We’ve recently visited Treetopia in the McKay Community Park, which to our knowledge is currently the only active tree village
in North America (the other is in Tasmania). Those brave flying-squirrelly folks have been holding down Treetopia for almost a year now, and the McKay for almost a year and a half.

The village is located in a stand of mature (100+yr old) second growth featuring residual old-growth including OG Redwood, Douglas fir, Grand fir, and Sitka spruce. It’s home to spotted owls, osprey, turkey vultures, flying squirrels, banana slugs, black bears and (maybe) coho salmon.

The McKay is currently being liberated by activists and community members, from the villainous clutches of Green Diamond, the international timber menace. Direct action, community outreach, and a legal piece are all playing a part in saving this last refuge of wildlife.

THEY NEED MORE GEAR!!! We on the EF! Cali Roadshow would like to put out a call for more climbing and outdoor gear for these brave, wet and cold forest defenders. Feel free to go to their website and donate. Here is their gear list (click the link for photo):

Climbing harnesses, carabiners, climbing rope, truckers’ rope, WEBBING, tarps, raingear, backpacks, headlamps, and anything else you might think would be useful living in trees!

If you want to visit the McKay and help out, email our friends at Earth First! Humboldt at contactefhum at gmail dot com.

Last night we had our first show, here in sunny Santa Barbara. We were in a grassy plaza bordered by City Hall and the headquarters of a rightwing newspaper. That was weird. But it helped reinforced the shows major points of reclaiming space from the control of the hierarchy. As in, yes, City Hall is right here, and so is a group of Earth First!ers and anarchists, talking about how we can end City Halls forever!

The show went well, especially for a first go. We were with Margaret Killjoy–Magpie–who we’ll be with again tonight in Santa Cruz. Magpie went first, with a talk and power-point presentation on the intertwined histories of fiction and anarchism. His talk was pretty hilarious and also really informative, and strongly resonated with the mood of the night.

Up next a Santa Barbara local gave a talk on environmental issues here, particularly the green neoliberalism of mainstream environmental sell outs like Environmental Defense Center. The show continued from there with more discussion of issues from around the state, and a kickass community-building workshop.

All in all, it was a pretty damn good first show. Now it’s off to Santa Cruz. See you there!

Jan 12: Santa Barbara, De La Guerra Plaza 3pm

Jan 15: Santa Rosa, 6pm at Free Mind Media

Jan 16:San Francisco at the Unconventional Action space 6pm (uainthebay.org)

Jan 17: Arcata, 6pm at the Bird House (potluck)

Jan 18: Ukiah, 6pm at the Art Center Ukiah

Jan 19: Modesto, 7pm Firehouse 51

Jan 20: Fresno, 6pm CAFE Infoshop

Jan 23: Santa Ana, at The Road less Traveled

Jan 24: Los Angeles, Anarchist Book Fair

this will be updated periodically as more information comes in. tell all your friends by downloading this DANK POSTER, filling out the relevant information (date, time, location plus whatever else you want to add) and posting it all over your city!!!

RoadShowPoster

The EARTH FIRST! California Roadshow is headed through your bio-region with skillshares, music and important info about ecology-based resistance to hierarchal power structures. Our schedule will be posted very, very soon. Until then, get off your stinkin’ computer and go play outside!