Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap
December 4 Newsletter
Posted by Mary Bull (chalicenew@earthlink.net)
Friday, December 4, 1998
Greetings, Forest Defenders!
In this newsletter: Petition Update!***What Happens to the Petition?***Richard Wilson Pied in Effigy!****News from Chicago!***A Correction****Plea--to really push these next three weeks!
THE PETITION!
I've been tallying the petition signatures from Gap Picket Day and we collected nearly 2000 in San Francisco alone!!! BUT THAT'S NOT ALL: Every day this week, hundreds of signatures have been pouring in from around the country!!! (I feel like KRIS KRINGLE in *Miracle on 34th Street,* opening letter after letter that says, YES, WE BELIEVE IN SAVING THIS REDWOOD FOREST!!!!) So, THANK YOU for your incredible efforts across the land!!! What happens to these signatures?
First, we fax them to the California Department of Forestry (CDF)--so that everyone who signs is on record protesting the timber harvest plans (THPs) named in the petition. Believe it or not, this makes CDF hesitate to rubber-stamp their approval on these THPs--it makes them feel that maybe they actually WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE for allowing a watershed to be destroyed and the last of the Coho to be extinguish in a creek!
Then we send copies of the signatures to Dr. William Hogarth of the US Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). This federal agency has the authority to step in AT ANY TIME and stop corporate plundering of our redwoods on the Coho issue alone!!! Why haven't they???? Like the entire Clinton
administration, they are intimidated by Big Business. We're trying to buck up the federal government--let them know that the PEOPLE stand behind them.
This has begun to work: We've finally gotten NMFS to intercede in a couple of these unlawful and devastating THPs: To say, Look CDF, these THPs do not adequately address the cumulative effects of this logging plan on Coho salmon! (Infusing NMFS with a backbone is a long and painful process--we've got to keep the pressure on until surgery is complete!)
Finally, we send copies of all the signatures to the Fisher family, c/o of Bob Fisher at Gap, Inc. headquarters. The Fishers are very wealthy, very arrogant, and have a bad case of Corporate Disconnect compounded by Bottomline Fever. Cutting off the disease at its source (our shopping dollars) combined with a steady dose of our concern (petition signatures) will hopefully see some improvement in their condition.
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The Head of the California Department of Forestry, Richard Wilson, was pied in effigy during a public appearance in Ft. Bragg earlier this week. This was the brainchild of veteran forest activist (Redwood Summer organizer) and Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign leader Anna Marie Stenberg, although the famous Biotic Baking Brigade took credit (see their report at the end of this email). Because the Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign is completely opposed to violence of any sort (even pie-ing), Campaign leaders chose the pie-ing in effigy route. It was well-deserved--Wilson has sat idly by as timber companies have extinguished thousands of acres of forest, the commercial fishing industry, and the timber industry itself in Mendocino County--and it was a very effective action! THREE CHEERS FOR ANNA MARIE AND THE BBB!!!
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CHICAGO. Got the TERRIFIC NEWS that we can include the great city of Chicago in solidarity with us on Gap Picket Day!!! We received a preliminary report of the GPD action in Chicago yesterday from Gail Rubin via snail-mail. Gail and Jenny Ohlson braved the elements for FOUR hours in the Windy City--educating the public and collecting signatures. Hopefully we'll receive a full report from Jenny soon!!!! Meanwhile, THREE CHEERS FOR OUR DEDICATED CHICAGO FOREST DEFENDERS!!!!!
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CORRECTION: THP analyst and Mendocino forest expert, Linda Perkins, went over the interview I sent out earlier this week with a fine tooth comb and found a mistake: Fisher family holdings in Mendocino County constitute 1/5 (20%) of the forestland in the county--NOT 1/4 of the county. Apologies! Otherwise, all of the info in that interview is correct--use it with good conscience!!!
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Finally: I know it's the holiday season, I know it's finals for our great student activists: But any hour you can steal away with that clipboard in front of a Gap store in the next three weeks will contribute SIGNIFICANTLY to the success of the Gap Boycott campaign!!!! THESE NEXT THREE WEEKS will spell success or defeat on this all-important front!!!! So, PLEASE, go the extra mile for the forest any chance you can--at least a few hours every weekend through December 25th!!!! THANK YOU!!! Viva the Forest!!!
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Following the BBB press release on the Richard Wilson pieing:
For Immediate Release: Dec. 1, 1998
CONTACT: Biotic Baking Brigade via e-mail at bbb_apple@hotmail.com Fort Bragg, CA - The Redwood Forest Cell of the Biotic Baking Brigade (BBB) gave Director of the California Department of Forestry (CDF) Richard Wilson a special treat at a Citizens' Advisory Committee for Jackson State Forest meeting tonight. An actor impersonating Wilson entered the meeting in order to receive several chocolate mud and banana créme pies in the face.
After working long and hard over a period of eighteen months developing a plan to protect Jackson State Forest from over-logging, the citizen
committee's plan was given an icy reception by Director Wilson. The liquidation of Jackson State Forest to support the Timber Industry is just one of many reasons why Wilson was targeted by "Operation Another One Bites the Crust."
"For years the people of this great region have done everything they could to protect the Redwood Forest. We have attended countless meetings, read and commented on numerous Timber Harvest Plans, Sustained Yield Plans, and Habitat Conservation Plans, sued the State and the Timber Corporations, organized and attended public protests and non-violent direct actions in the woods. Yet we have not be able to stop the violence that has been done to the Redwood Forest ecosystems. The Coho salmon is near extinction; so are the Spotted Owl, Marbled Murrelet and many other species. Timber workers are now an endangered species. Our waterways have been polluted by herbicides, and by mud from timber industry roads. Whole ridgesides have been denuded. The old growth is nearly all gone, reduced to mere tree farms. Our fishing industry is gone. The very ability of the Redwood Forest itself to survive is in question. Much of this destruction has been done under the control and supervision of Director Wilson," said Agent Banana Créme of the BBB.
"Wilson kept state foresters, Department of Fish and Game biologists, and Water Quality Resource employees from doing their jobs. Mr. Wilson's department has yet to stop, prohibit, moderate, or modify any Timber Harvest Plan for 'cumulative effects,' as required by law. As a result, our forest lands and communities have been devastated. The Director has given the State's approval for clearcutting thousands of acres of Redwood Forest. He has idly watched as erosion from logging has choked to death salmon rearing streams. He has allowed virtually all the old growth to be felled --- all the while protesting vehemently to the US. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service that he and the State have done their job," commented Agent Mudpie.
"The Director has been symbolically pied tonight with chocolate mud and banana créme pies. The chocolate echoes the earth's good brown top soil, which flows for miles to the sea from the mouths of the Navarro, Big River, Noyo, Albion, Ten Mile, and all the waterways in Mendocino County as a result liquidation logging. The banana créme symbolizes Wilson's treatment of these forest land as the Timber Corporations' own Banana Republic. It is our hope that whenever Mr. Wilson eats pie, he will be reminded of his dirty fingerprints over the ruin of one of the most magnificent resources on earth, the REDWOOD FOREST," added Agent Apple.
When Louisiana-Pacific Corp. announced the sale of their lands in Mendocino County, Wilson stated that "it's sad, but it really should be no huge surprise. Everybody knew they were cutting themselves out of business." Well, Mr. Wilson, you were in charge! Here's some delicious comeuppance for your efforts!
"Operation Another One Bites the Crust" concludes the ninth successful BBB mission, totaling 12 powerful and unaccountable public figures who have received the BBB's just desserts. Other recipients include Charles Hurwitz (CEO, MAXXAM, parent company of Pacific Lumber), Milton Friedman (Nobel Laureate, neoliberal economist), Robert Shapiro (CEO, Monsanto), Renato Ruggiero (Director General, World Trade Organization), Gavin Newsom (Supervisor, San Francisco), Willie Brown (Mayor, San Francisco), Carl Pope (Executive Director, Sierra Club), David Watson (CEO, Novartis), Robert Berdahl and Larry Vanderhoef (Chancellors, University of California at Berkeley and Davis), and Gordon Rausser (Dean, UC--Berkeley).
The General Command of the BBB would like to dedicate this action to the forest defenders of the world, who have sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears to save the last of the old-growth. Never give in, and never give up--our day will come.
For Previous BBB communiques and press releases, contact
bbb_apple@hotmail.com
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Cheers and thanks!
Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, SF
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