Details About Aradia

On Sat Sept 25th, the longest continuously occupied treesit in Humboldt County in one of the most beloved trees, Aradia, was raided by climbers from the Pacific Lumber Company. Three treesitters were extracted from the top of the tree and then Aradia was felled.

Aradia was first climbed by forest defenders 6 years ago and was lived in sporadically at first but had been consistently occupied by dedicated forest defenders for the past 3 years in order to physically prevent the tree from being cut and to draw public attention to Pacific Lumber’s unsustainable logging practices. Forest defenders have been asking Pacific Lumber to follow the four points of sustainable forestry: no clearcutting, no cutting old growth, no cutting on steep slopes, and no use of herbicides. Hundreds of people have climbed into Aradia’s branches over the years and experienced life in the canopy of an oldgrowth redwood tree. Hundreds more have hiked the 1.5 mile steep skid trail up Gypsy Mountain to the base of Aradia bringing food and water to the treesitters. Throughout the years Aradia had become somewhat of a legend with numerous songs and poems written in her honor.

Pacific Lumber Climbers had ascended Aradia on two previous occasions and removed platforms and supplies but had been unable to remove any treesitters. On Sept 25th there were 3 forest defenders at the very top of the tree when Climber Eric Schatz and three of his employees ascended Aradia. Witnesses on the ground heard shouts of pain from the treesitters as they were being restrained. One of the treesitters shouted out that he was being suspended upside down as he was lowered. Pacific Lumber hired climbers have a history of removing people from trees in an extremely dangerous life-threatening manner.

Two hours before sunset all 3 treesitters had been removed and the loggers began to cut the tree. The enormous girth of Aradia took the loggers 45 min to cut all the way through before she fell with an earthshaking boom that could be heard and felt throughout the valley.

In the aftermath the common sentiment amongst forest defenders was disbelief. “I thought this was one tree that we would actually save” was a much-repeated phrase. Pacific Lumber/Maxxam and CEO Charles Hurwitz himself had been approached many times with offers to buy Aradia. Propositions had been made to incorporate Aradia and Gypsy Mountain into the neighboring Grizzly Creek State Park and to make Aradia a living memorial to the forest defender David “Gypsy” Chain who was killed on the mountain Sept 17th 1998 by a logger falling a tree on top of him. Maxxam staunchly refused all offers and negotiations, determined to make a profit off of a living legend.

In order to reach the treesit Pacific Lumber employees had to bypass a 12ft deep hole dug in the logging road with a 10ft long tunnel at the bottom of it extending under the road. The tunnel was occupied by 5 forest defenders in hopes that loggers would be turned away by the possibility that the tunnel could collapse if heavy machinery was driven over it. Instead of dealing with the tunnel dwellers the loggers chose to bulldoze an alternate route along an old overgrown skid trail bypassing the hole in the road. This same logging road has been blockaded multiple times with slash piles, pods, concrete lockdown devices in the road, and human chains of forest defenders locked to each other. The amount of effort that has gone into protecting this mountain over the past 7 years is incalculable.

Still left standing on the mountain are the grove of trees that surrounded Aradia, some of which were a part of the treesit village, Manna, Lichen, Huckleberry, and Aloha.