Earth First! Humboldt

Earth First! tree-sitters have been discovered in a gargantuan Ancient Redwood by a Green Diamond Resource Company employee just east of Cutten in the “McKay Tract”. Green Diamond is planning for residential development of large sections of the McKay Tract after they log all they can. This is a classic cut-and run strategy, make money by taking the trees and then sell the land to developers. 

The Ancient Redwood was located a few weeks ago by EF! Humboldt activists during exploratory searches of the area, triggered when the plans to log two Redwood groves in the Tract were made public. The tree bore the blue paint designating it for cutting and was quickly occupied. Most of the 60 acre logging plan is to be clear-cut under Green Diamonds plan. The Green Diamond employee has now reportedly marked the tree as a “Wildlife Tree” and it’s possible that it will not be cut. Strangely, this logging plan has already been approved and we are not assuming that the company is sincerely planning to leave the tree.

This may be a tactic to get the sitters to come down. There was company activity in the area several days ago but no contact was made. The tree-sit may have been spotted at that time and this could be a direct response by the company.

The tree, named “Millennia” by activists, appears to be well over 200 ft. tall. It is countless hundreds, if not over one thousand, years old.

The sitters vow to remain in the tree until it is definitely protected. Though the sitters occupy only one giant tree, both of the groves are defacto wildlife refuges and need be protected in their entirety. The mature stands harbor many animals that have no where else to go in the logging-ravaged landscape east of Eureka, Ca. 

During the initial search of the area, the activists were visited by a Northern Spotted Owl. The California Dept. of Forestry refuses to protect this area as Owl habitat even though the Spotted Owls are endangered and still in decline. We suspect that the Owls are nesting here because of the frequent visits from them, the large number of owl pellets on the ground, and the fact that this is one of only 2 or 3 isolated groves in the McKay Tract where dense stands of large trees remain standing.

The grove where this tree stands is comprised mainly of 100 year old Redwoods that grew following the original logging of the area around the turn of the century. This was one of the first places logged due to it’s close proximity to Humboldt Bay. The Ancient Redwoods that remain here were left standing due to either an undesirable shaped trunk, tree caves, or the steepness and instability of the ground around the tree.

The trees in the clear-cutting zone are not marked for logging, in those areas only the scattered trees to be left are given a distinguishing mark. This tree is within a geologically unstable area next to a creek were the company is limited to only selection logging. This type of logging requires that the trees selected for the cut be marked.