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June 19, 2003
Tree-sitting
wars resume
by
EMILY GURNON
 Tree-sitters clashed again this week with the Pacific
Lumber Co., both in the forest and in the courtroom.
Company-hired climbers removed
platforms and supplies that three tree-sitters had been using
in the Grizzly Creek region off Highway 36 on Monday, near the
area where protester David "Gypsy" Chain was killed
when a 135-foot tree cut by a logger fell on him in 1998.
[photo at right:
Climbers working to extract "Smokie" from the tree
called "Jerry"]
Climbers then moved Tuesday
to Greenwood Heights Road in Freshwater, where they attempted
to remove three more tree-sitters as about 20 people protested
on the ground.
Meanwhile, in Humboldt County
Superior Court, one tree-sitter's trial ended in a hung jury
while another had her case dropped in mid-trial.
Stacey Gilligan, 27, and Julia
Trunzo, 26, both of Arcata, were arrested on suspicion of trespassing
and resisting arrest as they stood on Greenwood Heights Road
during the tree-sitter removals in March.
In the middle of their trial,
Trunzo was given a court acquittal. The jury deadlocked in Gilligan's
case on June 12; a new trial is scheduled to start for her on
July 7.
Both women were representing
themselves.
Gilligan has argued that she
was not doing anything illegal and that she was attempting to
leave an unsafe area as instructed by sheriff's deputies when
they pulled her back into the area.
"My arrest was the result
of police misconduct and Maxxam/Pacific Lumber's unlawful activities,"
she said.
The Sheriff's Department could
not be reached for comment on the case.
Other Freshwater cases are working
their way through the courts. According to Naomi Wagner of North
Coast Earth First, the protesters have received a wide range
of plea bargains and sentences.
For instance, three protesters
were recently sentenced to 10 days each in jail, Wagner said.
In the meantime, Pacific Lumber officials accused District Attorney
Paul Gallegos of reneging on his promise to prosecute the tree-sitters
"to the fullest extent of the law" after his office
offered Jeny Card, aka Remedy, a plea bargain that resulted in
a $10 fine with no additional jail time. Card, the most well-known
of the Freshwater tree-sitters, spent just short of a year in
the tree called "Jerry."
PL officials did not return
a phone call seeking comment.
Wagner herself was in trial
this week, along with Amy Gershman, who calls herself Wren.
Wagner said the forest activists
were incensed that PL was apparently planning to cut down a redwood
tree named "Aradia" near Gypsy Creek, which tree-sitters
have reportedly occupied for five years.
"The issue on Gypsy Mountain
is that that tree is in negotiation to be included in the memorial
[grove] for David `Gypsy' Chain," she said. "This is
so in contradiction to the Forest Peace Alliance," the community
forum created as part of the legal settlement of the civil suit
against PL brought by Chain's mother and designed to bring the
two sides together.
Tree-sitters also took note
of a paid ad that appeared Monday in the Times-Standard
from Eric Schatz of Schatz Tree Service, the company Pacific
Lumber hires to extract tree-sitters.
Under the heading, "Tree
Sitters: We Have to Save Their Lives," Schatz described
some protesters as "fanatics" who use drugs and endanger
their own lives and those of their cohorts. He suggested that
those supporting the tree-sitters would be "morally responsible
if one of these young people dies." Schatz could not be
reached for comment at press time.
A
fitting structure
A new building for the
Karuks will be made of nothing but wood
story & photos by ANDREW EDWARDS
 The
warehouse was large, cavernous, like an airplane hangar. Inside,
the steel ribs vaulted up, creating a space that amplified the
chirping of birds nesting among the girders into a pleasantly
dissonant symphony. Down below, spread out on sawhorses and stacked
on the floor, were huge beams of Douglas fir, the basic elements
of a new building.
They looked solid until you
got close. The sides were cut to receive cross beams. Holes had
been drilled to receive wooden pegs. The ends formed complicated
joints. It will all have to match perfectly when it is finally
assembled, on site, into the skeleton of the new headquarters
of the Karuk Tribal Housing Authority in Happy Camp. That's because
it will be a structure without nails or steel couplings: just
wood on wood.
The project is led by Rick Zumbrun [photo at left] ,
who runs Zumbrun Construction, based in Arcata.
He and his crew rough out the
timbers using tools, many of them imported from Japan, a country
where timber joinery is an established construction method. Once
connection points have been formed, they finish up with hand
chisels, many of them antiques, sharpened to a razor edge.
The techniques were common in
this country back when nails were made by blacksmiths. Not many
people could afford enough handmade nails to put a house together.
These days timber joinery is
rarely used for anything more than decoration. It's not because
timber-joined buildings are less structurally sound than steel-framed
ones (if anything, they are sturdier). But since today's complex
engineering codes assume that buildings will be built with things
like steel brackets and re-bar, it's difficult to prove on paper
that a timber-joined building is up to code. For most projects,
it simply isn't worth the time.
 To
make the facility in Happy Camp uniquely Karuk, a wooden lattice
structure interwoven with copper in a traditional basket design
will form the facade at the entry.
"We want to make a building
that has some kind of connection to the people who are using
it," Zumbrun explained.
When all the timbers are finished,
their rough wood brushed clean and preserved with a citrus-based
linseed oil stain, the ends of exposed beams capped with copper
fittings, they will be trucked from Arcata to Happy Camp and
assembled on site.
Zumbrun said the building is
designed to last 300 years. Long enough, he said, for the old-growth
trees that were used to build it to grow back in time for its
replacement.
"We're going for stuff
that's going to last a long time," Zumbrun said. "It
all comes back to paying the real cost and making things that
are not fad-oriented."
[photo above right:
A finished timber sits on a sawhorse next to roughed-out beams.]
Drive-by
shooting
A 19-year-old Eureka man was
killed Monday night in a gang-related drive-by shooting as he
stood near the intersection of California and Del Norte streets,
the Eureka Police Department said.
The suspect, Maher Conrad Suarez,
18, of Eureka, is still at large and is considered armed and
dangerous. The name of the victim had not been released as of
press time this week pending notification of family members.
Police responded to calls of
shots being fired in the area around 9 p.m. on Monday night,
said department spokesperson Suzie Owsley. Upon their arrival,
police found the victim dead on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds
to the chest. The shooter's car was on the scene but Suarez had
left, Owsley said.
No further information was available
about the circumstances of the shooting. Police said it was gang-related,
but declined to elaborate.
Anyone with information about
the shooting is asked to call Eureka Police Criminal Investigation
Section at 441-4300.
Survivor
recent HSU grad
Among the survivors of Saturday's
tragic charter boat accident off Tillamook, Ore., that claimed
the lives of 11 people was a 22-year-old deckhand who graduated
from Humboldt State University last month.
Tamara Buell was crewing for
a veteran skipper as he piloted her father's 32-foot charter
vessel, the Taki-Tooo, across the bar at the inlet to Tillamook
Bay.
According to Buell, who faced
national media Monday, the boat was following another mid-sized
charter boat out to sea with 20 people on board when it was struck
by two big waves. The first, about a 10-footer, pulled the stern
down and turned the boat sideways. Buell gripped the wall of
the flying bridge as the second wave, about 12 to 15 feet high,
flipped the boat.
Buell landed in the 52-degree
water about 100 feet from the boat. She could not reach the life
raft, so the 5-foot-7, 135-pound Buell stripped off her heavy
raincoat, boots and pants and focused on keeping her head above
the choppy water.
She told reporters even though
the U.S. Coast Guard vessel was in sight, she began to give in
to exhaustion and extreme cold when suddenly she felt a sandbar
underfoot. She was dragged out of the water by a friend who is
a deckhand on another vessel.
Buell worked on charter boats
every summer for her father during college.
Thumb
returned
 The
thumb that was snapped off the statue of William McKinley in
the Arcata Plaza was recovered by Arcata police last week.
The stolen digit was returned
to police at the end of the day on June 13 after an extensive
investigation that involved several days of negotiation with
people who had details of the theft, Sgt. Dave Brown said in
a written statement.
It was not immediately clear
whether anyone would be charged with a crime. Police were not
available for further comment at press time.
Mayor Bob Ornelas, who had put
up a $500 reward for return of the thumb, said he had heard conflicting
stories about who might get his hard-earned money and wanted
to be sure it would not go to the thief.
"Until I know the results
of that negotiation [with police], my $500 is staying in my pocket,"
he said.
Ornelas expressed disgust at
the vandalism. "I just think it was a stupid, selfish, unjustifiable
act. It's public property. I don't care if you don't think it
was art. Get drunk and pierce your nose, but leave McKinley's
statue alone."
Manila
official busted
A member of the Manila Community
Services District board of directors has been arrested on suspicion
of marijuana possession and cultivation.
Timothy Andrew Dellas, 47, was
arrested shortly before 8 a.m. on June 9 when the Humboldt County
Sheriff's Office drug enforcement unit, assisted by the Drug
Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Humboldt County Drug
Task Force, served a search warrant on a property located off
Elk Ridge Road in Briceland.
Officers said they found two
indoor commercial marijuana-growing operations that contained
180 grow lights, and they seized more than 5,500 marijuana plants
from 2 to 24 inches and 20 1-pound bags of processed marijuana
buds. The set-up was powered by two 60-kilowatt diesel generators.
Dellas was on the scene when
officials arrived, officials said. He was released on $20,000
bail and is scheduled to be arraigned June 24.
A spokeswoman for the Community
Services District declined to comment on the matter. The district
was scheduled to hold its regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m. on
Thursday.
A woman who answered the phone
at Dellas' Manila home said he has been advised by his attorney
not to comment.
Fortuna
backs recall
The Fortuna City Council, which
has already taken a stand against District Attorney Paul Gallegos'
fraud lawsuit against the Pacific Lumber Co., passed a resolution
Monday night endorsing his recall.
Monday's resolution did not
mention the lawsuit. Instead, it charged Gallegos with the "coddling
of criminals," and asserted "law enforcement officials
lack confidence in him."
Both the Humboldt Deputy Sheriffs
Organization and the Eureka Police Officers Association have
declared their support for the recall drive.
Shooters
sentenced
Two men who went on a drive-by
shooting spree earlier this year have received the maximum sentence
of seven years in state prison.
Christian Johnston and Jason
Atkins, both 24, were convicted of shooting at occupied residences
during the five-hour episode on March 12. No one was injured.
Defense attorneys argued for
leniency, stating that both men were alcoholics and were under
the influence when they committed the crime.
The case got caught up in the
ongoing controversy over the job performance of District Attorney
Paul Gallegos. Leaders of a fledgling recall movement say Gallegos'
failure to slap multiple charges on Johnston and Atkins is proof
that he is soft on crime. Gallegos says the charges fit the crime.
Budget
imperiled
The Humboldt County Convention
and Visitors Bureau is feeling the heat of the unfolding state
budget crisis.
If the county and the cities
of Eureka and Arcata go ahead with planned cuts to cope with
anticipated shortfalls in state monies, the visitors' bureau
-- which markets Humboldt as a tourist destination -- will see
its $255,000 annual budget significantly reduced.
Arcata has plans to slash its
funding of the bureau by $9,000, Eureka is proposing a $16,000
cut and the county plans to pare its share by $28,000. All told,
the bureau would lose $53,000, or 20 percent of its current budget.
Arcata City Manager Dan Hauser
said the state's budget deficit forces the city to cut funds
from programs across the board.
"We have make cuts to a
lot of basic services, including public safety. When it comes
down to it, we need to cut less from the police and more from
other programs," Hauser said.
But Don Leonard, executive director
of the visitor's bureau, said the cuts would hurt everyone. He
said that if the bureau's marketing budget shrinks, it will mean
fewer tourists and fewer dollars brought in from the outside.
He said that the growth in funds
generated by the transient occupancy tax -- a bed tax on hotel
and motel rooms -- is evidence that the bureau's marketing programs
are effective at drawing visitors. In Arcata, funds from the
TOT have increased by 27 percent over the past four years, from
$469,000 to $597,000 in 2002.
Backing
Dean
Vermont's a long way away, but
former governor Howard Dean, who's making a run at the Democratic
presidential nomination, has supporters here in Humboldt.
Members of the Humboldt Dean
Action Committee will meet at Coffee Break in Arcata at 7 p.m.
on June 23 to view a broadcast of a speech Dean is scheduled
to give that day in Burlington, Vt., officially announcing his
candidacy.
Dean's maverick, underfunded
campaign has surprised many political observers. He is running
neck-and-neck in the polls with Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
Dean, who served as Vermont's
governor from 1991-2003, is outspoken in his support for environmental
issues, his pro-choice stance on abortion, his opposition to
war, and his support for civil unions for gays and lesbians.
"It's nice to finally be
excited about a presidential candidate," said Dean supporter
Erin Mooney. "Dean doesn't change his tune to appeal to
every organization out there. He simply states his opinion on
issues and I really respect that honesty."
Jobs
safe
Forty-one Eureka public school
employees who were in danger of losing their positions can breathe
a sigh of relief. Their jobs are safe.
In March, the school district,
as required by law, issued layoff notices to the teachers and
other staffers because it appeared their positions might have
to be eliminated at the beginning of the new school year in the
fall.
After accounting for 32 retirements,
resignations and employee leaves, the Eureka School District
was able to rehire all previously dismissed workers.
"We are very pleased that
after careful consideration of our staffing needs for next year
we are able to bring everyone back," Superintendent of Eureka
Schools Jim Scott said in a prepared statement.
In other Eureka schools news,
Jan Schmidt was named the new principal of Alice Birney Elementary.
Robert Effa will become assistant principal of Zane Middle School.
Biz
park coming
[Corrected version]
Plans are in the works for a
business park near the Arcata/Eureka Airport in McKinleyville.
The 53-acre parcel near the
Arcata/Eureka Airport, site of the Holiday Inn Express, presently
has 15 acres that are serviced by roads, water and sewer pipes.
The longtime owner of the property, McKinleyville developer Steve
Moser, is now extending that infrastructure to 25 additional
acres on the property, bringing the total usable land to 40 acres.
Three buildings will soon be
built there: an 8,000-square-foot office building, to be occupied
by Moser Properties, Bay Point Mortgage and as many as three
additional tenants; a 2,000-square-foot building, which at this
point has no tenants; and a 5,000-square-foot facility that will
house an accounting firm, Hartley, May and Abrahmsen.
Construction on all three buildings
is scheduled to begin in coming weeks and is expected to be completed
by the end of the year.
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