Welcome to Freshwater, California USA. site of a year long tree-sit minus one day... the people in the trees were evicted by Eric Schatz... Sub contractor...
slideshow of a century old logging site at bottom of page... ferns...
View from the top of Freshwater Valley near Eureka, California. Now that PALCO/MAXXAM has cut down all the trees, it's easy to get a fine view of the valley below. We went to a tree-sit/ecology action where 9 Earth Firsters were arrested. (full text of newspaper article I wrote below) It Happened on Greenwood Heights road. That road goes very far up into the hills of the Trinity Alps near the area called Kneeland. It's a totally different climate up there in comparison to Eureka. It's hot grassland with cattle ranches. 
This is a picture of the clearcut forest two years later when pampas grass has grown where redwood trees used to be. 
Scenes before the trees were all cut down... very dark pictures in the forest... Eco-Action Families... the forest people 
Man moving from one treehouse to another on mountain climbing ropes. 
Thru the amazing power of the Internet, The man who is pictured above emailed me... He has the "Forest Name" of Rudi Bega... and is helping with the Nanning Grove treesit... Please visit his websites. Thanks! www.wesavetrees.org We Save Trees has some stunning photographs of the forest... www.rudibega.org Protesters watch the eviction of the treesitters by Eric Schatz... a contractor that specializes in removing ecology activists from PALCO trees... yep, that's a business here in Eureka... 
It's really dark in the forest until they cut down all the trees. 
Police, sherrifs and the Highway Patrol all attended... why highway patrol? I saw no traffic related problems... 
My mom's car at Schmidbauer Lumber mill. 
Logging trucks go both north and south on Highway 101 constantly. 
to get rid of the stumps, they are often burned... 
Treehouses at Freshwater before they were all clearcut... 
RANTING OF A DERANGED LUNATIC (MOON WORSHIPPER) ABOUT REDWOOD TREES... ME !!!
Full text of an article I wrote for the Humboldt State University newspaper about an ecology protest. Update: The forest is returning to health after being clearcut. The pampas grass is thriving and that helps keep the soil on the steep mountainside and out of freshwater creek. Pacific Lumber clearcut this forest in 2003 and every six months I go and take a picture of the same location... There is a "convenient" abandoned logging road where it is easy to park and hike around. You can see the Eureka Bay quite easily now that all those trees are out of the way. The current tree sit is near the Avenue of the Giants on Highwat 101 near Bear Creek. Good Luck... Nanning Grove... Soon MAXXAM will be just a bad memory... Like ENRON and Silverado Savings and Loan. MAXXAM has filed for bankruptcy and has closed the Fortuna and Carlotta lumber mills. Now they want to sell 6,600 acres of land that may not be logged for 42 years to pay off creditors... Very expensive... not kidding... like 5 million dollars for 160 acre plots... Just Ridiculous... No one will buy them... Ot's just a tactic in the lawsuits...
HEADLINE: 8 arrested March 18th in Freshwater tree-sit.
One tree chainsawed to death.
This morning I drove to Beautiful Freshwater (near Eureka, California) to visit the Tree Sitters. There were 10 sherrifs cars and 5 highway patrol cars. I saw 3 people handcuffed and then put in a sherrifs van. One person down the road was handcuffed and in the custody of a different sherrif. This lady was wearing "press" dogtags and was complaining that all she was doing was taking photographs. There were about 40 people standing around, talking on cell phones and playing drums. I could hear the sound of chainsawing. Then a large tree fell over. It makes a tearing sound then a big thump and a wail arose from the people. When four highway patrol cars stopped in the middle of the crowd and turned on their spinning lights, I left.(I was afraid of the police...protect and serve...corporations) As I was walking to my truck I noticed another highway patrolman writing tickets. I asked a citizen what that was all about and he said "don't woory about getting a parking ticket, none of these people will pay them anyway". I am concerned about the highway patrol being there. THERE CLEARLY WERE NO HIGHWAY RELATED PROBLEMS THERE. What's up with parking tickets? We were in the middle of the forest.
...this part written later that night...
We went to a protest to defend redwood trees today. There are 8 people that are camping at the top of redwood trees to prevent loggers from chainsawing the trees. The owners of the forest (Palco/MAXXAM) hired a guy (eric schatz)to climb up the trees and forcibly evict the trespassers. Then the Humboldt county sherrifs arrest the tree-sitters and send them to jail. Yesterday, there were 7 tree sitters and the police arrested 3 people. Then, during the night, 4 people went up. The grand total of people INCREASED. The loggers started chainsawing at the bottom of a tree that had people camping in it. This action enraged the crowd. We feel that if a logger cuts down a tree with a person in it that it is dangerous to that person. The loggers cut away a 2 foot circle of bark all the way around the tree. Someone said that was called "girthing" and the purpose was to kill the tree. My wife decided that some medicine was needed for the tree, so we went to the hardware store and bought a bucket of "tree wound" compound. It is used to seal the bare wood after pruning. We drove back to the ecology protest and she (with help from others) spread the healing compound on the bare wood. I got to spend a lot of time talking to a knowlegable fellow named "Atilla". He said that the MAXXAM corporation has to cut down redwood trees in order to pay the interest on a giant "junk bond" debt. MAXXAM, a texas corporation, purchased the Pacific Lumber Company about 10 years ago in a hostile takeover financed by "junk bonds" that they got from Mike Milken. (remember, Ivan Boesky and Mike went to jail for wall street fraud) I saw on the News tonight that our governor, Gray Davis, has ordered the highway patrol to work 12 hour shifts to help defend the state of California from "terrorist" attacks. GEE, WHY WERE ALL THOSE CHPs OUT IN THE FOREST TODAY ? WHAT TERRORIST ATTACKS WERE THEY DEFENDING US FROM ? Atilla also told me why there were large trucks that look like they carry sand. They are used to haul gravel to build logging roads. After I left the protest in the morning, I drove way back into the woods and noticed large orange trucks with PALCO on the doors. The reason Palco hired a subcontractor (eric schatz)to do "tree service" is to protect themselves from lawsuits in case anyone gets hurt.
How to get there: From highway 101 traveling North, Take the Myrtle ave exit in Eureka and drive to Freshwater road. Take a right and then an IMMEDIATE left onto Greenwood Heights road. Drive 2 miles. When you see all the sherrif cars, you are there. From Arcata, travel south on 101 to Indianola cutoff. Take a left and drive to Myrtle ave. Take a right on Myrtle. Left on Freshwater road.
of course, the ecology action happened four years ago and now you may visit and see how the forest is healing itself...
If you continue up Greenwood Heights road you get to the Cattle ranch in Kneeland... 
zero traffic here... cows sleep right in the middle of the road because it's comfortable... 
This cow did not want to move so I drove around her... why not? she's relaxing... 
ahh, holding the camera at arms length 
slideshow of ferns in a healthy forest near Eureka, CA... globe at the Discovery Museum, art on bead store.
earth-discovery
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