Dear Colleagues,

John Quigley (whom you may know as Executive Director of Earth Day LA) is
presently sitting in a magnificent 400 year old oak tree in Pico Canyon,
just outside Santa Clarita, to keep it from being cut down to widen Pico
Canyon Road to serve a 279-home subdivision being built in Supervisor
Michael D. Antonovich' s district of unincorporated LA County.

John is working with the Santa Clarita Oaks Conservancy and Santa Clarita
Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE). His important
action has been featured on Channel 9 News and in the LA Daily News. You
can see an article with a wonderful picture of John high in the tree at the
following link:
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%257E20949%257E964944,00.html

You can help save this ancient tree as a symbol of our regional heritage
by writing or calling:

1. Mayor and City Council of Santa Clarita (see addresses and sample
letter below).

2. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and the other Supervisors (see
addresses and sample letters below). (Faxing is far preferable to
emailing.)

Thank you for your action on behalf of all the ancient trees of Southern
California.

Jim Stewart, Earth Day LA

1. Mayor Ferry and Councilmembers:
fferry@Santa-Clarita.com, csmyth@Santa-Clarita.com,
bkellar@Santa-Clarita.com, lweste@Santa-Clarita.com,
mmclean@Santa-Clarita.com

Dear Mayor and Councilmembers of the City of Santa Clarita,

As a member of the greater Los Angeles Community, I would like to support
the preservation of the magnificent oak tree in Pico Canyon. The natural
survival of the tree for 400 years is in itself an inspiration to all of
us. It would be tragic to cut it down now, when it can be avoided. I
request your aggressive and timely steps to protect and preserve this oak
tree.


2. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and other Supervisors
Ph (213) 974-5555 Fax: 213-974-1010
Please speak to Conal McNamara, planning deputy for Michael Antonovich
E-mail addresses (less preferable to faxing) are:
FifthDistrict@bos.co.la.ca.us
FirstDistrict@bos.co.la.ca.us
SecondDistrict@bos.co.la.ca.us
ThirdDistrict@bos.co.la.ca.us
FourthDistrict@bos.co.la.ca.us

Dear Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich, Gloria Molina, Yvonne B. Burke, Zev
Yaroslavsky, Don Knabe,

As a member of the greater Los Angeles Community, I would like to support
the preservation of the magnificent oak tree in Pico Canyon. The natural
survival of the tree for 400 years is in itself an inspiration to all of
us. It would be tragic to cut it down now, when it can be avoided. I
request your aggressive and timely steps to protect and preserve this oak
tree.

Excerpt from Daily News:
Oak tree may be doomed
By Heather MacDonald
Staff Writer


STEVENSON RANCH -- Desperate to prevent a 400-year-old oak tree from being chopped down, an environmental activist scaled it Friday and prepared to sit there until a deal is reached to save the majestic tree.

Alerted by members of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment about the potential destruction of the heritage oak tree, John Quigley of Pacific Palisades climbed the massive tree just before 7 a.m., hours after an agreement protecting the tree on Pico Canyon Road expired.

"I'll be up here as long as it takes," Quigley said, via a walkie-talkie from about 50 feet above the ground. "This tree is older than any of us, and there's no reason for it to be cut down."

Down below, other environmentalists protested plans that call for the tree to be cut down to expand Pico Canyon Road. After tying yellow ribbons to the orange mesh fence surrounding the oak, they urged drivers to honk in support.

How can people get involved with this? Is support needed/wanted at the site? It would be nice to see some info on how to help other than the classic "write to your elected officials". Shout of solidarity out to those involved!

"Write a letter to your local politicians!", cries the reformist, as soon as a defiant stance is made.

My dear reformist, you are at best but a drugg that may temporarily remove the symptoms of a problem. Shall we pander and beg to the politicians that give the "go ahead to such projects on a regular basis. Shall we diffuse our energies in the run-out dead-end of politics? I say not. For those who have observed such games played out, it should beobvious that letters will do little to quell the onslaught of civilization.

The ecological struggle is not merely some anthropocentric rhetoric about preserving our 'heritage'. It is a life and death struggle. It is reconnecting with our origins, defining our relationship with other beings.

This action has much potential to do much more than save an oak tree, as esential as this is. The treesit could evolve to a protest camp. A blocade of resistance that could act as a catalyst for radicalizing and defending our homes (bioregion). It could be an autonomyous community that relates on their own terms. It has the value of offering a ralling point for resistance to empire expansion and the ecocide that results. It can be a vehicle to critique and confront the suicidal thrust of capitalism that leaves the earth as a wasteland.

Let us be clear that the proposed "new town" built for yuppies (with golf course, man-made lake, etc.) is yet another example of the rich desecrating wilderness so that they can have teir scenic country estate. Class war anyone?

I read the article in the daily the news and wonder why there is such a defeatist tone amonst the activist interviewed. Why is there not anger and determination? Obviously any developer, especially like Ratazzi, with comments like "I don't need anymore firewood" (referring to sparing the tree occupied) deserve to be put out of business.

Let us not stop with one tree. Let us put down the whole project. At there very least we should be able to incur damages and expense to these scumbags and make it know that developers can expect retrobution.

"We need to be more creative," said Councilwoman Laurene Weste, who participated in the early morning rally. "No one wants to decimate Pico Canyon."

What a fool. For there is no creative way odf developing Pico Canyon without decimating it. Rather than letting this politician use this issue as a PR springboard to more votes, how bout we run such people out of the protezt area and send them back to their gated community.

We don't need any more roads as the Mayor Ferry suggests. We need an end to the tyranny of the automobile and the oil industry it's connected to.

"We have to strike a balance between the environment and the quality of life of our residents," Ferry said. "The reality is that the cars are coming."

Tell me Mr. Ferry, what of the quality of life of the current residents? What of the coyote, the bobcat, and the multitude of lifeforms to be kiled? Just in case your delusional smaog filled head is unable to capture the absurdity of your statement, let me elucidate. To approve such a disaster is to disrupt the balance of the environment.

Maybe someone could steal one of those bulldozers and level Mr. Ferry's home with family inside to give him a sense of the environmental stability he is offering to the current inhabitants of Pico Canyon and area.

If uniform boxes, chemical golf courses (the green cancer), smog spewing cars, with self destructive aliented humans is your idea of "quality of life", then I suggest you make yourself more useful and hang yourself from one of the oaks. This way you add clutter to perhaps impede the road.

Developers: Go build in Hell! http://www.angelfire.com/empire/meltdown/developement.html

No Compromise!

"What power fears most is anonymous, generalized rebellion. [...] by the use of monograms and programmes we see the creation of an identity that separates revolutionaries from the rest of the exploited, making them visible to power and putting themselves in a condition that lends itself to representation."

-from At Daggers Drawn

For info on tunneling, road protestind and such check out the link below. Wheres the Earth Firsters!? Let's make this something people, show up and lets get to work.