Activist Killed by Falling Tree at Protest of Redwood Logging

An activist was struck in the head and killed by a falling tree Thursday while trying to block the logging of redwoods on Pacific Lumber Co. land, an Earth First! member said.

The radical environmental group said David Chain, who used the nickname “Gypsy,” was standing among redwoods marked for logging and trying to dissuade loggers when he was killed.

A protester reported that the impact cracked Chain’s skull, said Earth First! co-founder Daryl Cherney. Sheriff’s deputies told the group that Chain died at the scene, Cherney said.

“It’s easy to get hit by a tree out there,” Cherney said. “Even experienced activists or seasoned people--it doesn’t matter.”

Pacific Lumber did not return telephone calls seeking comment. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department and the California Department of Forestry would only confirm that they were responding to a logging accident.

Earth First! had staged a 12-day protest against the logging of an ancient redwood stand along Grizzly Creek, in a ravine near the mill town of Fortuna, about 300 miles up the coast from San Francisco.

Eight of the group’s activists had been arrested Wednesday on trespassing charges. Thursday was the first day the group had engaged in the more aggressive tactic they call “cat and mouse,” putting their bodies in harm’s way.

The protesters say the logging, on land adjacent to a “lesser cathedral” of centuries-old redwoods purchased under the $495-million Headwaters agreement, is destroying the protected habitat of the marbled murrelet, an endangered seabird that nests in the tops of the trees.