This is a confirmed report. At 7:40 PM tonight, Friday, January 22, we received a call from Earth First! support crew that an Earth First! man had fallen from a tree approximately 60 feet to the ground and appears injured. We have contacted 911 and the California Department of Forestry to dispatch rescue crews to Grizzly Creek, tragically the same location where David Chain, a 24-year-old Earth First! activist was killed by a logger who felled a tree on him on Sept. 17 last year.
We know very little right now. People staying by the injured Earth First! activist called the person who informed us of this frightening accident. So all of our information is from two experienced Earth First! organizers who themselves spoke with activists at the scene of the accident. We know nothing about the circumstances surrounding the accident or the name of the young man. We were told he can feel and move his fingers and toes, but of course, he is being kept immobilized. He is also maintaining alert consciousness and has been able to speak.
Unfortunately the road to his resue is blocked by obstructions placed on the logging road as part of the ongoing protest at Gypsy Mountain, making the road "impassable" according to observers and CDF. It has also been raining consistently through the day, making the night time rescue operation more difficult. As of this posting we have not heard that the injured man has been located by the rescue team.
More information immediately as it comes in.
Andy Caffrey
Earth First! Media Center
As of Saturday, January 23, 1999
11:30 a.m.
Local news reports on Earth First! tree sitter who fell from tree Friday night:
Eureka Times-Standard
Saturday, January 23, 1999
Protest tree-sitter falls from perch
CARLOTTA-- A tree-sitter was injured when he fell 80 feet from a tree he was occupying, Earth First reported Friday night.
The Earth First activist, known only as Steve, had been occupying the tree near where Earth First activist David Chain was killed by a falling tree (sic) Sept. 17.
A Humboldt County Sheriff's rescue team arrived at the scene to treat him at about 9 p.m. They were unavailable for comment on the man's condition Thursday (sic) night, but Earth First members reported that he was recovering.
"Steve is able to talk and move his finger (sic) and toes," Earth First activist Darryl Cherney said. "It is a tragedy that activists have to risk their lives to stop insane logging practices."
The man had been occupying the tree since November with another Earth First! activist who goes by the name of Lilly. They consider the area a crime scene and a sacred place, Cherney reported.
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
Saturday, January 23, 1999
Tree sitter injured in 80-foot fall
By Chris Smith
Staff Writer
A tree sitter in Humboldt County was hurt Friday night when he fell at least 80 feet from a tree near the spot where fellow activist David Chain was killed by a falling tree last September, a spokesman for Earth First! said Friday.
Darryl Cherney of Earth First! said an activist who had occupied a tree on Pacific Lumber Co. property for weeks fell to the ground at about 7 p.m. Friday.
Cherney said the injured protester, who has identified himself only as Steve, was being transported late Friday night to a hospital in Fortuna.
A spokesman for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department said he knew only that an injury had been reported in the woods, and that rescuers with the California Department of Forestry and the Sheriff's Department were getting him to a hospital.
Cherney said the activist, about 20 years of age, fell from a tree near Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, off Highway 36, southeast of Fortuna. Cherney said loggers with Pacific Lumber cut away some of the tree's branches three or four weeks ago in an unsuccessful attempt to remove the activist.
Cherney said the tree sitter is at least 20 miles away from colleague Julia Butterfly Hill, who has occupied a redwood tree in Stafford for the past 14 months.
He said the tree from which the man fell "overlooks where David Chain died.''
"He's conscious, animated,'' Cherney said. "We don't know the extent of his injuries.''
© 1998 The Press Democrat
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