David Nathan ''"Gypsy"'' Chain (June 17, 1974 – September 17, 1998) was an

environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advoc ...

. He was killed by a falling tree in suspicious circumstances during a protest in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Redwood Forest ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...

s against the

Pacific Lumber Company The Pacific Lumber Company, officially abbreviated PALCO, and also commonly known as PL, was one of California's major logging and sawmill operations, located 28 miles (45 km) south of Eureka and 244 miles (393 km) north of San Francisc ...

Background

Chain was a member of the

Earth First! Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that originated in the Southwestern United States. It was founded in 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar. Today there are Earth First! groups around ...

environmental advocacy group and was engaged on a campaign of

tree sitting Tree sitting is a form of environmentalist civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down (speculating that loggers will not endanger human lives by cutt ...

in order to stop what they considered was

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a pro ...

, in breach of California Forest Practices Act, in the

Headwaters Forest The Headwaters Forest Reserve is a group of old growth coast redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') groves in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion near Humboldt Bay of the U.S. state of California. Comprising about , it is managed by th ...

, 350 miles north of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, near

Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park is a state park of California, United States, harboring groves of coast redwoods in three separate units along the Van Duzen River. It is located south of Eureka, California, then another east of Fortuna on S ...

. Headwaters was the largest private holding of

old-growth An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

in the world. Following a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

of Pacific Lumber Co., the Murphy family (the largest minority stock holders at the time) and countless previous stockholders, mostly company employees, were relieved of their stock by

Charles Hurwitz Charles Edwin Hurwitz (born 1940) is an American businessman and financier known for his role in the 1980s savings and loan crisis, and his takeover of Pacific Lumber Company, a logging company active in Humboldt County, California. His other hol ...

and his Maxxam, Inc. corporation of Texas. Between a desire to turn a higher profit and the need to start paying off the debt incurred from acquiring the company, Hurwitz's Maxxam replaced the

sustainable growth Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desir ...

policy of the previous owner-managers with one of

clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/ logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of fore ...

. The new practices led to the so-called

Redwood Summer Organized in 1990 by Earth First! and the Industrial Workers of the World, Redwood Summer was a three-month movement of environmental activism led by Judi Bari aimed at protecting old-growth redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') trees from logging by n ...

campaign by environmentalists, and ultimately forced the 140-year-old company to declare bankruptcy. Many residents of the area made their living through logging. On the one hand, some members of the community in the nearby mill town of

Fortuna Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...

strongly resented the presence of activists from other areas, as these were not aware of the potential economic impacts of logging stoppages. On the other hand, environmental activists like Chain believed that clearcutting was not sustainable and highlighted that the choice of jobs or the environment was a fallacy.

Circumstances of his death

According to Humboldt County Sheriff Department, Chain was struck by a falling tree while trying to stop logging. He was killed instantly and died of massive head trauma. In response to his death, a Pacific Lumber Co. spokesperson said their logging crew did not see anybody in the area and were unaware of Chain's presence. Earth First! said that the loggers had been deliberately felling huge trees, in a perpendicular manner rather than downhill, in the protesters' direction. One of the protesters also noted that the tree fellers were fully aware that they were there, as the activists had been ''"yelling at them, walking towards them, telling them 'Don't fall this tree'"''. On a videotape supplied by Earth First!, Arlington Earl Ammons, the 52-year-old logger responsible for falling the tree that caused Chain's death can be heard shouting expletives and threatening the protesters. Based on the local sheriff's probe, Humboldt County

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

Terry Farmer decided not to press charges, concluding Ammons had not knowingly aimed a tree at any of the protesters. Farmer concluded Chain's death was an accident, and went further to say that he had considered charging Earth First! with

involuntary manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th c ...

charges instead.

Civil suit and settlement

Following the reticence of the district attorney to file criminal charges, Chain's mother started a civil suit against Ammons, Pacific Lumber and its parent company, Maxxam, alleging they were reckless and responsible for the death of her son. A

wrongful death Wrongful death claim is a claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. In wrongful death cases, survivors are compensated for the harm, l ...

settlement was reached three days before trial was scheduled to commence. Its financial terms remain undisclosed but other parts were made public, as a reminder of the tragedy, the 135-foot tree that struck Chain will remain where it fell, and a 100-foot buffer zone prevented any nearby logging. A memorial was also erected.

Consequences

Soon after Chain's death, it was revealed that the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection had charged Pacific Lumber with at least 250 violations of the California Forest Practice Act between 1995 and 1997. These violations continued to accumulate in 1998, and in November of that year, Pacific Lumber became the first company ever to lose its logging license in California. As a condition of reinstating their license, Pacific Lumber agreed to the creation of the

Headwaters Forest Reserve The Headwaters Forest Reserve is a group of old growth Sequoia sempervirens, coast redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') groves in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion near Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay of the U.S. state o ...

. It received $380 million of public funds in return for the purchase. A

Habitat Conservation Plan A Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is a required part of an application for an Incidental Take Permit, a permit issued under the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) to private entities undertaking projects that might result in the destruct ...

(HCP) was also developed and approved to allow limited logging on the remaining of Pacific Lumber Company timberland.An LAO Report, Opportunities and Challenges for the State-The Headwaters Forest
Legislative Analyst Office of the state of California.

Memorial scholarship

A memorial scholarship for high school seniors and first-year university students has been set up in Chain's name. It is intended to support students with a demonstrated passion in environmental conservation.

In popular culture

David Rovics David Stefan Rovics (born April 10, 1967) is an American indie singer/songwriter. His music concerns topical subjects such as the 2003 Iraq war, anti-globalization, anarchism, and social justice issues. Rovics has been an outspoken critic of ...

dedicated a song to him, title
The Death of David Chain
Seattle singer/songwriter Jim Page also wrote a song about David Chain entitled "Gypsy". Writer John Burnside wrote a poem called "Earth" in memory of David Chain.

References

External links

David Gypsy Chain Memorial Scholarship
*

Tribute to David Chain website by his mother, Cindy Allsbrooks. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chain, David Deaths by person in California September 1998 events in the United States 1998 in California Pacific Lumber Company Protest-related deaths