Statement from Red-Tailed Hawk: “The Greatest Gift Mendocino County Could Give The World Is To Stop The Willits Bypass”

“Red-Tailed Hawk,” aka Will Parrish (a local journalist), issued the following statement from his tree sit yesterday, May 20th.

“On May 14th, I ascended roughly 70 feet into a 100-foot tall valley oak that stands in the path of the California Department of Transportation’s proposed six-mile freeway (“The Willits Bypass”) through Little Lake Valley. This tree, which has a nearly six-foot trunk and is covered from top to bottom with an intricate tapestry of lichens and moss, stands amid hundreds of ash trees in a lustrous grove in the north Little Lake Valley wetlands. The tree is certainly older than the State of California. It may be older than the United States of America.

This mighty oak stands like a sentinel at the southern edge of the ash grove. In its life, it has experienced the gridding, platting, and draining of its wetlands home for cattle ranching and the construction of Highway 101. It has experienced Euroamericans’ destruction of the Central Pomo people, who referred to the valley by the evocatively intimate name Mto’m-kai – a name that closely translates to “Valley of Water Splashing the Toes.” It has experienced the wetlands as they existed when the Pomo and early Euroamericans lived here, as an incredibly vibrant and life-sustaining ecosystem:

Little Lake circa 1905. Picture housed at Mendocino Historical Society. Little Lake circa 1905: closer to their original state. Picture housed at Mendocino Historical Society.

The tree’s days are likely numbered, though, as are those of the entire ash grove and nearly 90 acres of these wetlands, which CalTrans intends to drain, fill, and pave over to build its highway. It would be the most extensive destruction of any wetlands in Northern California in more than a half-century.
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SOLLV To Army Corps of Engineers: Re-Evaluate CalTrans’ Permit

With regard to the approval it needed to go forward with the Willits Bypass, the holy grail for CalTrans is the Clean Water Act Section 404 Permit the Army Corps of Engineers issued it in January 2012, which allows draining and filling in of 86 acres of wetlands in north Little Lake Valley.

ProtestersSm-1-18The Army Corps actually turned down this permit the first time CalTrans requested it, in 2010. Ever since, the Corps has grown steadily more tolerant of CalTrans’ environmental recklessness. In fact, CalTrans has been violating the permit (which was completely invalid to begin with, we contend) in a number of ways.

This letter from Bob Whitney of Keep the Code, also writing on behalf of Save Our Little Lake Valley, to Jane Hicks of the Army Corps’ Northern California division in San Francisco (“Request for Reevaluation of the 404 Permit No. 1991-194740N regarding the Caltrans Willits Bypass project”), describes those violations in considerable detail. Please see the Legal Initiatives page for more information along these lines, and to contribute to our litigation efforts.

You can read the full letter, which includes several telling pictures, by clicking here. The spirit of the letter is perhaps best captured by a list of questions on the final page:
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Direct action succesfully blocks wick-draining, 2 arrested

CalTrans contractors were prepared to install wick drains today in the wetlands meadow designated as the northern interchange area of the Bypass. The installation was previously delayed because the machinery is so big that Caltrans had trouble transporting it to the Bypass construction site.

When Caltrans arrived this morning, two Little Lake Valley defenders had locked themselves in metal lockboxes to the wick drain augur, halting all work in the area beginning just before seven a.m.  Wick drains are poles that are engineered to wick water out of the ground. CalTrans plans to install an estimated 55,000 of them at an average depth of eighty feet to drain portions of the Little Lake Valley wetlands. The wetlands have already been cleared of vegetation and graded. (see pictures below, photos by Steve Eberhard and Recon) Continue reading →

New Tree Sitter: Redtail Hawk, Destruction Update

There is a new tree sitter in Little Lake Valley: Redtail Hawk.

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Redtail Hawk nests in an oak tree.

As of Wednesday, Redtail Hawk landed in Condor’s nest and has roosted there. Condor has gone flying out in the Valley. Redtail brought a 25 foot banner with him that reads, ‘Save Our Water. Stop Caltrans NOW!’ The banner is visible from 101.

Redtail Hawk also goes by the name of Will Parrish. Parrish is a Ukiah resident who has been an instrumental part of the Bypass campaign. He is an activist and well known local journalist, who has written about and worked on forest and water protection, indigenous peoples land rights, nuclear weapons abolition, immigrant justice, and many other issues. He hasi written aabout dozen articles on the bypass and the resistance to it. To read Parrish’s most recent article on Caltrans mitigation debacle, click here.

This tree sit is in an Oregon ash grove just east of Highway 101, roughly a mile north of Willits High School. The tree is perched in one of the grove’s only oak trees. It is a valley oak at least 200 years old, one of precisely 1,815 oaks CalTrans inventoried to cut down.

This is the first tree sit in the wetlands area of the bypass construction zone, and has been strategically nested to bring attention to the activity happening in the wetlands currently. In a phone call with Redtail Hawk, he described the scene he is witnessing: Caltrans has brought in the wick drains and wick drain machine they will use to install the 55,000 wick drains to drain the wetlands, and they have begun test pile driving 100 foot steel tubes into the wetlands.

The current tree sit, and Condor and Redtail’s nesting in it, is to block destruction of this grove of trees in the wetlands, and to call attention to the destruction of the wetlands that is now beginning.

Redtail Hawk will release a statement regarding his motivation in the next 24 hours.

Want to help stop the Caltrans Bypass? Consider attending the Ruckus Society’s non-violent direct action training this Saturday. Click here for more information.

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Non-Violent Direct Action Training with Ruckus Society — this Saturday

This message from Little Lake Forest Defenders…

Help Protect Little Lake Valley!

Join us for NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTION TRAINING

WHEN: Saturday, May 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE: Little Lake Grange, 291 School St.

Lunch included, please RSVP to Naomi Wagner 707 459-0548

Caltrans is continuing construction (read: destruction) on the bypass and is moving into our wetlands to drain, dam, dirt-fill and damage them! If you are witnessing, reading and hearing about the destruction of Little Lake Valley, you may be asking yourself “What more can I do?” If you’re wondering how to plug in and want to help take effective nonviolent action to slow down the Caltrans juggernaut and call attention to our cause in a way that can’t be ignored, this training is for you. As part of a series of ongoing training offered by Earth First! and Little Lake Forest Defenders, we have invited the Ruckus Society this weekend to share their experience and skills towards halting construction of the Caltrans Bypass. Ruckus Society nonviolence trainer Rachel Jackson will facilitate the training. Rachel Jackson is a former Ruckus program director and community organizer with experience in a wide range of movements. This training will feature cerebral and physical elements, action planning, communicating with the media, political analysis and nonviolent philosophy and practice. By the end of the training, you should have the tools you need to take effective direct action.

Your help is needed to keep up the struggle! Together we can stop this madness!

For more information: e-mail littlelakeactioncamp@gmx.com.

Stop the CalTrans Bypass. There is a better way!

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5/13 Direct Action photo gallery

On May 13 two senior citizens and a 57 year old woman were arrested for participating in direct actions to protest the construction of the Willits Bypass and the failure of the Army Corps of Engineers to hold Caltrans accountable for the mitigation process. They locked down to machinery and stood in the way of trucks bringing in the first 90 foot pilings to be driven into the ground.

CONDOR (from the AVA)

Condor This week in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Will Parrish explores the context of the latest tree sit, in an Ash grove North of Willits High School, and Condor, the resident tree-sitter.

CONDOR

By Will Parrish

On the morning of Friday, May 2nd, the newest tree sit in Little Lake Valley arose in an Oregon ash grove just east of Highway 101, roughly a mile north of Willits High School. The tree sitter, whose adopted name is “Condor,” is perched in the grove’s only oak tree. It is a valley oak at least 200 years old, one of precisely 1,815 oaks CalTrans inventoried to cut down on its proposed Willits Bypass route when its contractors prepared a draft Environmental Impact Report about a decade ago.

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