|
Pacific Lumber suspends logging at accident site - company agrees to family request by Mike Geniella Staff writer In a bid to ease tensions, Pacific Lumber Co. said Monday it will voluntarily not resume logging operations at the Humboldt County scene where an Earth First! follower dies Sept. 17 until a sheriff's investigation is complete. Company President John Campbell, acting upon a request by an attorney for David Chain's family, gave the assurance on the day Chain's mother, two sisters and other family arrived from Texas to attend memorial services Monday night in Arcata and this afternoon in Garberville for their son and brother. About 300 people attended Monday's service. Chain, 24, of Austin, Texas was killed when a falling tree at a disputed Pacific Lumber logging site in a remote area adjacent to Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park. The family today plans to meet with activists at a blockade and shrine they've erected in honor of Chain at the main entrance to the disputed logging site. Campbell said Monday the company will extend "every courtesy to the family." "I hope to meet with them personally and privately," he said. "We will, of course, respect the desire they have expressed for privacy." Campbell agreed to not resume logging at the request of attorney Steve Schectman, who has been hired by the family. As the result of his own preliminary inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Chain's death, Schectman said Monday he will formally ask state and federal authorities to intervene in the local investigation. Activists have expressed fears the Humboldt County Sheriff Department is biased in favor of the timber company, the county's biggest private employer. Because of the high degree of emotions surrounding Chain's death, sheriff spokesmen have said the investigation could take two or three more weeks before any findings are turned over to Humboldt County District Attorney Terry Farmer for review. On Monday, Campbell said the company does not intend to resume logging until the sheriff investigators are satisfied their work is finished, "and they have told us that it is OK to go ahead." But Campbell declined to address the possibility of a longer logging suspension pending Schectman's petition to state and federal agencies. "We have received no indication that state or federal authorities see any reason to intervene," Campbell said. Last week, state Attorney General Dan Lungren rejected activists' request that his office intervene, saying he believes local law enforcement can and will conduct a fair and impartial investigation into Chain's death. Pacific Lumber contends Chain died accidentally, crushed by a falling tree felled by a logger who was unaware the activist was in the immediate vicinity. Logger A. E. Ammonds (sic) had earlier confronted Chain and a group of intruders at the site, in a pattern that has become typical of disrupted logging operations targeted by Earth First! and other environmental activists. Company critics claim the logger deliberately fell the tree in the direction of Chain and the other activists, although they have contended it does not appear he did it with the intention of killing anyone. Nevertheless, they argue he should be criminally charged because of the reckless behavior encouraged by company managers. The resulting uproar over Chain's death has deeply divided a timber region that's struggled with more than a decade of anti-logging protests. On Monday, a local timber industry support group called on environmental activists to assume responsibility for the risks that they exposed followers to by sending people into the woods in hopes of disrupting active logging operations. Citing the logging industry's reputation for being the nation's most hazardous occupation, Claudia Lima of Women in Timber said, "Environmental groups need to take their causes to a safer environment that will not jeopardize the lives of their followers, or of our family members."
|
Return to Home