The kids in the woods encampment of 2008(Arcata Community Forest)

Statement from the ’Kids in the woods’ encampment’---

We shall live as Free people in a community of our own; willing to work with the city and the people to provide a safe place for those who have a need for an alternative working, living situation. We will not be made to move or herded around. We are the Kids in the Woods. We have worked for months to clean up, salvage and recycle what we can. We have offered to work with the park to help maintain and rehabilitate with little to no response. Therefore, we will do as have been, while standing and fighting. This is our home. We need the support of the people, shared resources and knowledge, and our spot to designated as a safe, legal zone.

DAY 1

Please be aware that there is a small encampment in our community forest. The camp is inhabited by approx. 15-20 individuals who have been repeatedly harassed by local law enforcement about sleeping in unlawful areas around town, and have turned to this last piece of forest to finally rest undisturbed. some of the campers have been there since September, others for only 4 or so months. When spotted recently by a jogger, the campers were ordered to vacate the premises yesterday (3/25) or action would be taken. As promised, two "environmental service" workers visited the camp today (3/26) and ordered that the camp be taken down and everyone disperse. The people in the camp refused to leave or take down their possessions, and it is believed that the authorities will be called in soon. Members of Redwood Curtain Copwatch and Redwood Curtain Anti-Fascist Action met with the camp to offer support and document the event. They need more support!!! They are in desperate need of more community members to monitor police behavior, and to show solidarity with those who have no place to sleep (this is especially important in light of the recent vote against the building of a new Arcata Endeavor, which would have had over 100 beds and a shelter for people like this). Please help make this public.

Please offer your support by calling Redwood Curtain Copwatch at : 707-633-4493

THANKS SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING YOUR COMMUNITY

The Children of the encampment

Barricade 1

Barricade 2

Encampment members speaking and eating within barricade 2

Contrary to popular belief, this is more than just a thrash heap, its barricade 3

The Camp

Members of Redwood Curtain Copwatch, Redwood Curtain Anti Fascist Action, Accion Zapatista, and the ’Kids in the woods’ encampment speak after Arcata Environmental services leave

Helping out with the visual resistance

Pancake Breakfast

DAY 2

STATEMENTS FROM THE ENCAMPMENT AND FRIENDS OF THE ENCAMPMENT

Joyel (Encampment member)-

3/27/08

We are protesting our eviction from the last place there is to live in the area, this is the Arcata Community Forest and we are just expanding the community to the woods, I’ve lived here since the end of December and this isnt just another squatter camp, there is a core group that has been here for a while (as far back as september) and we are trying to live in peace without taking up space on the streets and where our stuff is safe.

What we are trying to do is just either have the city leave us alone (or maybe help) or for them them to find us a suitable location to set up a semi/permanent home, alot of people that come through this area are just passing through and that is what the townfolk see as the "homeless" population, the people that come through town and sleep under your stairway is what we are classified as but we are mail-receiving residents of Arcata and we just choose to live outside.

any support is greatly appreciated, the houseless population needs to stop running.

come to the park!!!!

Ozzie Jane-

I had the privilege of being welcomed into this community for a short while, and these people deserve and need all the help they can get to win this struggle against rich private property supremacists. They area dynamic counter-cultural force standing strong in the face of oppression. Their lifestyle is significantly less harmful to the environment than any other human living space in the area. It is absolute bunk to accuse them of interrupting the lives of wild animals when you consider the impact of cities, streets, corporate and private pollution. Furthermore, it is positively hypocritical of anyone that resides in a house to accuse them of invading an animals’ natural habitat.

The homeless, houseless, unemployed and underemployed hold the highest risk health factors for disease, and they have to go through the most hassle to get any modicum of health care. Shame on anyone who complains of their existence, for they more than likely have no idea what it is like to exist in such a grueling way as to live without a house.

DAY 6

This morning at approximately 9:00 am, three officers from the ARCATA POLICE DEPARTMENT approached the encampment and asked the occupants to leave. The Encampment once again protested the eviction and the police were faced with the only option available, to leave. Before leaving they used cameras to photograph the persons involved, and the encampment in it’s self.

The encampment continues to clean and put forth an effort to create ways to lessen the impact they have on the area. They are skilled in many forest living tactics but do ask for more knowledge on the subject not just for themselves, but for future members.

They have a wish list together which are listed as necessities.(the less waste matter, the better)

Food of all dietary needs

Water

toilet paper(degradable)

tarps

shovels

lanterns

rope(twine, hemp, cord)

batteries(AAA, AA)

trash bags

lanterns

medical supplies

axes(wedges as well)

playing cards

The most important thing they need is friendship and support.

These kids have great heads on their shoulders and they would be able to prove that if you extend your friendship.

Another important thing potential friends and volunteers can do is be there when the police and Environmental Services to hold them accountable to their actions.

Thanks and solidarity.

Much love ,

REDWOOD CURTAIN ANTI FASCIST ACTION

DAY 7

Well this thing is only letting me upload 1 thing so this is a quick pan of the camp.

we’re still holding it down in the woods, the police came once already now and we know that they won’t leave us alone that easy, I walked down the hill for the first time in a few days last night and on the way down where the trail meets the ACF logging road is where we have piled the bagged garbage for pickup, I’m told that a truck comes out every-other week at least in order to clean up what the work crews pull out of abandoned camps and most of that garbage is stuff that we have cleaned out of other sites than just ours.

walking around downtown Arcata I could really tell that allot of the people that are usually sitting in front of the closed stores on the bar strip were absent, most of them I know had made it up to camp already and more had started walking that way.

As for the Owls Kevin I understand fully the impact of a horn in morning but I don’t know if is widely known that Arcata regularly logs out of that forest to make money? They call it "sustainable logging" because they only do it a little when a little means a 50 foot wide 300 foot long clear-cut?

we are being very careful about deforestation in and around the camp, yes we have a fire for cooking but 90% of that wood is hauled down from the clear-cut where it’s just laying there choking out the local vegetation while the pampas grass is flourishing, the rest of the wood is dead fall so no trees are hurt and the fire pit was dug with consideration to the surrounding roots, we have recently started working on anti-erosion because some of the trails in camp were starting to deteriorate which is something I would like to do for the city’s trail 16 because it is eroding faster than any and I don’t even use that trail.

Let us help!!

I’ve got to go but come visit us in the redwood park if you get the chance.

K.I.T.W.

DAY 11

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM A.F.A.

Redwood Curtain Anti-Fascist action has been involved in an 11 day struggle with an encampment within the Arcata Community Forest. The ’Kids in the Woods’ encampment was brought to our attention by house less rights activists based in the Humboldt County community. It was brought to our attention that the encampment members had been repeatedly intimidated by both local law enforcement, as well as Arcata Environmental services and told they must pack up and leave. No solutions have been discussed with members between these organizations on the subject of where they can go to sleep, eat, or even live. This was the initial reason Redwood Curtain A.F.A. offered its support.

During the 11 day occupation of the Arcata Community Forest by the ’Kids in The Woods’ encampment, Redwood Curtain A.F.A. offered support with the best intentions for the members of the encampment as follows:

• Dialogue

• Food

• Water

• Literature on problem solving and group organization

• Jail Support

• Bringing accountability to Police and Arcata Environmental Services for their actions

• Coverage through video and photo for media purposes

• And above all solidarity with the struggle for individuals involved.

We regret to inform the ’Kids in The Woods’ encampment and the members of the Arcata, Humboldt County, California community that Redwood Curtain Anti Fascist Action withdrawals its support of the encampment for the following reasons.

• The encampment is no longer capable of sustaining collective decision making due to external antagonism from External Parties.

• The degradation of the Arcata Community Forest by External Parties in the forms of improper human, and consumer waste disposal which has compromised the integrity of the members of the encampment.

• The apathetic behavior displayed by the External Parties towards Redwood Curtain A.F.A. and it’s involvement with the ’Kids in The Woods’.

• The apathetic behavior displayed by the External Parties towards the mental and physical labor necessary in sustaining the camp.

Billy Goat-
I am a member of Redwood Curtain Anti Fascist Action. For 12 days i have befriended the core group of the ’Kids in The Woods’ encampment. A.F.A. made this official statement in the light of events that have transpired over the course of the last three days. Regretfully, we withdrew our support. From a personal viewpoint I watched this core group labor intensely to keep the mental and physical environment positive. Selectively they chose firewood from abandoned downed trees located at the logging sites. Environmentally it seemed that the clear cuts were causing more damage than the encampment was. Sure sediment was an issue, but after strenuous labor, as i said before, actions were taken to prevent the erosion of the trail that passes through their camp. Boards were cut and fit to the trail, hammered down in place to prevent the trail from sliding into the ravine. An excellent method i must say. They dug shitter sites accurately by digging them three feet down, three feet wide, and covered their feces with wood chips, earth, and ash to prevent fecal borne disease’s from traveling by flies or woodland animals. These kids pulled resources from less resourceful campers who had trashed their campsites and left it behind in other areas of the forest. These kids went as far to attempt to stabilize the increasing number of people that seemed to fluctuate by the hour.

Unfortunately though traveling kids who heard about the site from media sources such as this one and a widely publicized paper by the name of the Arcata Eye, came up and without respect camped out on the outskirts of the barricaded perimeters. Some even camped in the kitchen area and next to the fire. It was heartbreaking to see 4-6 months of work be disrupted in three days by a new group of people.

I spoke with my friends in the encampment and learned that half of the original group had abandoned ship because mutiny was on board. It was true. Disrespectful parties entered the camp and treated the area like a party in the woods, they disrespected the statement the kids were trying to make and showed apathy to those who spoke out against this behavior.

As an organizer i see clearly the pain involving this situation. Friends have been forced apart. Decisions have been made. It seems as if the core group has decided that this is not worth fighting for if there is an internal war to fight, as well as an external war approaching. I myself find it hard to put myself in that position of making a decision. Thus i make this statement. In a time of struggle we scream and reach out for a helping hand in solidifying a community with the best intentions for ourselves and future generations. When members of our own generation fail to link arm’s we find that our chain in penetrable. Selfish motives break that chain further. When the ideal has been overlooked, distorted and challenged it compromises the integrity of a movement and gives way to both a loss of empowerment and a lack of direction.

I thank the community for the support and interest of the camp, let the struggle continue. The battle for dignity and respect of house less persons has not been won here. Bigotry aimed at kids such as these who create radical interesting, and obscure living situations has not been healed.

Continue your support for these kids by offering your friendship.