Thank you SO much for wanting to take action to protect the Earth's redwood forests from corporate despoilers, such as the Fishers of Gap, Inc.! In this welcome email, we outline several ways you can help! Please pick and choose the ones that appeal to you--and ACT NOW! Here are the categories, on which we elaborate below: -Boycott the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, Of Course! -Boycott All Redwood Products, Including "Certified" Redwood! -WHERE WE NEED YOU MOST: Help Spread the Word! -Plan a Demo! -Sign and Circulate Our Petition! -Write the Fishers -- Send Them the Labels From Your Gap Clothes! -Donate to Our Work: Lawsuits, Demos, Ads, Etc. (tax deductible!) -FYI: Fisher Family Logging Fact List ***NEWS FLASH: In Jan. 2000 we had two MAJOR COURT VICTORIES over the Fishers of Gap, Inc., effectively halting 4 of their worst logging plans!!!*** ***NEWS FLASH: On Feb 23, 2000, the struggle to save the redwood forests of Mendocino and Sonoma Counties from the Fishers of Gap, Inc. hit the front page of the Wall Street Journal ( http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/history/wsj/ )! ***NEWS FLASH: On March 11, the Gap Fishers' crisis of ethics, including environmental destruction, human rights violations, and animal rights abuses, was reported in the London Daily Telegraph (www.elksoft.com/gwa/ldt)!*** ***NEWS FLASH: On June 5, the BBC featured the Save the Redwoods - Boycott the Gap Campaign in an international news spot!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/775000/video/_777998_david_willis6am_vi.ram ). ..FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS: WE'RE REACHING CRITICAL MASS!!!*** Boycott the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, Of Course! ******************************************************************** The Fishers of Gap Inc bought 230,000 acres of redwood forestland in July of 1998--and they have been overlogging, clearcutting (of their more than 150 logging plans, 2/3 of them contain all or partial clearcuts!), highgrading (taking all the big trees), cutting the last of the old growth, applying herbicides, and systematically destroying watersheds (such as, taking 25% of their annual cut from 5% of their holdings, instead of distributing the cut over the entire area) ever since. In addition, Gap Inc. uses sweatshop labor--people living in abject misery, making as little as 11 cents/hour, with no civil rights--to sew its clothes. The Gap has been named in a class-action suit filed on behalf of garment workers in Saipan--one of many third-world countries where Gap clothes are made. For more info on the Gap sweatshop campaign check out http://www.globalexchange.org or email leila@globalexchange.org Since the Fishers have made it clear that they care only about the bottom line, no matter what the price in environmental destruction, human misery, or animal cruelty, we launched the boycott and it's going strong! Boycott Redwood Products and Be Wary of "Certified" Wood! ********************************************************************* Please don't buy redwood products (as beautiful as they can be!) because ALL industrial redwood timberland is being ravaged by the timber corporations--especially don't buy Mendocino Redwood Company--the Fishers' liquidation logging company--products, which are sold at Home Depot. Certified lumber (lumber that has a "green" label on it for being harvested in a "sustainable" fashion, with deference for the environment) has problems, too, because certification guidelines 1.) do not prohibit cutting old growth or logging in stream zones, with critical consequences on endangered species that depend on these trees, such as marbled murrelets and coho salmon, 2.) allow even-aged forest management--which effectively turns the forest into a tree farm, with disastrous consequences on biodiversity (forest species), 3.) do not allow the public to monitor either the procedures or the results--the certification process is private, and finally, 4.) certifiers have admitted that in order to promote certification, they often loosen the already loose guidelines-- allowing timber companies to meet only some of the certification criteria on a wink and a promise that they will try to meet the rest in the future. We strongly feel that although our State agencies are run by political lackeys and our politicians have been bought by the corporations including corporate timber and related development interests, privatizing the regulating process is not the way to go. Better to keep the process public and to make our political leaders and agencies enforce environmental laws. ******Note that on August 2, 1999, the Gap Fishers' liquidation logging company, MRC, was denied certification by not one, but two, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifying groups because they do not log sustainably. Further, the Fishers have publicly announced that they have abandoned the Sustained Yield Plan process. Yet, despite these two glaring facts, the Fishers and their spokespeople continue to tell the Public that they are logging sustainably. ******* Spread the Word! ******************** This is where we need you most: spreading the word! Our forests are in a state of crisis and we desperately need to make the public aware of the situation! We have no budget for outreach--almost all grant money, donations, and proceeds from fundraisers go into lawsuits to keep trees in the ground while our public-pressure campaign matures--we've even put aside our restoration work to focus completely on stopping the overlogging. So, we rely on word-of-mouth from other environmentalists and concerned people like you! To aid you in spreading the boycott message, we have a compact, informative leaflet with fun graphics that I can fax or snail-mail you (unfortunately, this is the one item in our Gap Picket Packet that cannot be downloaded from our web site): www.elksoft.com/gwa . We can also snail- mail you the entire packet. Let me know! I'll need an address or fax number. If you want to do even more in the outreach department, you can REALLY HELP by boning up on the situation (by reading the document titled "Concerns About Fisher Family Logging in Mendocino County" appended to the end of this email), and then contacting one or more of the major environmentalist and activist groups in your city or county--including student and religious organizations--and letting them know about the campaign. Plan A Demo! *************** People in over 30 cities participated in simultaneous rallies to kick-off the Gap Boycott in November 1998. And we have been demoing ever since!!! In October 99, we celebrated the redwoods and workers rights with International Zap the Gap Week, featuring our now famous "We'd rather Wear Nothing Than Wear Gap!" action on both coasts! On November 26--the anniversary of the Gap Boycott--demos were held in Michigan, Florida, California, and Amsterdam, while many of us were in Seattle at the Rally of the Millenium to protest the World Trade Organization! The success of that mass rally that brought the WTO (an elitist corporate club that meets secretly and over rules environmental, human rights, and labor laws that are viewed as barriers to free trade, i.e., corporate profit) to its knees has empowered us: There will be many more mass rallies on the horizon of this new millenium! We hope you will join us in reclaiming our government and our planet from pillaging global corporate interests to which the Fishers of Gap, Inc. aspire to be major players! Here are some chants for your Gap demo: Fisher Family, get a clue: Logging old growth just won't do! Donald Fisher, Don't you know-- Corporate Greed has got to go! Shoppers, Beware! The Gap is unfair! Here's a good slogan for your banner: For Redwoods and Workers Boycott Gap!!! (note: you can substitute Old Navy or Banana Republic, depending on where you are having your demo!) ***Contact me for info on demoing and your First Amendment rights and for help with media to publicize your demo!*** Sign and Circulate Our Petition! *********************************** Please sign our online petition at www.elksoft.com/petition . If you want to do more, download a petition and circulate it! Nearly 20,000 people worldwide have signed our petition thus far. This is a powerful tool to let our political leaders, agency heads, and the Fishers know that a significant number of people do not want to see our redwood forestland in Mendocino liquidated. On January 12, 2000, we presented the California Board of Forestry with these signatures! Ask Your State Legislator to Vote Aye on AB 717 (Keeley)! ****************************************************************** If you live in California, please contact your state Senator and gently ask her or him to vote Aye on a very important forestry reform bill: AB 717 authored by Assemblymember Keeley. It will be up for a vote in very soon. Check out http://www.senate.ca.gov to find out who your reps are and how to email, phone, or snail-mail them. Check http://www.forestsforever.org for more info on this bill--or take my word for it: It will help save our overlogged forests!!! Write Letters! **************** Contact CA Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, and Mendocino County Deputy DA Barry Vogel and demand they bring criminal charges against timber corporations and government officials who have destroyed our forests and fisheries: Bill Lockyer, A.G. 1300 "I" Street Sacramento, CA 95814 1-800-952-5225 fax: 916-323-5341 Barry Vogel, D.A. 100 No. State Street Ukiah, CA 95482 707-463-4211 Contact CA Gov. Gray Davis and cc his Resources staff and tell them of your concern for the redwood forest, in particular, Mendocino's which have been so overlogged that they are on the verge of collapse and their endangered species, such as coho salmon, on the brink of extinction! Tell Davis to make good on his campaign promise to stop the cutting of old growth! (Unfortunately, the new Democrat administration has also been co-opted by the corporations, including the timber industry. However, we must keep hammering away at them to protect the public trust--WE MUST RECLAIM OUR GOVERNMENT!) Gray Davis Governor of California State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814 Voice: 916-445-2841 Fax: 916-445-4633 (no email address yet) Mary Nichols, Secretary of Resources California Resources Agency 1416 Ninth Street - Room 1311 Sacramento, CA 95814 fax (916) 653-8102 mary@resources.ca.gov Andrea Tuttle, Director of the CA Dept of Forestry 1416 Ninth Street Sacramento, California 95814 voice: 916-653-7772 fax: 916-653-4171 andrea_tuttle@fire.ca.gov You can write to the Fishers at the following address: The Fisher Family c/o Robert Fisher, Gap, Inc. 900 Cherry Ave San Bruno, CA 94066 tel. (415) 427-2449 tel. (415) 427-2075 If you want to have a stronger impact, send them the labels from all the Gap clothes you currently own! Note that many people and reputable organizations (such as the Sierra Club, RAN, and Forests Forever) have tried to intercede with letters, meetings, and/or press releases to the Fishers to no avail. Side Bar: Facts Vs. Greenwashing! If you do write to the Fishers, the Fisher family frontman, Sandy Dean, President of the Fishers' logging company, Mendocino Redwood, will send you their very personable and convincing four-page greenwash boilerplate letter. They're very good at PR (the Gap spent a reported 300 million on advertising last year), and this letter misrepresents what they are doing with great subtlety. That's why I'm including our rebuttal to this letter at the end of this email. You can also get this and more info, including pictures of Fisher clearcuts, at our web site: www.elksoft.com/gwa Donate to Our Work: Lawsuits, Demos, Ads, Etc. (tax deductible!) ************************************************************************* If you cannot take any other action, please donate to our efforts! Lawsuits are very expensive and very necessary to keep trees in the ground while our public-pressure campaign matures. Media-grabbing demos also cost money, as do ad campaigns! All donations are tax deductible! Please make checks payable to Greenwood Watershed Association. Note in the memo field of your check how you want the money spent: Legal or SRBG (demos, ads, public education, outreach). Mail your check to SRBG (Save the Redwoods - Boycott the Gap), 252 Frederick Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. Join Our Network! ******************** I'd like to include you on our online network (over 60 cities in 30 states and Europe), so that you will receive regular updates and any pertinent calls to action (demos, letter-writing campaigns, etc.) We issue a nationwide newsletter once or twice a month. CA and Northern CA residents get more calls to action, for obvious reasons! Let me know the city/state or country you live in, so that I can put you on the right list. In closing.... The fate of our magnificent redwood legacy and its dependent species--the heroic coho, the reclusive marbled murrelet, and so many others--is in our hands! Please continue to revere and defend these forests! Cheers and many thanks! Mary Bull Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign, SF _________________________________________ CONCERNS ABOUT FISHER FAMILY LOGGING IN MENDOCINO COUNTY The Fisher family purchased 235,000 acres of cutover Louisiana Pacific forest lands (mostly in Mendocino County), several L-P mills and L-P's logging program, on July 1, 1998, and set up the Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) to log the lands. The facts at that time were these: - L-P had been engaged in "liquidation logging" of these forests for two decades. Almost all merchantable timber was gone. There was almost no old growth left. Wildlife habitat had been decimated. The Coho salmon was on the verge of extinction. - According to L-P's own statistics, in 1996, 97% of L-P forest acreage was in 1-21 inch diameter trees. The bulk of this acreage was in 11-16 diameter trees and smaller. Only 3% contained trees of 24+ inch diameter or greater-the only decent wildlife habitat. (See WHR Tables.) L-P has had some fifty Timber Harvest Plans approved since that time. - According to L-P fish distribution surveys in 1994-1996, Coho salmon were absent in 19 of 27 watersheds in the L-P ownership. Of those 8 watersheds with any Coho at all, Coho were absent in 75% of the streams. Overall, Coho salmon were absent in 90% of the streams on L-P property. (See L-P fish data summary, and data sheet for Elk Creek.) Despite hundreds of samplings, over 3 years, the numbers in those 8 (of 27) watersheds are dismal (examples - Albion R., 200 coho, Navarro R. , 100, Big R., 120, Elk Cr., 5-10.) Historical and fishing records indicate a once-abundant Coho fishery on the Mendocino coast. - L-P lands still don't have an approved and viable "Sustained Yield" Plan. The SYP that L-P wrote contains egregiously inadequate protections for wild life, fish and other resources. It is clearly a plan for further depletion of all resources. (Drs. Fred Euphrat, Allen Cooperrider and Edmund Smith provided expert public comment on the SYP to this effect, in letters that are now part of the public record.) - CDF continued to approve numerous high-impact Timber Harvest Plans for L-P, under the notorious "Option C" rules (which do not require an approved SYP), up to the moment of the change of ownership. These THPs have implemented the industry-devised standards of the as yet unapproved SYP (f.i., standards for stream protection, downed woody debris, monitoring, etc.). THPs have a life of 3 to 5 years. - When L-P announced its intention to sell out in fall 1997, CDF's Richard Wilson said, "It's sad but it really should be no huge surprise. Everybody knew they were cutting themselves out of business." After years of delay, CDF and L-P finally released L-P's "Sustained Yield" Plan for public comment several weeks after L-P announced that it was selling out (one of the bitterer ironies of the Mendocino logging story). Between that time and the beginning of escrow (May 1998), CDF approved 17 additional logging plans for L-P-still with no approved SYP. Enter the Fisher family of the Gap and their logging company, Mendocino Redwood (MRC). The reasons that the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance and other groups, including Forests Forever, Bay Area Action, Rain Forest Action Network, the Foundation for Deep Ecology, the Sierra Club , the Christian Environmental Council, and the Mendocino Environmental Center are so concerned about Fisher family logging are as follows: - The Fishers's logging company, Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) has continued to implement L-P's unsustainable logging program, including the use of clearcutting in almost 50% of their plans, and the use of "even- aged" methods including clearcutting in over 70% of their plans-the same percentages as L-P. (See THP Tables.) These practices also include extensive use of herbicides, road construction in steep and unstable areas, and logging of the very last old growth trees and the last big trees in these forests. The THP tables combined with our study of individual THPs show us that the Fishers are logging no differently than L-P. The Fishers bought 104 logging plans from L-P in July 1998 along with the land and mills, and are engaged in the final liquidation of these forests, as designed by L-P. - This winter (1999), the Fishers' logging company rushed a crew of fallers into the Albion River Kaisen Gulch area, which logged for ten days-in February, in the rain-in an apparent attempt to beat the startup date for Spotted Owl surveys (March 1). People in the community hadn't yet received the notice from CDF that the plan (THP 1-98-350 MEN) had been approved. The same week, the Fishers hastily amended an old 1995 plan in the Barn Gulch area of Greenwood Creek (THP 1-95-315 MEN Amendment no. 10), changing the plan from low-impact "commercial thinning" to high- impact strip clearcuts that will fragment and destroy the last old growth forest in Greenwood Creek, including extremely rare old growth trees estimated to be 200 to 600 years of age. - The Fishers have furthermore begun an intense "green-washing" campaign- the likes of which we have never seen in Mendocino County (5 full page ads in one local paper). They are attempting to "sell" clearcutting as some sort of restoration program (!), and have created phony "stewardship" policies, such as their "old growth policy" (they won't log trees of 250+ years of age and 48+ inches diameter, of which they have almost none), and their "variable retention" policy (clearcutting 90% of the trees instead of 100%). - Re: MRC's "variable retention"policy, see http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/ - the Flynn Creek clearcut - what "variable retention" looks like - 90% of the vegetation removed on a steep ridgeside, leaving small patches of scraggly trees that will blow down in the next wind. - Re: MRC's "old growth policy", see http://mendocinoredwoodco.com - the details of this "policy" are ridiculous. They say they will not cut trees of 250+ years and 48+ inches diameter when found in unentered stands of 20+ acres, but admit to having only one unentered stand - of 18 acres (by their reckoning). They also say they protect trees in 5+ acre stands with 6 or more such trees per acre - also virtually non-existent on L-P lands. Then they leave themselves a big loophole. Virtually the only old growth left on L-P lands is in "scattered residual" trees. As to these, they say they will "evaluate" their "importance" to wildlife! - The Fishers have attempted to put "spin" on the L-P SYP tree size statistics and the L-P fish data - in effect, saying that these statistics are useless for determining conditions on these former L-P lands. This is their "line"-nothing more. The statistics speak for themselves. They have been reviewed by our experts (Dr. Fred Euphrat, Dr. Allen Cooperrider and Dr. Edmund Smith), who consider them to be meaningful. They are consistent with everything else that is known about the condition of L-P forests and fisheries. - The Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance filed suit on four of those 17 last-minute L-P plan approvals-the worst of the lot. When the Fishers became the owners, they hired L-P's attorney Jared Carter to gain them the right to implement these "worst of L-P" plans. - THP 1-97-445 MEN - a plan for clearcutting 418 acres (total 606 acres of logging), and 7 miles of road construction, directly upstream from the only Coho salmon found in Elk Creek and, indeed, the only Coho found in a 150 square mile region-a population sampling of "10 or fewer" fish-- discovered in L-P fish surveys in 1994-96. - THP 1-97-352 MEN - a clearcutting plan upstream from a town water well, that announces itself as the first plan of L-P's as yet unapproved "Sustained Yield" Plan for Greenwood Creek (ten more years of clearcutting). - THPs 1-89-100 and 1-89-145 MEN -the "Enchanted Meadow" area of the Albion River, a local recreational area - very old (1989) plans that the local community has been fighting for ten years (the logging plans that were the cause of the "Albion Uprising" in the mid-1990s--and the occasion for several previous lawsuits, including Schoen v. CDF.) - RCWA tried to stop three other L-P plans, midway through escrow. One of them-THP 1-98-047 MEN, in the Albion River-can be viewed at http://www.elksoft.com/gwa. It is horrendous. (We ran into a politicized Appellate Court, which took 9 days to rule on our request for an emergency stay. L-P meanwhile started logging-and the Fishers then finished it.) Additional reasons for serious concern about the Fishers and their logging practices: - THP 1-97-445 MEN (Elk Creek clearcut) is one of the worst, most illegal plans we have ever seen. Not only does it threaten the last Coho salmon in an entire region, the forester originally claimed there were no fish in the stream at all (the same forester is now working for MRC). Local fisherkids then went up there and found and photographed numerous steelhead. Later, it came out that CDF and L-P had withheld L-P fish data from the public, which showed the presence of Coho and steelhead (in alarmingly small numbers). - Jared Carter, on behalf of the Fishers, engineered an aberrant legal maneuver, to re-open public comment on THP 445, in order to perform a minor "fix it" of the plan and get it RE-approved. A local judge okayed this maneuver and mooted the entirety of THP 445-telling the Fishers and CDF, in effect, that they can do whatever they want with THP 445, with no court review. (They waited until we had filed our trial brief to do this - costing us a whole lot of money.) They have now repeated this aberrant legal maneuver on the Albion plan (THP 350 - February logging). It is a new tactic by CDF and industry to chill public participation. - The National Marine Fisheries Service wrote two very strong letters to CDF about THP 445, when L-P was the owner. Now that the Fishers are the owners, NMFS has completely reversed itself and has okayed the plan, with only minor and cosmetic mitigations, with no fish surveys required, with no risk analysis, with completely inadequate cumulative effects assessment (the plan doesn't even mention the "10 or fewer" coho or where they were found)-and with the intention (on NMFS' part) that this plan will be precedent for the Fishers' Habitat Conservation Plan. NMFS in other words has okayed massive clearcutting upstream from a dying fishery-an horrendous precedent for coastal Coho. The Fishers' power and influence, and their "green-washing" of L-P's logging program, has served the timber industry well. - Garlon spraying (associated with clearcutting): The Fishers' logging company has lifted L-P's partial moratorium, and will only notify the immediate adjacent property owners within 300 feet. Garlon spraying is of great concern here - potential effects on public water supplies and swimming holes, on children, workers, wildlife, fish, live stock and pets. Garlon is known to cause disorientation in juvenile salmonids. - "Winter operations": The Fishers are adding "winter operations" to almost all of their logging plans. Big impact on fish - from muddy roads, landslides. - Targeting the last remaining old growth and big trees. The clearcutting areas in the Fishers' plans generally include 50% or more redwood and Douglas fir. (They are not just removing tanoak!) Their "selection" plans are generally "high-grading" (taking the biggest trees). The Albion River watershed has the most big trees left. (See WHR Tables.) The Fishers currently have eight logging plans on the Albion, all with "winter operations." Note on the Fisher family: The Fishers control both Gap, Inc., and the Mendocino Redwood Company. Donald Fisher is Chair of the Board of Gap, Inc. His son Bob is Exec. V-P and C.O.O. of Gap, Inc. The Mendocino Redwood Company, at their web site, states that the Fisher family is the "primary investor" in the logging venture. Bob Fisher discusses this logging venture as "our investment" in a letter to local activists (see www.elksoft.com/gwa - the "Picket Packet" section). All news releases and articles describe it as "a Fisher family investment." Gap, Inc., has recently tried to confuse people by saying that John Fisher (Bob's brother) is the only family member with an "operational" connection to Mendocino Redwood Company. However, the Fishers' profit expectations are certainly the key factor driving decisions at the logging company. Note: tables, charts, and supporting docs available on request Prepared by Mary Pjerrou Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance tel. (707) 877-3405 Also see: http://www.elksoft.com/gwa Mary Bull Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign 252 Frederick Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 chalice@wco.com 415-731-7924 www.gapsucks.org _________________________________________ Other Contacts/Information Sources: ---------------------------- Mary Pjerrou, Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance 707-877-3405 pirohuck@mcn.org www.elksoft.com/gwa ---------------------------- Mark Hilovsky, Builders Action Network 415-550-6850 mhilo@aol.com ---------------------------- Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters 510-835-6303 Listserve listproc@envirolink.org (message text = Subscribe BACHlist, followed by email address, then name) ---------------------------- Info on Gap Sweatshops: http://www.globalexchange.org leila@globalexchange.org "God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there..."