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Earth First! Redwood Action Team PO Box 34 Garberville, CA 95542 Tree Sitter Falls 80 Feet while Defending Forest Where Activist David Chain was Killed Contact: Darryl Cherney 707/943-3788 January 22, 1999. Gypsy Mountain, Carlotta, CA. An Earth First! tree-sitter was injured when he fell out of his tree at 7 pm tonight in the same location where activist David "Gypsy" Chain was killed by a Pacific Lumber logging operation last September 17. The activist, known only as Steve, had been occupying a tree since November along with another tree sitter, Lilly, in order to stop Pacific Lumber from completing logging in the area where Chain was killed. Activists see the area both as a crime scene and as a sacred site requiring preservation. As of 9:00 pm Steve was alive, talking and able to move his fingers and his toes. A Humboldt County rescue team had just arrived on the scene. "It's a tragedy that activists have to continue to risk their lives to stop the insane logging policies of the MAXXAM Corporation," said Earth First! activist Darryl Cherney. "We know tree-sitting is dangerous, but inaction is even more dangerous in the face of deforestation and planetary destruction. Our forests are dying, our creeks are dying, our fish are dying, our temperature is being radically altered. It should come as no surprise that at least a few people are willing to take bold action to save our Mother Earth." Two other tree sitting actions are ongoing in Humboldt County, which is rapidly becoming known as the tree-sitting capital of the world. Three tree-sitters have been facing off MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber's redwood clearcutting for the last 4 months in the Freshwater Creek Watershed outside of Eureka, California and Julia Butterfly Hill enters her 14th month in Luna, the giant redwood, which overlooks a massive, logging-caused mudslide in Stafford, California. Tonight's accident is not expected to alter those sitters resolve to remain aloft in their tree-top perches.
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