Bare Breasted Women Stop PL Logging

Contact: La Tigresa 415/331 1500 ext 322; Darryl Cherney, Environmentally Sound Promotions 707/923-4949. lv. message at both, calls returned promptly.

Eureka, CA. At 5 am this Friday morning nine women, invoking the name of the Earth Mother bared their breasts and halted over 20 Pacific Lumber and Columbia Helicopter trucks filled with over 30 timber workers and much logging equipment on route to cut large redwoods in an area known as the "Hole in the Headwaters." The topless blockade took place on the Elk River Road, just south of Eureka, CA just before the entrance into an active redwood logging operation. A 1/4 mile long traffic jam of semi-trucks, pick-ups and "crummies" (passenger vans for timber crews) was backed up at the logging gate for two hours before Humboldt County Sheriffs arrived, at which time the women put their shirts back on and departed. There were no arrests.

An 8-mile round trip Armistice Day march is scheduled for this Sunday, November 11 from 11 am to 6 pm through the Headwaters Forest Reserve trail up to the boundary of the "Hole in the Headwaters." Participants plan to bring flags and reclaim the area for the American public. Take Hwy 101 just south of Eureka to Elk River Rd. exit, follow Elk River Rd. 7 miles to end.

Among the bare-breasted women was Dona Nieto, also known as La Tigresa, who has a track record of stopping logging operations in Mendocino County by reading her poems bare-breasted to loggers, including one called "I am the Goddess." That poems, reads in part, "I am the Goddess; I speak now from the mouth of all women. I am the Earth, the cradle of creation....See how the legs of any woman are the pillars of a temple, growing up like redwoods from their roots below the ground. Worship me now!" A support group of a dozen men played drums and sang along with the women, who performed "Amazing Grace," "This Land is our Land," and "America the Beautiful."

"This was the most fun, peaceful and effective action I have ever been involved in," said Maple, one of the young bare breasted forest defenders. "I think that there's something about exposing our innocence and making ourselves highly vulnerable that opened something up in these men's hearts. If not, at least they had fun and we all have stories to tell our grandchildren about the day 9 women stopped logging for two hours with nothing but their voices and their breasts. Today's demonstration represented the largest gathering of bare-breasted forest defenders ever assembled to date. More rallies are anticipated.

The "Hole in the Headwaters" was left out of the $480 million deal cut by Senator Diane Feinstein and Charles Hurwitz of MAXXAM, even though the 705-acre stand of 75-year-old second growth and residual old growth redwood and Douglas fir is actually within the boundaries of the Headwaters Forest Preserve and constitutes future endangered marbled murrelet habitat. The South Fork of the Elk River, the watershed in which the "Hole" falls, is one of the largest and last of California's endangered Coho Salmon bearing
waterways. Activists contend the omission of this beautiful redwood stand from the Headwaters deal constitutes government ineptness at its worst.

Most activists expected the "Hole in the Headwaters" to have been protected. Even after the area was left out of the original deal, $80 million was left over to purchase additional redwoods to add to the
preserve. MAXXAM turned down a possible $13 million allowing it to return to the California general fund, declaring the land not for sale. Lawsuits filed by various environmental protection organizations failed to achieve restraining orders. After three years of effort, the only thing standing in the way of the falling of this majestic grove of redwoods and Douglas fir is the bare-breasted brigade and a hard-core crew of Earth First! activists and forest defenders.