 On July 1st, 2000, Nate Madsen began the process of weaning himself off food and will begin an all out liquid diet hunger strike on July 22, in an effort to raise awareness of the destruction of the ancient redwood forest by suffering himself. Nate is a veteran tree-sitter who has been in the ancient redwood tree "Mariah" for over 21 months, which is located in the community of Freshwater outside Eureka, California. The Freshwater drainage is largely owned by Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Company who has been know for the controversy that surrounds the ancient redwoods in the Headwaters preserve. Following Charles Huriwitz's hostile take over of Pacific Lumber Company by Maxxam Corporation in 1985, Pacific Lumber Company began liquidating watersheds like the Freshwater drainage in 1991 through large-scale clearcutting. The California Department of Forestry declared a logging moratorium in 1999, on this watershed, due to it's overly impacted status. Freshwater residents continue to be exposed to extreme flooding during small rainstorms in recent years. Last year Maxxam/PL started to undertake a watershed analysis that had to be taken over by the state and federal government agencies when Maxxam/PL's first attempt at watershed analysis failed to pass peer review. "The signs are obvious. The forest is wounded and the streams bleed the mud of its pain. This pain is some what intangible to the outside observer, but as people relate to people, the pain of hunger will hopefully ring true and raise awareness for the pain the forest endures at the hand of industrial liquidation logging." says Nate Madsen. This is one element of a much larger campaign to develop a lasting sustainable forestry program that relinquishes dependency on old growth forests, reduces the size and frequency of clear cutting, eliminates the common practice of herbicide toxification of watersheds, and slows the cut rate to a reasonable level that can continue for generations to come. "Being so close to the road here in Kneeland we have the makings for a beautiful community park. All we need is for Pacific Lumber to be the good neighbor they claim to be," said Nate "and donate this little grove to the community they have devastatingly impacted with their irresponsible logging practices. A token gesture would be better than no gesture at all. Or will it be more clear cutting of our last old Growth once again?" For more information and to check on the progress of the fast contact Nate by Pager (707) - 476-9580 or e-mail him at mailto:natemadsen @pocketmail. com]natemadsen @pocketmail. com[/url] | 
Tree sitter to fast for ancient forest
