Earth First! Press Release – Mendocino Commentary, April 2, 1987
A contingent of Northern Californians met up with L.A. Earth First! at the Miramar-Sheraton Hotel in Santa Monica on Wednesday, March 25, at 11 AM, to protest Maxxam’s doubling of its logging of old-growth redwoods and its “possibly illegal purchase” of the Pacific Lumber Co. in Humboldt County.
“The only reason Maxxam purchased Pacific Lumber was to turn living forests into dead piles of cash. The takeover is indicative of the crazy corporate liquidations now assaulting life on this planet,” stated Greg King of Humboldt, a member of a pioneer family once involved in logging, who traveled to L.A. for the meeting.
“Hurwitz has marred the desert hillsides of Southern California, and now they’re in Humboldt to destroy the redwoods of the North,” said Darryl Cherney of Earth First!, a group that claims to be a movement rather than an organization. “North and South must unite to prevent the corporate destruction of our way of life.”
Maxxam purchased Pacific Lumber in a leveraged buyout in 1985 and immediately doubled its cutting of old-growth redwood trees, according to P-L’s own prospectus, upsetting even the loggers who fear for the job losses to follow.
Said Don Nelson of the Woodworkers Union (I.W.A.) in an open letter, “The greatest manmade disaster ever to befall the redwood forests of Northern California is occurring today with the sale and profit taking at Pacific Lumber Company.”
The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently investigating possible connections between Charles Hurwitz, Chairman of the Board of Maxxam, and convicted Wall Street arbitrageur Ivan Boesky. Discussed at the Shareholders and Board meeting was the possible merger of Maxxam and its parent company, MCO Holdings, which some believe may be a device to cover Hurwitz’s tracks in the Boesky scandal, and to fend off moves to return Pacific Lumber to local ownership.
Business Week (“A Takeover Artist Who’s Turning Redwoods Into Quick Cash” – Feb. 2, 1987, pp. 64-5), featured an article condemning Hurwitz, describing him as “an opportunist who borrows heavily to gain control of a company and then milks it of cash to finance his next raid.”
Earth First! has future actions scheduled: April 16 at Noon at the California Dept. of Forestry in Fortuna. Logging on private lands must first be approved by CDF, who, according to Greg King, “is violating the California Forest Practices Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) with their rubberstamping of logging plans which devastate watersheds and wildlife, and timber economies as well.”
April 20 will feature a direct action by Oregon Earth First! in a separate but related forest issue in the Northwest in the Kalmiopsis National Forest in Oregon. Tree sitting and bulldozer blockading may well be on the bill of fare.
“The Kalmiopsis actions may foreshadow what Maxxam can expect, not only from environmentalists, but even from loggers who are afraid for their jobs.” an Earth First! spokesperson said.
“Maxxam/PL must think their own employees are pretty stupid if they think they don’t know what’s going on.”