Press Release
For Immediate Release
19 September, 2002

Ramsey 2 Treesit Update

CORRALITOS, CA, 19 Sept. 2002 - Wednesday, 18 September, 2002, a peaceful, nonviolent treesitter in Ramsey Gulch, near Mt. Madonna in southern Santa Cruz County, was verbally assaulted and threatened by two men, one of whom carried a rifle. The men falsely told the treesitter that they owned the Ramsey Gulch property that the treesit is on and threatened to shoot the treesitter out of the tree if he did not leave. The men then left the area without firing any shots. The treesit remains occupied in defiance of the terrorist threat made by the men.

The property is owned by the Roger and Michele Burch Limited Family Trust, a private trust set up by the Burch's to provide a tax shelter for them and their children. Roger Burch is CEO and part owner of Redwood Empire, a San Jose based timber and lumber company with a sawmill in Cloverdale, CA and retail outlets in the San Francisco bay area. The Burch's and the Redwood Empire company own nearly 70,000 acres of timber property in Central and Northern California.

Santa Cruz Earth First! established the month-old treesit, one of three on the 50 acre Timber Harvest Plan (THP) to protest the ongoing threat to the Pajaro River watershed and Ramsey Creek by the THP and roadbuilding in the area. Ramsey Creek, a fish habitat for Steelhead and Rainbow Trout, was the site of previous logging that began 2 years ago as part of the Ramsey 1 THP. On the same property, and just over the ridge, is the notorious Gamecock Canyon THP where Redwood Empire contractors, Hayward Lumber, amassed 37 violations of the Forest Practices Act by overcutting and failure to control erosion.

This is not the first time that peaceful Santa Cruz Earth First! treesitters and activists have been threatened with violence on Redwood Empire property. A Gamecock Canyon neighbor heard a large amount of gunfire during that THP and activists on a road in the area were fired at. SCEF! activists sitting in a tree in a Redwood Empire THP in Boulder Creek, were fired at with a shotgun and a dog, belonging to an logging equipment guard, was killed by a timber thug who thought it was a treesitters pet. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff has been unresponsive to the threats stating after the Boulder Creek shotgun attack that they would investigate when there was a dead body.

Santa Cruz Earth First! is a nonviolent, direct action environmental defense group, part of the planet-wide Earth First! movement and has been active for over 20 years in the northern Monterey Bay bioregion.

Please call 831-425-3205 and leave a message for further information or reply to cruzef (at) cruzio.com

Dennis P. Davie
SCEF! Local Contact Person