Features

Two Earth First! activists were arrested Thursday for trespassing on Humboldt County land owned by Pacific Lumber Co. 

Activists have blocked the company’s access road to the area in remote Humboldt County since November, according to spokesman Josh Brown. 

Sheriff’s deputies arrested two people, whose names were not immediately available, according to Detective David Walker. A third protester was being removed from a junked car and was expected to be arrested. 

The trio was inside the car, which had its wheels and floor removed, with their arms locked into a steel pipe embedded in cement, Walker said. 

“They were trespassing,” Pacific Lumber spokeswoman Mary Bullwinkel said. “They’re breaking the law. They don’t belong there. There are other avenues of protesting and it was important for us to gain access to our privately owned property.” 

Bullwinkel said protesters recently threatened the company’s wildlife biologists. 

“We need to get some wildlife studies done,” she said, adding that Pacific Lumber wants to resume logging operations immediately. 

Earth First! wants to stop Pacific Lumber from harvesting the 3,000 acres of old growth Douglas fir in the Mattole River watershed west of Scotia. An elaborate blockade has been set up for 128 days. 

“It’s a huge phenomenal chunk of Douglas fir on geologically young ground,” said Paul Mason with the Arcata-based Environmental Protection Information Center. ”(Pacific Lumber) has these proposals to do serious liquidation of remaining old growth fir in the lower fork of the Mattole.” 

EPIC had sued to block logging in the area, but its request for an injunction was denied in November. 

Area residents such as David Simpson, who’s lived in Petrolia since 1970, are concerned about erosion, water quality and a depleted salmon population. 

“Our position is not that we want to see all logging stopped,” Simpson said. “We need to implement good forestry here. Because there’s so little left we want to protect the old growth. ... Pacific Lumber has pushed and pushed so there’s very little way for anyone to interpret that what they’re doing is good for the territory.”