by Many Hats / Earth First! Journal
Yule 2001
The North Fork Mattole is home to coho salmon and steelhead trout, river otters, Northern goshawks, peregrine falcons, Pacific fishers and a small rural community of humans. It is a pristine, remote, very steep and rugged mix of forest and prairie that receives an average of 100 inches of rainfall annually, much of it in concentrated deluges. It is also one of the most seismically active regions in the US. Continuing landslides occur from 1985 clearcuts, dumping enormous quantities of sediment into this impaired river system. The Mattole provides habitat for the only Chinook salmon runs still using coastal streams between the Sacramento and Eel rivers. Dozens of other runs have been extirpated over the last 40 years. This makes it even more critical that the Mattole Chinook stocks survive. Without them, the possibility of restoring runs to other streams in California is very unlikely.
This year, seven timber harvest plans (THPs) for logging on and around Rainbow Ridge have been making their way through the state’s bureaucracy. Although several of these plans are contiguous, both Maxxam and the California Department of Forestry (CDF) are dealing with them individually, as if there are no cumulative effects to clearcutting hundreds of acres of ancient forests on steep slopes in earthquake country—surprise, surprise.
Approval of these illegal plans was virtually guaranteed following a January 18 meeting with Susan Kennedy (Governor Gray Davis’ cabinet secretary and deputy chief of staff), Maxxam DC lobbyist Tommy Boggs (who netted a $30-million commission for greasing the skids of the Headwater Forest Deal), PL Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jared Carter and the directors and key deputies of the CDF and California Department of Fish and Game. At that meeting Kennedy and Maxxam told the agencies to “bend over backwards” to approve these clearcuts and “back off” attempts to protect fish and wildlife according to the dictates of state law.
The first of the seven plans—THP 1-99-475HUM—was approved in early September, but temporarily stopped in court by Environmental Protection Information Center, the Petrolia-based Los Coast League and the Humboldt Watershed Council. Unfortunately, that temporary stay was overturned in early November, and on November 10, Columbia Helicopter employees, under contract to Maxxam/PL went in to begin logging. However, the Columbia workers (mostly from Oregon) were rather surprised to be met deep in the woods by over a dozen local forest defenders. At the end of the day, after tired sheriffs had been trudging up and down the hills trying to catch the spry forest defenders, only one tree had been cut. However, two valiant activists, Soma and Iguana, had suffered at the “hands of justice” when the sheriffs pepper sprayed them in the face for attempting to engage the workers in dialog. Although loggers were expected throughout that weekend, as is the Maxxam-style of PL management, none showed.
About 20 Mattole community members rallied at PL’s Monument Gate early November 13, awaiting the arrival of the timber fallers. As dawn was breaking, the skies opened and rain and hail began falling. No fallers showed. By the end of that day, the 20-plus defenders now in the woods were camped out among four inches of freshly fallen snow. Forest defense in the woods has continued to grow, despite the incredible hike into the area and the extreme weather conditions. On November 20, another 35 people waited at Monument Gate. This time PL’s head security goon Carl Anderson was there with a few sheriff’s deputies, but still no fallers.
We continue to pray for rain, as neither Maxxam nor the sheriffs can use the seasonal roads on Long Ridge and Rainbow Ridge for timber operations until 48 hours after the last rains (or snow!). Community members are working to protect this forest on many fronts: in the woods, in the courts and by buying it outright. The long-term vision for Rainbow is to purchase the 14,000-acre North Fork Mattole lands from PL to protect the ancient forests and other areas of high conservation value, while managing the cut-over lands and rangelands in an ecologically responsible manner. This acquisition is unique in that it is proposing to keep the land private (not giving it to the feds), for long-term community management.
[EARTH FIRST! JOURNAL EDITOR'S NOTE: Thirteen years later the battle for the Mattole rages on. Check out the latest edition of Earth First! News for more information.]
