AnarWiki/markdown/Itsa_Forest_Campaign.md

The **Ista Forest Campaign** was a failed
[indigenist](Timeline_of_Indigenism "wikilink")
[environmentalist](Timeline_of_Environmentalism "wikilink") campaign in
[Canada](Canada "wikilink") that lasted from [1995 to
1998](Timeline_of_Libertarian_Socialism_in_North_America "wikilink"). It
aimed to protect a forest in British Columbia from deforestation.

The Nuxalk people live mid-way up the British Columbian coast, in the
region around the town Bella Coola. The Nuxalk have long refused to
enter into any treaties with Canada or cede any of their ancestral
territory to the national or provincial government. As such, they still
claim sovereign rights to much land that the government claims belongs
to it. One of those areas is King Island. On King Island is a valley
called Itsa, which, according to the Nuxalk, is the sacred place of
origin of their people.

In 1995, the Canadian government gave International Forest Products Co.
(Interfor) the right to do clearcut logging of Itsa. Clearcutting is a
logging practice in which every single tree in an area is cut down,
leaving nothing where there was once an old-growth forest. Faced with
the destruction of their spiritual home, a band of Nuxalk led by
hereditary chiefs mounted a campaign to save Itsa. This band, though led
by the hereditary chiefs, did not have the support of the elected Nuxalk
council, and, based on news reports, the Nuxalk population seems to have
been divided over the tactics used in this campaign. In order to
effectively combat Interfor, the Nuxalk contacted the Forest Action
Network (FAN), a radical group experienced in direct action tactics
against forestry operations. The Nuxalk and FAN signed a protocol
agreement which made clear that the Nuxalk would have the final word,
but FAN would provide guidance and human resources.

In the first week of September 1995, forty Nuxalk and FAN activists set
up camp near Fog Creek on King Island, at the fore of a logging road
Interfor was building into Itsa. Eight of the activists climbed trees in
the path of the proposed road and began a tree-sit. Others hung signs
and banners. In response, Interfor sought and received a court
injunction against the protesters, which required the Nuxalk and FAN to
leave the site within 24 hours. When Interfor representatives and police
served the injunction to the protesters on September 8, the chiefs
burned the injunction and informed the Interfor employees and police
that they were trespassing in Nuxalk territory.

Nuxalk and FAN activists continued the blockade for the next two weeks.
Their actions received media attention in Vancouver, the largest city in
British Columbia. Interfor and government representatives returned
several times and offered small environmental concessions (installing
silk screens to prevent mud from reaching streams, and the like) in
exchange for the protesters leaving. The Nuxalk refused to move, though,
unless Interfor stopped building the road altogether. Finally, on
September 27, an expert team of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
moved in and arrested 22 of the activists, including three chiefs of the
Nuxalk. The RCMP force included three skilled tree-climbers to remove
the tree-sitting activists.

That evening, the three chiefs, Qwatsinas (Ed Moody), Nuximlayc
(Lawrence Pootlass) and Slicxwliqw’ (Charlie Nelson), issued written
statements from their jail cells, reaffirming Nuxalk sovereignty and
offering defiance to Interfor and the Canadian government. All arrestees
refused to sign a statement in which they would have agreed not to
return to King Island. While the arrestees were still in jail, other
Nuxalk and FAN activists staged a protest on September 28 at the
district forest service office in Bella Coola. While voicing support for
the arrestees and opposing the logging of Itsa, the protesters also
stated their desire for a complete logging moratorium on the B.C. coast.
No more arrests were made at this rally.

After being released from jail, the 22 people arrested, which included
five FAN activists and the 17 Nuxalk people, repeatedly failed to show
up for their court dates, on the ground that the B.C. government had no
authority over actions taken on Nuxalk land. In January, Qwatsinas and
Nuximlayc travelled to Los Angeles to hold a prayer service and
fundraiser with environmentally-conscious Hollywood celebrities. This
event raised enough money to fund their campaign for the next year.
Around the same time, a court issued an arrest warrant for the activists
when they missed another court date. RCMP forces did not carry out the
warrant until late March, when they arrested thirteen of the activists
in Bella Coola, who were subsequently held until their trial. At trial,
all were convicted of contempt of court; the news record is unclear on
the matter of sentencing, but it is evident that jail terms, if any,
were short. In the process of the trial, the campaign gained the support
of two members of the European Parliament, Irene Soltwedel-Schafer and
Martin Schulz, who wrote letters urging that the charges be dropped.

In the summer of 1996, the campaign stayed in the news when eight FAN
members suspended themselves from an Interfor logging barge in Bella
Coola, delaying the barge for several days. The protestors were arrested
and cited.

The campaign quieted down as logging stopped for the winter, but resumed
again the next summer. On May 29, 1997, Nuximlayc issued a statement for
Interfor that said, “We are not involved or negotiating under the BC
Treaty process \[that would sign away their land\]. . . You must
consider this as a notice to your company to leave our forests alone.”
When Interfor did not cease operations, sixty activists, including
Nuxalk people and FAN, as well as Greenpeace, Bearwatch, and People’s
Action for Threatened Habitat (PATH), again blockaded the logging road
at Fog Creek on King Island. The blockade began on June 5, with an
encampment that included a 12-foot tripod structure with two activists
on top, two more activists suspended from forestry machinery, and a
large banner that said, “Standing together to protect the Great Bear
Rainforest." On June 6, a court issued an injunction demanding that the
protesters leave. Greenpeace appealed the injunction, which allowed the
protestersto remain for twenty days, despite continuous police presence
at the blockade site. On June 25, the appeal was denied and police
arrested 24 activists.

Of note at this second blockade was the presence of counter-protesters
from among the Nuxalk people. Several dozen people, including one of the
leaders of the elected Nuxalk council, opposed the blockades on the
grounds that they were too confrontational, and accused Greenpeace and
FAN of trying to speak for the indigenous peoples. Some of those
involved were employed by the logging industry, and losing money because
of the protests. In response, Qwatsinas reiterated that the
environmental activists had been invited by his band of separatist
Nuxalk. When the arrestees went on trial in Vancouver in early August, a
group of sixteen Nuxalk travelled from Bella Coola to voice their
opposition to the anti-logging campaign.

When the trial concluded in February 1998, all activists were given
probation, and those who were suspended in tripods or from machinery
received 21-day jail sentences. The Nuxalk band of resisters did not
attempt to delay or evade this trial in the same manner as the first
one.

By October 1998, Interfor had completely stripped Itsa of its trees, and
the Nuxalk stopped their campaign to save this part of the forest. In
the 2000s, however, the Nuxalk again became involved in the struggle
against logging on other parts of their territory and elsewhere in
British Columbia.

## References

[Global Nonviolent Action
Database](Global_Nonviolent_Action_Database "wikilink") - [Nuxalk People
obstruct logging of Itsa old-growth
forest, 1995-1998](https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/nuxalk-people-obstruct-logging-itsa-old-growth-forest-1995-1998)