| Tree sitters in Humboldt County
ordered down from their perches
(Note from AP & FA: California court tells activists to come down from trees: Pacific Lumber yesterday won a temporary restraining order to get tree sitters out of redwoods near Freshwater Creek. The company says the activists are trespassing and interfering with logging in the area.) March 11, 2003 The Press-Enterprise 3512 Fourteenth Street Riverside, CA 92501 909-368-9403 Fax: 909-368-9022 To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@pe.com The Associated Press Eureka, California - A Humboldt County judge has ordered tree sitters on logging company land to come down from their perches. Judge Dale Reinholtsen on Monday granted the request from Pacific Lumber Company for a temporary restraining order against the environmental activists occupying redwood trees on company property. The order calls on the tree sitters to "immediately and permanently" remove themselves and their personal property from the trees. Pacific Lumber has until March 15 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. "We're following a procedure," she said. "If they don't vacate within 24 hours after we serve them, we will determine what the next step will be." 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. Karen Pickett of the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, a group supporting the tree sitters, said representatives were reading over the decision and trying to plan a next step. She said the immediate concern was securing legal counsel to represent the tree sitters. |