were really close and said to Gypsy "we have to go higher now..." This is all happening within seconds, and the tree is about to fall. I run up where I think it's going to be safe (you can't really run up these hills because it's straight up and down, pretty much). I'm clamoring up the hill and look around, and Gypsy's not behind me so I run back down to him and go, 'Come on, we have to go higher now.' But in this split-second interaction I had with him, the tree was actually cracking and starting to fall over so I gave him one last look and ran up the hill. The tree fell down, and the logger was right there, and he came over and was the one who actually saw that Gypsy had been hit."


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This page was last updated 10/28/98