Humboldt Nation: Original Visionary ART.

American History: EARTH FIRST! 

An ecology action organization inspired by the book "The Monkeywrench Gang" by Ed Abbey. Stop what you are doing right now and go buy that book... read it, live it.

http://www.abbeyweb.net/abbey.html

http://www.abbeyweb.net/bookstore/index.html

My humble opinion: Be aware that the current homeland security terrorist list includes the organizations ELF (Earth Liberation Front) and ALF (Animal Liberation Front). It is not only illegal to engage in eco-terrorism, it's one of those crimes that qualifies a person to be an "Unlawful Enemy Combatant" and under USA Patriot Act rules you may be held in prison indefinitely without contact with your friends, family, lawyer or media. They do not have to tell you what crime you are charged with nor do they have to tell your mom if you have been arrested. You simply disappear... No Miranda Laws... No Habeas Corpus... It's back to the 1214 A.D. (before the Magna Carta). EARTH FIRST! is not listed.

Official Website of Earth First! http://www.earthfirst.org/

We went to a tree-sit in Freshwater Valley between Arcata and Eureka. There were 9 arrests that day in 2003. Here is what the forest looked like the next week after MAXXAM clearcut it.

MAXXAM clearcut. leftover logs.

Stump and clearcut hillside.

 logging road, abandoned.

view of the Eureka Bay from atop Freshwater Valley.

 In the book "The Monkeywrench Gang" the characters of the story
sabotage giant yellow earth moving machines by pouring Karo Syrup into the
gas tank. This causes the engines to sieze up when the sugar is burned
inside the piston, disabling the machines and preventing road
construction thru the wilderness. Life imitating art, members of Earth First!
became famous for "monkeywrenching". They drove railroad spikes into
redwood trees in the hopes that the saws at the lumber mill would hit the
spikes and self destruct. As time went by the official position of Eart
First! was to stop "spiking" trees due to the danger to mill workers.
The mill workers were not involved in any decision making at lumber
mills but were just poor people earning a living. Clearly not the enemy. A
more effective tactic was media events. A handful of protesters chained
themselves to stumps in the offices of the Pacific Lumber Compant and
when the sherrifs came to remove the protesters, the entire event was
video taped and broadcast on the TV news. Millions of viewers saw
sherrifs applying pepper spray to young women's eyes to coerce them to leave
the office. This torture of women enraged the public. On a biological
level, humans feel the need to protect women. This is basic survival of
the species knowledge. It happens in the base of the brain in the most
ancient areas. A consequence of this media event was the purchasing of
the Headwaters forest by the state of California. It is now a state
park near Eureka.
In order to visit, there is a long trail that is closed to vehicles and
so it is essentially human free. It requires too much effort to hike
along the trail and so most people simply do not go. The ones that do
are ecologically minded and understand how to visit without damage to the
system.