KMUD discusses the McKay Tract with EF! Humboldt and Mind Petals on December 9, 2008

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Just got word from sitters perched up in a redwood on North Ridge Rd on Green Diamond land. An arborist just climbed the opposing tree of the sitters and dangerously axed two branches close to a connected traverse line attached to a sitters platform. We need your support - please come to North Ridge Rd off of Walnut Drive. Detailed directions on efhumboldt.org.

Logging in McKay Tract — THP 1-08-102 HUM — is approaching rapidly. With February 15, 2009 being the date that Green Diamond can begin clear cutting, time is definitely of the essence.

Over the past 2 weeks, Mind Petals has been organizing community hikes throughout the McKay Tract in a effort to galvanize people of Humboldt County — and the world ! — to prevent this deathblow on Nature. Our hikes will continue (sign up for our newsletter to be notified) and organizing around this issue will carry on indefinitely.

Greed Diamond’s unfettered disregard for life and insatiable desire to increase their bottom-line at the expense of animal habitat, old growth forests, and a place for the community to hike recreationally is absolutely sickening. Who in their right mind can inflict such damage on the land and live with themselves? Such is the modality of Green Diamond — a company not even close to being “Green.”

Here are a few shots from our Nov 11th and 22nd community hikes

Please join us in our movement to preserve life and put an end to the destruction.
Our hikes are not only fun, but educational. We hope to see you soon.

A few days ago I spoke on KMUD radio to spread awareness and muster support in the defense of the McKay Tract currently threatened by Green Diamond and others. Tomorrow, Nov. 11, community members and activists will be gathering to go on a hike — to see what’s at stake. We’ll be meeting at 1PM. Call 631 445 2185 for meeting location.

Download and listen to KMUD Radio Interview

Mr. Kramer plans to turn the fecund, beautiful, and diversity-rich North McKay Tract into this:

• 64 “workforce” apartments
• 32 “affordable” single family parcels
• 46 “townhouse” units
• 64 “condominium” units
• 114 single family units
• 1.8 acre of neighborhood commercial space with “affordable” apartments
• 30 acres of open space

If this plan goes through, Cutten and Eureka would be a mess at the expense of one of the most diverse tracks of land remaining in Humboldt County. The McKay Tract deserves to be a fully protected Neighborhood Park, such as Arcata’s. With sustainable selective logging, the town of Eureka could financially benefit indefinitely. If rezoning is allowed, no one will benefit except Green Diamond Resource Company.

Endangered Northern Spotted Owls, bears, deer, salamanders, fox, mountain lions, etc.. are all at risk of losing their home. Please take a stand and help us stop this plan. Development is not an option!

Download full plan for further details:
North McKay Tract Rezone Plan

Okay, so Green Diamond Resource Company is playing chess, not checkers like the now defunct Pacific Lumber Company. This company is actually thinking! Wow, amazing, eh. Or… maybe things aren’t what they appear to be…

Green Diamond has strategically (re: new markers) placed “Wildlife” markers on various old growth trees throughout the McKay Tract 60 acre THP (McKay-09) which is scheduled to begin “not before February 2009.”

Obviously the lines of communication are weak throughout the company, due to the fact that on Saturday August 23rd a Green Diamond forester placed a wildlife tag on a tree known as Millenia that sitters had been occupying; the forester looked up and acknowledged the tree sitters as they yelled “Hello!”

On August 28th the North Coast Journal published a story about the Green Diamond tree sit in which, Neal Ewald, Vice President of the Timberlands Division, had no idea about the tree sitters: “…was surprised to hear of the treesit. Ewald said he couldn’t remember the last time his company had had treesitters.”

Now why wouldn’t the Green Diamond forester notify anyone about the tree sitters? How peculiar…. And why is Green Diamond now going back and marking new wildlife trees after they already stated in their THP that “91 Wildlife trees have been marked in clear cut areas?”

Does anyone know the legalities of marking a wildlife tree, then removing it to cut the tree? Is this a possibility?

Is it because they, too, are trying to ride the wave of all the media hype that Humboldt Redwood Company is now receiving about “saving” old growth trees? Do they also want to save old growth and just not declare it so? Was marking the trees a subterfuge to use tree sitters as a tool to go running to the media screaming in joy: “YAY!!! Green Diamond is not cutting old growth!!”

Not sure. But it lends way to an interesting situation. As far as I’m concerned Green Diamond is the new Pacific Lumber if they are still cutting old growth. And ALL the companies are equally destroying nature if they continue to clear cut and use ridiculous loopholes of Habitat Conservation Plans (ha, what a joke!) to kill endangered and threatened species.

But you know what…. the CDF (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) is the ROOT of the problem because they are giving these companies the key — the green light — to commit these atrocities on Nature. CDF, no worries, we haven’t forgotten about you.

The battle continues…. It never stopped!

The title of the story is “What Now, Treesitter?” That has to be the most unfitting and ridiculous titles for such an article! What now??? Ha!… Do you think that it’s over?

…They won’t be cut, ever. That was the word, delivered in person on Aug. 12 by Humboldt Redwood Co. President Mike Jani, who hiked into the woods to two treesitter villages with his wife and several activists to see the old trees and talk to the treesitters. He told them it wasn’t his company’s policy to cut old-growth trees such as these. He said if they hadn’t sat in these trees, the trees surely would have been cut under the former company’s plan. He shook their hands and said, “Thank you.” Then they all walked around attaching pink “Do Not Cut” tape to the trees…

Here’s the article >>

Tree-sitters sitting in “Millenia” documented this very animated Northern Spotted Own while in an old-growth tree that resides directly inside a grove marked for clear-cut in February 2009 — the McKay Tract in Eureka, CA. Though the tree the owl was located in was a “wildlife tree” (marked not to be cut), then entire grove is planned to be cleared, greatly diminishing the owl’s already limited habitat. Under the government authorization of an “Incidental Take Permit,” Green Diamond (nice oxymoron, eh?) has the power to kill Endangered Spotted Owls, so they can make more green, green, green, money, money, money!!

Tomorrow morning (8/26/08), there will be a Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting at 9AM. Location: 825 Fifth St. Eureka

Make it out there to speak against this development that will lead to the destruction of 1000’s of acres of wildlife habitat, old-growth trees, coho salmon, and some of the largest second-growth trees in the entire county.