DAY SIX: BLOCKADE ESCALATES AS INTERFOR IS GRANTED AN INJUNCTION

DAY SIX: BLOCKADE ESCALATES AS INTERFOR IS GRANTED AN INJUNCTION
ISTA, KING ISLAND, B.C. 11 June 1997
Today individuals from the Nuxalk Nation and environmental groups expanded the blockade of clearcutting operations on King Island. Two people (one Nuxalk and one Belgian) are currently perched on a tripod 30 feet above a logging road, while two others (one German and one Australian) are locked onto one of International Forest Products' grapple yarders. An additional 56 people continue to block the main access road to the logging site.
Today's expansion follows the Supreme Court of British Columbia granting Interfor a civil court injunction and enforcement order that allows the RCMP to physically remove the 60 protestors, who have been blocking Interfor's logging operation since last Friday. Greenpeace intends to appeal the decision.
"My mother has been arrested for protecting Ista. My grandfather was arrested too," said Colette Schooner, a 16 year old Nuxalk youth. "Now I am here for the youth and future generations to stop the clearcutting of this sacred forest."
Ista is a rainforest valley that is spiritually important to the Nuxalk; it is a place, according to Nuxalk creation story, where the first woman descended to earth. Interfor has already clearcut three swaths of rainforests on Ista and has plans for seven more clearcuts within the next three years.
"The rainforests of Ista and many other valleys in the Great Bear Rainforest are paying dearly at the hands of the logging industry and the B.C. government." said Gavin Edwards of the Forest Action Network. "Opposition to the pillage is growing in British Columbia and in the market place."
Yesterday the Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition announced that it has written to 5,000 of the largest paper and lumber buyers in the United States, asking them not to purchase products from the Canadian Rainforest.
"Increasingly the world community is unwilling to buy into rainforest destruction," said Tamara Stark of Greenpeace Canada. "We are absolutely convinced that when the world knows the true costs of products coming out of this rainforest, they will make the ethical decision and use their purchasing power to protect the last of the world's ancient temperate rainforests."

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Members of the environmental groups and the Nuxalk Nation on site, via the Greenpeace ship the Moby Dick: 011-872-624-628-410
Greg Higgs, Forest Action Network: 250-799-5800
Tzeporah Berman, Greenpeace: 604-253-7701, 604-220-7701 (cell)
Nuxalk Nation House of Smayusta: 250-799-5376