California: Julia Butterfly Touches Ground After Redwood Tree-Sit
12/20/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Julia Butterfly Touches Ground!
Source: December Alert and Update from the Bay Area Coalition for
Headwaters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 20, 1999
1) Julia Butterfly touches ground!
2) We need a Debt for Nature swap!
3) Board of Forestry, Gov. Davis and salmon protection
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Forward Note: Julia "Butterfly" Hill, down from Luna, will be
appearing on the Today show Tuesday morning, December 21st and David
Letterman Tuesday night, with an appearance on Good Morning America
Wednesday morning, Dec. 22nd.
Julia Butterfly is on the ground!
On Saturday morning, December 18, Julia Butterfly Hill came down from
her perch 180 feet in the ancient redwood tree Luna, after two years
and one week living in the branches of this wondrous tree. Julia and
others had been working on securing protection for Luna and a buffer
area, and that agreement finally achieved all the needed signatures.
With Luna protected, Julia is formulating plans to continue public
education and action on behalf of ancient forests from the ground.
When Julia climbed Luna more than two years ago, she thought she
might remain two weeks. She remained 738 days without touching the
ground once. The tree-sit, which had several previous short term
sitters, had been put up in an approved timber harvest plan of
residual old growth.
That plan is directly adjacent to a previously-cut logging plan that
resulted in a massive landslide that buried several homes in the town
of Stafford on New Year's eve 1996. Once Julia settled into her home
high in Luna and got set up with a cell phone, she took her message
far and wide -- around the world in fact, via thousands of interviews
on hundreds of radio stations. She was also a featured speaker at
many events, captivating audiences with sometimes scratchy but always
inspiring cell phone speeches. Julia's message resonates with so
many people that she feels compelled to carry on this work. Besides
media work and public speaking engagements, she is publishing a book
describing her spiritual journey and life-changing experience in
Luna.
Julia has been visited in her tree top perch by Woody Harrelson, Joan
Baez, Bonnie Raitt, Buddhist monks and other luminaries, and has
received a number of awards, including the Good Housekeeping magazine
"Most Influential Woman of 1998" award.
The agreement reached with Pacific Lumber/Maxxam is a deeded
covenant, similar to a conservation easement, that permanently
protects the tree Luna and a 200 foot buffer area around it. (Luna
stands in an already-cut timber harvest plan that was helicopter
logged during Julia's first winter aloft.) The covenant was purchased
with $50,000 raised by Julia. Pacific Lumber will donate the money to
Humboldt State University School of Forestry for a scholarship fund
for Pacific Lumber employees and their children.
Contrary to rumors that were circulating in the media, Julia's
freedom of speech did not have limitations put on it as part of the
agreement. She did agree not to trespass on Pacific Lumber property,
but will be granted visitations to Luna with 48 hours notice to
Pacific Lumber.
Julia is now on the east coast for media interviews and family
visits. When she returns to California and sets up a schedule of
public appearances, we will let you know through this email list and
the Headwaters hotline (510-835-6303). For now, you can catch Julia
on Good Morning, America (ABC tv) on this Wednesday morning.
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Debt for Nature Now!
Closing arguments were submitted in October by the Office of Thrift
Supervision (OTS), an arm of the US Treasury. They asked for $821
million to be reiumbursed to the taxpayers by Charles Hurwitz and his
Maxxam Corporation for their role in a failed Texas Savings and Loan.
In a Debt for Nature swap advocated by environmentalits, the FDIC and
Treasury would accept environmentally critical lands in Headwaters
Forest to satisfy the $821 in federal claims. Other possibilities
include swapping the debt for the entire Kaiser Aluminum Corp. and
offering it up for an employee buyout.
Swapping redwood forest acreage for Maxxam's debt can help achieve
biologically meaningful protection for the Headwaters Forest and set
an important precedent regarding corporate irresponsibility.
Please write to the FDIC and Treasury and tell them:
* Don't settle your Maxxam claims for pennies on the dollar
* Accept Headwaters Forest property to satisfy Maxxam's S & L debts
* Debt for Nature means real justice for American taxpayers
* Consider seizing Kaiser Aluminum in exchange for a part of the debt
and turning it over to the employees.
Donna Tanoue, Chair
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
550 17th St. NW
Washington DC 20429
Ellen Seidman, Dir.
Office of Thrift Supervision
1700 G St. NW
Washington DC 20552
Please help us save the rest of Headwaters Forest by achieving a Debt
for Nature swap.
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Tell Governor Davis to keep his campaign promises!
Governor Gray Davis has failed the first test of his administration's
commitment to protect coastal salmon and their habitat by introducing
a flawed package of reforms to the Board of Forestry. Under current
Dept. of Forestry operations, logging plans that violate the federal
Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act continue to be
approved, and the habitat of coho salmon and other species holding on
to threads of survival continue to be devastated. Contact Gov. Davis
as soon as you can and make the following points:
*Forest reform should be based on best available science.
*No-cut buffer zone protections for all types of streams, including
class 3 (seasonal) streams, as proposed by top scientists should be
implemented immediately, before further damage is done.
*Full adoption of the Coho Considerations rules package which
contains basic changes recommended by the National Marine Fisheries
Service should be taken by the Board of Forestry.
Tell Gov. Davis changes are urgently needed and ask for response to
your input.
Gov. Gray Davis
State Capitol
Sacramento CA 95814
916-445-2841