Last tree-sitters come down from Calif. redwoods-NO CUTTING! THEY WON!!!

[underpants]

All of the articles on this have a rather condescending take with regards to these protesters these SUCCESSFUL protesters.



http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_9VAD3bdNk2gGs27ryVxX8hQcwwD93CKBH81

SCOTIA, Calif. (AP) — After more than 20 years of protests, the last two people living in the giant redwoods of Northern California were climbing down for good, convinced by the new owners of the forest that the ancient trees would be spared from the saw.

The end began a few weeks ago, when Michael Jani, the president and chief forester of the new Humboldt Redwood Co., hiked into the woods to meet the tree-sitters.

"I went out, looked at the trees, looked at the stand of trees that were around them and I explained to them that under our policy, we would not be cutting those trees," said Jani, a 35-year veteran of logging companies.

Protecting old-growth trees was part of the plan that Humboldt Redwood, largely owned by Don and Doris Fisher of The Gap Inc., submitted to acquire Pacific Lumber in bankruptcy court. Among other things, Humboldt Redwood promised to spare any redwood born prior to 1800 with a diameter of at least four feet. It also pledged to avoid clear-cutting, or cutting down trees in vast swaths, a practice that the timber giant aggressively practiced under its previous owner, Maxxam Inc.

Environmentalists are cautiously optimistic that the company will do as it promises. So for weeks, the tree-sitters at the Nanning Creek and Fern Gully groves have been clearing out their encampments, removing their platforms and figuring out what to do with the rest of their lives.

"At this point, I'd like to focus on growing a garden," said an activist who goes by the nom de guerre Rudi Bega, as in "rutabaga." The 28-year-old Idahoan is an 11-year veteran of the timber wars who helped recruit, train and organize tree-sitters.

[mike_c]

1. they've won SO FAR....

No one up here is under any illusions about the possible fate of those old-growth stands. While getting Maxxam/Palco out of the woods is a milestone accomplishment, MRC is still in the business of cutting and selling timber, and those trees still represent tremendous value. Mendo Redwoods has said that cutting old-growth is against their policy, but that policy is the only real protection those stands have. The tree sits have come down, but we need to stay vigilant. MRC is a resource extraction company, too.

[underpants]

2. right

I knew that we need to keep an eye on these kinds of people

Thanks

[ailsagirl]

3. Fantastic news... it blows my mind how we have to fight so hard

to save our national resources... if the repugs had it their way, we'd live in a desert...

[avaistheone1]

4. Congrats Now can they work on stopping offshore drilling.

[pnutbutr]

5. poop

I wonder what they did with their poop. Bet it would make quite a splat if dropped.

Seriously though, that is fantastic news and big props for what those people did.

[Peace Patriot]

6. This same Fisher family of the Gap clothing empire have destroyed the last of the old growth

redwood forest in Mendocino County, CA, with extensive clear-cutting, pesticide use, and logging in sensitive areas where endangered species were hanging on by a thread, and have also destroyed the public's right, under the California Environmental Quality Act, to review Big Timber's long term management plans. They were provided "greenwashing" cover to accomplish these outrages by the Forest Stewardship Council, a private wood "certification" group, with ties to the World Bank, that regularly certifies major industrial logging, in a privatized review process in which the "certifying" subcontractors are paid by the logging company.

The whole thing is so corrupt it makes you want to cry. Donald Fisher, scion of the Gap clothing empire (also including Banana Republic, Old Navy and Baby Gap stores), was a major player in creating the WTO textile rules that have resulted in the proliferation of sweatshops worldwide. Gap clothes are sewn in sweatshops in places like Saipan, where workers have no rights, and are often young Asian women, imported from extremely poor countries and indentured for their passage.

The slick P.R. that covers up sweatshop labor is also covering up the end of the California redwood forest. This IS the end of it--the Fishers having got hold of the last remnants of the old growth forest in Humboldt County, after what they got away with in Mendocino County.

I can understand tree-sitters getting tired and wanting to resume their lives, but I wish they wouldn't lend themselves to P.R. manipulation by industrial clear-cutters and pesticide users and destroyers of the last coho salmon, marbled murrelets, steelhead trout and spotted owls in Mendocino. The Fishers' logging companies--Mendocino Redwood Company and Humboldt Redwood Company--are real estate speculations. That is the truth of the matter.

You are right to note the "rather condescending" attitude of corpo/fascist propaganda mills like the Associated Pukes toward the tree sitters. But, sadly, you are wrong that the tree sitters were "successful." The tree sitters, and local environmental groups, have been conned. I've seen it before. The Fishers are real good at this new corpo/fascist scam--convincing people that a forest that is 95% gone can be logged "sustainably," with lies, lies and more lies, and vast secrecy and privatization of the review process. Think war on Iraq and WMDs and you will understand what has happened to the California redwoods.

The corporate/fascist control of our government, our public officials, our tax dollars, our environmental agencies, our military, our resources and our economy, and--the final insult--our voting machines, and the horrors that this has created--in Iraq, on Wall Street, in our forests and watersheds, and everywhere you look--is a sad and tragic event. It is my opinion that we must start peeling off this fascist coup with the voting machines. Without transparent elections, we are no longer a democracy. And we must change this, or our democracy will become irrecoverable. We still have a window of opportunity to get our voting system back into the PUBLIC VENUE--because state/local jurisdictions still have the power to return to paper ballots--or, at the very least, to require a 100% audit of the corpo voting machines.

Notice the parallel: The Fishers have accomplished privatization of logging corporation activities. Diebold & brethren have accomplished privatization of vote counting. It is one and the same problem.

[underpants]

7. I should have known better

If you haven't before check out this hour long (6 segments) on the foundation of PR and what it has been used for

BBC Documentary "Happiness Machines"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kp24ZeHtv4