Tree Sitters in Calif. Ordered Down
Tue Mar 11,10:30 AM ET
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - A judge has ordered tree sitters on logging company land to
come down from their perches.
Humboldt County Judge Dale Reinholtsen on Monday granted the request from
Pacific Lumber Co. for a temporary restraining order against the
environmental activists occupying redwood trees on company property.
The order, granted in Eureka, calls on the tree sitters to "immediately and
permanently" remove themselves and their personal property from the trees.
Pacific Lumber has until Saturday to serve the tree sitters with the order,
and they will then have 24 hours to come down.
Activists have been protesting Pacific Lumber's logging practices by
sitting high in the branches of at least 18 trees near Freshwater Creek,
which empties into Humboldt Bay. They complain that the company is
harvesting the area too aggressively, causing erosion that is degrading
local waterways.
In court papers filed Friday, lawyers for the company argued the tree
sitters were trespassing on private property, blocking roads and
interfering with the company's ability to log.
One activist, a woman who goes by the trail name Remedy, has been in a tree
almost a year. She vowed Monday to stay in the tree even if served with the
restraining order, unless Pacific Lumber agreed to reduce its rate of
harvest in the watershed.
"I would like to see the company make some sort of gesture," she said.
Mary Bullwinkel, a spokeswoman for Pacific Lumber, said the company would
decide shortly how and when to serve the order to the tree sitters.
Karen Pickett of the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, a group supporting
the tree sitters, said representatives were reading the decision and trying
to plan their next step.
The occupied trees are part of a more than 200,000-acre redwood forest
owned by Pacific Lumber. The area has been the focus of high-profile legal
battles between environmentalists and loggers for years.
Last week, activists removed flags and other markers on trees designated
for cutting in the Mattole watershed, another area owned by Pacific Lumber.
They also made some of the roads in the area temporarily impassable by
covering them with logging debris.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/03/11/4829369
