by Farmer
October 1, 1998

When we arrived on the scene the loggers shouted
obscenities at us while someone tried to reason with
them. An activist said they should stop logging until the
California Department of Forestry showed up because we
were told by John Marshall, director of CDF, that they
would come today.

Although they hadn't shown up, we thought they might
soon, but the logger disagreed. Someone continued to talk
calmly to him until he became aggressive and started
chasing us back the way we came. The logger gave up and
stood in place shouting at us and then walked back to the
tree and started cutting again. We regrouped and decided
to try to talk to him again. This time he seemed less
angry but he threatened to fall a tree in our direction
and that we had better leave. We all scrambled out of the
way as the tree fell dangerously close. When we had
arrived on the scene earlier the loggers had been falling
trees downhill but this tree had been purposely fallen in
our direction, side hill.

[Farmer]I was hiding when I heard him start on another
tree and yell out that this tree was a tall one
and would easily reach us. We again regrouped and had a
meeting/snack break to decide what we would do next. As
we were eating we heard the next one starting to go. It
sounded as though it was next to us and I froze in fear.
Gypsy and another activist started to move but the tree
hit the ground before they could get up. Luckily that one
didn't come close enough to hurt us although if we had
been sitting in its path we would not have gotten away in
time.

After that last one fell we decided to talk to the
loggers one more time before leaving. We all got up and
broke into two groups, three would be down hill, three
would be uphill, slightly west of where the loggers were
working, including myself and Gypsy. Another activist and
Gypsy were close to the loggers and I hung back a little
ways from them. We were all shouting at the logger that
we were coming to talk and that he should stop cutting
this tree.

I then heard the tree about to fall. I dove into some
underbrush and under some small trees. I looked up just
in time to see a huge Douglas fir coming down nearly on
top of me. The main trunk came within 10 feet of me and
if I hadn't been under the small trees the Douglas fir's
branches would have hit me. I brushed myself off and
walked out into the steep clearing that the tree created
when it fell. Almost instantly the protesters and the
logger congregated on the scene. Someone was shouting at
him that he could have killed us. It was then that I
heard someone frantically calling out "Gypsy, Gypsy,
where's Gypsy?!! He was right behind me."

I shouted out for him but there was no answer. It was
then that his body was found by the logger. He was about
15 feet farther down the slope then when I had last seen
him. And when I caught sight of him I saw that he had
massive head trauma. I ran all the way to Grizzly
National Park to get the news out about what had
happened. Gypsy died doing CDF's job.

Farmer
Eye witness, activist

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