Bonnie Raitt and da Rat were arrested together
:>)
Winter 1996 - 97
Vol. 12, No. 1
The Headwaters Deal Another Clinton Compromise
HUMBOLDT COUNTY - On September 15, 1996, people traveled to the logging town of Carlotta, California, for a rally in defense of the Headwaters Forest. Police arrested 1,033 people, including blues/rock star Bonnie Raitt, who staged a nonviolent protest against Texas-owned Maxxam Corp.'s plans to log this rare stand of ancient redwoods.
With a November election looming, the Clinton White House was hard-pressed to find a solution to the Headwaters crisis. Contrary to press reports, the "solution" announced on September 28 did not secure permanent protection of the 60,000 acres of Headwaters forests.
The settlement covers only 7,500 acres in two of six threatened groves - Headwaters and Elkhead Springs. In both areas, Maxxam has agreed only to observe a 10-month moratorium on salvage logging.
The White House has offered to give Maxxam $360 million in taxpayer money and public land in exchange for the two groves. The government would permit Maxxam to log the remaining forests, after approval of a habitat conservation plan (See sidebar).
"This is not a 'deal' at all, but a media stunt carefully crafted to stem an overwhelming tide of public support," the Environmental Protection Information Center charged. EPIC has filed a federal lawsuit to halt Maxxam's salvage logging operations and will challenge any HCP that fails to protect the forests. [Headwaters Legal Defense Network, PO Box 397, Garberville, CA 95542, (707) 923-2931. ]
With the announcement of the Headwaters deal, the media's attention drifted elsewhere, but in Humboldt County, forest activists began to feel the full brunt of police and logging company rage.
"Sheriff's deputies have needlessly used pain holds, threatened lives, used pepper spray, caused handcuff injuries and left prisoners in solitary confinement," reports the Alliance for a Paving Moratorium [APM, PO Box 4347, Arcata, CA 95518, (707) 826-7775], adding, "the community is reeling from the realization that 'hip, laid-back' Humboldt County is a police state."
On October 22, California Highway Patrol officers blocked an "anti-police brutality" bike ride from Arcata to the Humboldt County Jail. When bicyclists pedaled onto the bike lane of Highway 101 - the Redwood Highway - police dragged several riders from their bikes and arrested them. The remaining riders detoured through county roads to reach the courthouse.
As the bikers circled the jail, local police moved in and arrested 11 riders. (APM founder and Journal contributor Jan Lundberg was held in jail for three days.) Police impounded bikes and slapped their owners with "towing fees" averaging $100.
On December 5, the White House handed Hurwitz a shopping list of public assets. By holding Headwaters hostage, Hurwitz was invited to choose from the following: mineral rights to oil and gas fields in Kern County, 30 acres of Orange County real estate, more than 3,000 acres of timber on the North Coast and 10,000 acres of national forests in the Sierra Nevada. The state chipped in with a list of 50 surplus properties including the three-square-block Transbay Terminal in downtown San Francisco, 9,100 acres in the Latour State Forest, 1,100 acres of farmland near Chino State Prison and 110 acres of "prime waterfront property" in Eureka. (Meanwhile, Hurwitz still owes US taxpayers $1.6 billion for bailing out his failed Savings and Loan in Texas.)
In a bid to get the mainstream media to report critically on the Headwaters deal, several activists and actor Woody Harrelson climbed the Golden Gate Bridge and hung a banner that protested the sellout. Police blocked traffic on the span, shifting the focus from the banner to the plight of inconvenienced commuters.
State Sen. Quentin Kopp (Ind.-San Francisco) vowed to pass new laws to prevent "people only concerned with their own egos" from ever again hanging such banners in public.
earthislandprojects.org http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/arcata/headwaters.html
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