Direct Action Update of 2021
By Anna Marie Stenberg
Well it’s been quite a year. There were 5 approved Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) for JDSF when the first Tree Sit was set up and Direct Action began in April. Caspar 500, Chamberlain Confluence, Parlin 7, Red Tail and Soda Gulch are the THPs. We have consistently called for a moratorium on all logging in JDSF until a new management plan was developed and approved. Here is a short update on THPs, the People's Moratorium efforts and its effects. We have been constantly monitoring all the THPs since last May, watching for any logging activities and nonviolently halting them when possible.
2021
Our Direct Actions stopped the logging in the Caspar 500 by the second day of logging. Cal Fire then issued a “pause” that is still in effect. Since the pause has been issued, there have been several emergency alerts of possible logging there that brought several dozen forest defenders to Caspar 500 within an hour. Many people live around this gem of a forest and consider it their backyard. Cal Fire is aware of this and so are Natural Resource Sec’y Crowfoot, Senator McGuire and Representative Woods.
In my experienced opinion, they will not try to log the Caspar 500 again. They might use it as a bargaining chip. (Ok, we won't log there if you allow us to remove the downed logs and...?) We have been in touch with Chris Baldo, co-owner of the Willits Redwood Company along with Bruce Burton, the mill that bought the logs projected from this THP. I think we are heading towards a buy-out, something we have negotiated before with this company.
Of the 5 THPs, Chamberlain Confluence and Parlin 7 were almost finished, with nearly all the trees cut when our campaign began. Both are off Highway 20 and several miles up the ridge. We did slow them down there with direct actions but they managed to complete those two THPs.
Soda Gulch is even further east on Highway 20 and up a very steep incline. H&M is the logging company; Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) has bought the logs. When logging started there in Oct., forest defenders sprung into action trying to keep the trees standing. There were several weeks of Direct Action and blockades of logging roads. MRC hired Lear Security as so-called "Safety Officers." They do anything they can to intimate forest defenders and keep the logging going with no regard for anyone's safety. Michael Hunter, Tribal Council Chair of the Coyote Band of Pomo Indians, whose ancestral lands lie within the Jackson Forest, broadcast live footage of these encounters on Facebook.
Meanwhile, the Pomo archeological group of the government to government consultation team did their second visit with Cal Fire to the Sacred Site (SS) in Soda Gulch. They found that Cal Fire had lied to the Tribe regarding the nearness of a proposed landing site (2ft) from the SS and also on several other issues. The Tribe wrote a letter demanding that logging stops in Soda Gulch until these issues can be resolved. There wasn't any answer to their letter, except H&M stopped logging there and went to work in Red Tail. The Soda Gulch THP has 115 acres of hack and squirt planned that we and the Tribe want to stop. We are monitoring there weekly and will continue until a written pause is issued.
That brings us to Red Tail, divided into two sections, East and West Red Tail. Logging in the East section of Red Tail was stopped by Direct Action. Activists made a deal with the logging company that if they stopped logging they would be permitted to remove what had already been felled. That is what happened.
West Red Tail is the home of Camp One and several other public campgrounds and the Egg Taking Station where classes of local children have visited for many years. Cal Fire closed the area to the public right before the Fourth of July Holiday. However, it took till Oct. for logging activity to commence, albeit with a new timber operator, H&M. Again, MRC purchased the logs and provided Lear "safety officers." Forest defenders responded again and there were weeks of woods actions. The THP has 4 access roads and abuts a ranch owned by H&M with a private gate that enters the THP. Fallers were stopped several times and slowed down many times, with escalating violence from the loggers. We started guarding the large trees parallel to Highway 20 from sunrise to sunset, to keep them standing. The logging crews were working seven days a week, intent on getting those trees down before the Christmas break. They came in either pre- dawn or right at dark and on the weekends, cut down one of the largest redwoods and spray painted "Good Morning' on the trunk of the felled tree. (There is still logging happening in Red Tail as this is being written.)
Enough was enough and we held a week of actions for Red Tail including a Youth Rally at the entrance to the THP and a surprise visit to the Ukiah offices of McGuire and Woods to alert them to the escalating violence against us in the woods (including vehicular assault) and press our demands for a full moratorium. In the meeting with McGuire's and Woods' reps, staff passed out copies of the attached letter and said they support a moratorium on all future THP. (see attached). We appreciate their willingness to go this far (also the Governor’s directive for co-management is a huge step forward) but are standing on our demands for a halt to all THPs until a new Management Plan with a redirected Mission Statement is ratified.
- Anna Marie Stenberg