>
>
>http://www.abcnews.com:80/sections/us/DailyNews/earthfirst980917.html
>
>
>Earth First! Says Loggers Targeted Protesters
>Blame Laid in Logging Fatality
>
>Drop-quote:
>"They felled a tree and apparently heard some yelling, and then the feller
>was cutting the tree into segments when the body was found under a limb."
>--Pacific Lumber President John Campbell
>
>
>The Associated Press
>
>FORTUNA, Calif., Sept. 18 -A statement from the environmental group Earth
>First! said the tree that struck and killed one of its members was
>deliberately felled in the direction of protesters by loggers working on a
>grove of old-growth redwoods.
>
>The Pacific Lumber Co. said the death, the first in a decade of mostly
>peaceful protests against logging in the area, was accidental.
>
>Humboldt County sheriff's deputies said the victim, 24-year-old David
>Chain, was with a group of protesters who were standing among redwoods
>marked for logging and trying to dissuade tree fellers when the incident
>happened about noon Thursday.
>
>Earth First! planned a vigil and blockade early today near the mill town of
>Carlotta.
>
>
>Company Denies Responsibility
>
>Company officials said Chain's death appeared to be an accident.
>
>Pacific Lumber President John Campbell said the logging crew did not see
>anybody in the area and had no idea Chain was standing nearby.
>
>"They felled a tree and apparently heard some yelling, and then the feller
>was cutting the tree into segments when the body was found under a limb,"
>Campbell said.
>
>He added that sheriff's investigators said Chain's death was "an
>unfortunate accident," and that the company would conduct its own
>investigation of the incident.
>
>Earth First! blamed the fellers.
>
>"Loggers were aware that activists were in the woods and deliberately
>felled trees in their direction," the group said in a statement early
>today. "Loggers were felling trees perpendicular to the hill rather than
>downhill in an apparent attempt to target activists."
>
>
>Angry Confrontation on Tape
>
>Earth First! says videotape taken at the scene captured an angry
>confrontation with loggers at some point before the tree came crashing
>down. Six other activists were standing six feet away when Chain was killed.
>
>Activists had staged a 12-day protest against the logging of an ancient
>redwood stand along Grizzly Creek, in a ravine near the mill town of
>Fortuna, about 300 miles north of San Francisco.
>
>Eight of the group's activists had been arrested Wednesday on trespassing
>charges. Thursday was the first day the group engaged in the more
>aggressive tactic they call "cat and mouse," putting their bodies in harm's
>way.
>
>The protesters say the logging, on land adjacent to a "cathedral" of
>centuries-old redwoods purchased under the $495 million Headwaters
>Agreement, is destroying the protected habitat of the marbled murrelet, an
>endangered sea bird that nests in the tops of the majestic trees.
>
>The state-federal agreement would turn about 7,500 acres of Pacific Lumber
>forest, including 3,000 acres of old-growth redwoods, into a public
>preserve. Environmentalists have protested the accord, saying it should
>include protections for the rest of the 60,000-acre Headwaters Forest
>Complex.
>
>Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
>may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
>
>
>
>
>
David M. Walsh
P.O. Box 903
Redway, CA 95560
Office and Fax(707) 923-3015
Home (707) 986-1644


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