Protester showed disregard for environment

Ed Bond
Record Searchlight, Redding CA

November 02, 2002

Around the first of September, a young man who refused to reveal his real name, climbed a pine tree, which was near the Pacific Crest Trail in Sierra County. He said he was protesting the harvesting of trees on private land and was claiming that the environment and natural beauty adjacent to the Pacific Crest Trail needed to be protected.
The tree he chose to nest in was on land owned by Sierra Pacific Industries and was included in a timber harvest plan approved by the state of California. The trail is on an easement our company has granted across our property to the U.S. Forest Service for the enjoyment of those who hike the trail.

What is so hypocritical and disingenuous about this trespassing tree-sitter is that when he decided to come down from the tree in mid-October, he left a garbage dump on the very trail he was claiming to protect: buckets of his own human waste, decaying food, sheets of plywood (what do you suppose was the source of the wood fiber in the plywood?), foam padding, a sleeping bag, ropes and other debris. In all, he left an ugly mess to spoil the scene for hikers on the trail.

This protester, who did a very dangerous thing by climbing to a perch high in the tree, was willing and able to take his supplies and equipment into the area to protest, but was unwilling to do so when he left. He and his supporters showed their true concern for the environment and for the condition of the trail by the waste they left behind.

Most Californians, including those of us in the forest products industry, have a much higher standard of forest stewardship than that which was demonstrated by the hypocrisy of this self-proclaimed defender of the environment.

Ed Bond is a spokesman for Sierra Pacific Industries in Anderson.

Saturday, November 2, 2002