MATTOLE LOGGING BEGINS!!!

Dear Friends of the Mattole Forests and Rainbow Ridge -

This morning we heard the news we've been anticipating for weeks. A truckload of loggers showed up to one of the seven timber harvest plans
(THP) on Rainbow Ridge, 99-475. That plan was first challenged in court by EPIC, Lost Coast League, and the Humboldt Watershed Council in September. Yesterday we took that case all the way to the State Supreme Court, but unfortunately lost .Therefore, all legal remedies for that plan have been exhausted.

Community members and others are responding by going into the woods to keep the trees standing. If you can come to the Mattole for a few days or more and help defend this forest, please come now. To find out details on how to get into the woods, please call the Hotline at 707-441-3828. Please come prepared for very cold weather and rain and extreme conditions. The hike into the action is very long, this is not a "gate" action.

Folks are working on organizing a public support rally in Humboldt. If you can help organize that, please respond to this email.

Mattole community members are working to purchase Maxxam's entire 14,000 acre Rainbow Ridge holdings. You can support that effort by calling Pacific Lumber and Maxxam and encouraging them to not log on Rainbow and instead sell the properties to the community. There are already millions of dollars pledged to this effort. Urge Maxxam/PL to be a willing seller and begin negotiations immediately! This is a very economically feasable option for Maxxam, and is certainly the appropriate action for them to take.

For more information about our acqusition proposal, please see the website:
http://www.asis.com/~coho.

Please contact:

John Campbell, Pacific Lumber Co., 707-764-2222, FAX - 707-764-4269

Charles Hurwitz, Maxxam Corp, 713-975-7600, FAX- 713-952-4795

The forests and critters of Rainbow Ridge - the second largest ancient coastal Douglas Fir forest remaining in California - thank you for your
support.