California: The Redwoods Weep

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Activists reported repeated violations of court orders, federal environmental rules and state forestry regulations. They filed lawsuits, won judgments and saw little change. Pacific Lumber stonewalled and talked of jobs. The mood in Humboldt County, where the only good jobs had always been in the woods or the mills, turned rancid. When protesters conducted peaceful sit-ins at the company's headquarters and the office of U.S. Congressman Frank Riggs, the sheriff's department daubed pepper spray near their eyes and taped the process for a training film. A lawsuit by the protesters resulted in a hung jury, with a retrial scheduled for November. The training film is available to law officers.

David Chain, the Earth Firster who died, was not the first activist to put his life on the line. In November 1997 Julia Hill, a young Earth Firster who calls herself Butterfly, climbed a 200-ft. redwood near the Eel River. She intended to save at least one tree, staying in the branches indefinitely with help from friends who supplied food. Later, reporter Dunning climbed up, fearfully, to interview her. Thron followed to photograph the interview. They came down. But as of last week, Butterfly, despite the clear-cutting of surrounding trees and occasional storm winds that approached 90 m.p.h., was still there.