Pubdate: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Don Hildenbrand THANKS TO THE `HIPPIES' REGARDING the recent Headwaters Forest deal, it is ironic that a small group of environmental activists (disdainfully referred to as scruffy hippies on welfare) were able to do what all the political and legal big guns could not do. The activists were able to slow down the Hurwitz-Maxxam financial juggernaut from their destructive logging practices in Humboldt County and force them into compliance with California and federal law in a way that eventually led to federal and state purchase of the Headwaters Forest as a public preserve. They did it by staging innumerable demonstrations over the last decade or more, focusing attention on the unique features of the old-growth redwoods, and by successfully challenging in court the stepped-up cutting plans initiated by Hurwitz's Pacific Lumber Co. Unpopular as these activists may be with some, I think we owe them a debt of gratitude for accomplishing something admirable, something that none of the rest of us was able to do. Don Hildenbrand Mountain View - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea