Craig Oare – Treesit TV
As excerpted from Wikipedia: “Upper Village” was a set of 3 redwoods, Jerry, Everstine/Diversity (a double trunk tree) and Anastasia. Jerry was one of Humboldt County’s most famous redwoods.
A woman named Jeny Card (aka “Remedy”) stayed without touching ground for 361 days, and later a young man named Willow did the same for over 18 months.
Amy Gershman (aka “Wren”) stayed in Everstine for almost ten months, and was later extracted, arrested, and jailed. After she was released, she went to court, and her case ended in a hung jury.
Upper Village appeared on Da Ali G Show, and Willow was interviewed from the platform of Jerry by Tom Greene, who was doing a segment for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
No other tree has the extraction history of Jerry. Activists were forcibly removed from the tree on three separate occasions between March 17, 2003 and June 17, 2003. Each time, the tree-sit platforms were destroyed by climbers, but immediately replaced by activists.
The Timber Harvest Plan for Upper Village expired in 2005, and the trespassers removed their platforms and traverses. These trees are located directly alongside Greenwood Heights road in Freshwater, California.
America at the end of August, under God,
cooking in the filth of its abundance,
sits down to one of its morning routines,
coffee and a doughnut and the Today Show.
At 9:08, in the midst of the usual trivia,
something strange and new appears:
a woman named Remedy, living in a redwood,
five months long and fifty yards high,
pleading with all her heart and soul
for the last few ancient trees.
A true voice in the wilderness, for one minute.
The rest of the show proceeds as follows:
two minutes of lumber lackey lies,
a stifled attempt by our hero for equal time,
ads for candy bars, Kleenex, anti-depressants
and Penny’s super colossal Labor Day sale,
a five-minute interview with a Scrabble champion,
more ads for insurance, drugs, toilet cleaners,
underwear, more drugs–ads ads ads ad nauseum.
Then the greenhouse weather report,
drought withering the western states,
followed by, you guessed it, more ads.
And scattered out there across the land
are some young women and young men
who just happen to be there at 9:08,
and their real education begins,
here in the last week of summer,
as their hearts and minds are blown open
by those moments on the Today Show.
They are the Remedys and Wrens and Baris
and Haydukes and Butterflys to come,
and the Mother of us all is caring for them.
Take heart, Remedy, they’re on their way.
Craig Oare
November-December 2002 Earth First!