The news from Gypsy Mountain, as of Friday evening (9/25/98)
About 200 people participated in the Thursday afternoon memorial for David "Gypsy" Chain. We circled at the gazebo in Old Town to sing, pray, and receive a phone call from Julia Butterfly. We then walked quietly, on the sidewalk, to the courthouse, flaked the entire time by as many as two dozen police in full riot gear who walked in the street (not counting the ones in patrol cars and on horeseback), videotaping as many of our faces as possible. We held a peaceful and passionate rally at the courthouse while, in Texas, the Chain family was burying their son. TV cameras were there, but didn't stay long. The family's lawyer, who is part of the independent investigation team, conveyed a message from Gypsy's mother--
She is proud that her son died working for something he believed in. She has requested that instead of sending flowers to the family, people make donations supporting Northcoast Earth First! to continue defending the forest, and she intends to return to Humboldt County to participate in the forest defense movement.
The videotape that shows the logger who felled the tree on Chain, threatening visciously to do just that, has now been widely distributed. Yet, on Friday morning, the Eureka Times Standard was still calling the death an accident, and elevating Pacific Lumber's lies to some kind of dispute that the police investigation was going to resolve. On the same page, the Standard reports that CDF has indeed cited Pacific Lumber for two forest practice violations in the timber harvest plan where Chain was killed-- one for logging too close to a Marbled Murrelet exclusion zone, another for failing to notify CDF of a change in the timber harvest boundary. The first of these is among the suspected violations that EPIC and EF! had been requesting CDF to investigate before Chain was killed.
On Friday, back at Gypsy Mountain Free State, I was part of a "delegation" that hiked up the challenging slope, bridging ditches and opening spaces in all the barricades of logs, slash, and rocks in order to allow passage of ATVs, as had been arranged the previous day with the investigators and the sheriffs. Near the top, the road is blocked by a satellite camp known as Never Never Land, where the crew take turns sitting in a tripod/platform combination that prevents the passage of any vehicle larger than an ATV. Beyond Never Never Land is a fabulous old growth tree, defended by a brother named Aeon, who has been sitting in the tree for about three weeks.
At the top of the ridge is Monstertown-- a yarder and loader (each now wrapped with yarn) sit frozen as they were left a week ago, huge logs piled precariously between them. The edge of the landing where the yarder cable runs down into the clearcut is a sheer vertical drop. The clearcut where Gypsy was killed is the steepest slope I've ever seen logged, easily as steep as the clearcut that slipped out and buried the town of Stafford. In the shadows of the machinery is a small teepee, the only shelter for those keeping this grim vigil. Perhaps the highlight of this ridgetop position is that it affords daily radio contact with Julia Butterfly from her nest in Luna some 15-20 miles away.
Beyond Monstertown are a pair of loading decks-- a veritable slaughterhouse of logs-- and the murder site as well. There we waited to greet the investigators while at the bottom the sheriffs dallied and accused us of blocking the investigation. In fact, we have been calling for it more than anyone else, and had spent the day making a path for them to get up there. After hours of this, they sent one officer up on an ATV. He looked around, but never even stopped driving, and went back down the hill. Then word came that too much of the day had been wasted and they would come back and do it tomorrow. We shook our heads and laughed with frustration while Josh made some media calls to dispell the rumor that we were hampering the investigation. Then we built a medicine wheel, joined hands in a prayer circle, thanked a brave sister named Fetus for staying on watch in Monstertown, and walked down the hill.
The occupation remains fully intact, and the call is out for more eager bodies to participate in nonviolence training and staff any of the numerous lock down or support posts along the entire length of the road that leads into the illegal logging site. The purpose of the occupation is still to defend the forest from wreckless and illegal logging practices, and to prevent any tampering with evidence at the crime scene. And though there is a daily regimen of angry people who drive by and shout obscenities, more and more people show their support. Some neighbors have offered the use of their home, while other locals have stopped by to thank us, donate supplies, or ask how they can help.
Love and Blessings to everyone supporting us in every way.
Thanks to everyone who is helping the Truth to be known.
Next update probably Wednesday.
Reverend fly Greenfield
BLACKBERRY HOUSE INFO CENTER
revfly@pacific.net