Redwood Protest
9/15/96
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Bonnie Raitt among protesters arrested in timber demonstration
September 15, 1996
CARLOTTA, California (AP) -- Scores of environmentalists -- including
singer Bonnie Raitt and families with children -- were arrested
Sunday in a demonstration against logging in the world's last
privately owned virgin grove of redwood trees.
The protesters, many of them emerging from soggy camp sites after a
night long drizzle, converged on a quarter-mile stretch of road in
front of Pacific Lumber Co.'s Carlotta mill, about 280 miles north
of San Francisco.
By late afternoon, nearly 4,000 people were at the site and 150 of
them had been arrested and handcuffed on charges of intentionally
trespassing on Pacific Lumber land.
The protesters trickled in throughout the day by bicycle, car and on
foot. Raitt and Don Henley were among the singers who made
appearances to support the cause.
Private security guards and sheriff's deputies in riot gear were
deployed in front of the mill.
Demonstrators went prepared to be arrested for civil disobedience on
behalf of the giant trees, said Earth First leader Judy Bari.
Not the first protest
Last year, a similar protest drew 2,500 people and about 120 were
arrested.
The demonstration by a coalition of environmental groups was aimed at
Pacific Lumber's plans to remove dead, dying and diseased timber from
about 3,000 acres of the Headwaters Forest.
The company called it a salvage operation, and had approval from
courts and state forestry officials.
Environmentalists said the logging would damage live trees and harm
wildlife habitat.
Several men in a pickup truck toting a logging banner drove to the
center of the protest site and parked near Pacific Lumber's front
gate.
"If we don't log it, somebody else will," said Bryan Chipps, a
private timber worker.
Pacific Lumber scheduled the work to begin Monday, but agreed with
the Clinton administration to delay the startup for two weeks during
negotiations on preserving part of the forest.
The talks focused on a swap in which Texas billionaire Charles
Hurwitz, whose Maxxam Inc. is the parent company of Pacific Lumber,
would relinquish control of part of the Headwaters in return for
surplus government property elsewhere. The government also would
agree to eliminate at least some of the $250 million in claims
against him for the 1988 collapse of a Texas thrift.