#27 The Warbler in a Tree

             Last week I interviewed Warbler, the woman sitting 60 feet up in a Ponderosa pine tree just off Highway 101 south of Willits. Why did she decide to go live on a platform 4’ by 8’ in the winter? And how is the town of Willits reacting?
            The latter question is driving me to distraction as I begin to investigate the suitability of a gigantic cement Bypass as a response to the problem of traffic and pollution in Willits. With a sign of protest, I stand by the freeway where construction is slated to start. Over the ninety minutes, I counted the responses by passing motorists: 3 out of 4 honked and waved, seemingly showing support of the protest; 1 in 4 gave me a thumbs down, flipped me off, or screamed an obscenity. So while this unscientific survey indicates more support for the protest than support for the Bypass, those enraged by the protest have their perspective, too.
            The issues are long and complex to confront. For over twenty years the Bypass has been under discussion and argument, including in a court case now. I have lots of homework to do to understand all the history, sub- issues and perspectives.
           Essentially, the problem is that Highway 101 just south of Willits becomes a two-lane road and heads through Willits on its Main Street. As a result, all kinds of tourists, huge freight trucks, and local traffic are vying for space for three miles going through Willits. Many of us learn which side streets will get us around the worst of the traffic, but during the commute hours and the season of tourists heading up and down 101, we can spend long minutes of crawling along. Not 45 or 60 minutes, as in Bay Area or Sacramento area traffic that I’m familiar with, but ten or fifteen minutes to get through town on 101.
        The other crucial problem is the by-product of pollution created by the idling cars and trucks which can last longer for hours in the peak tourist season as the slow snake of traffic winds through town. Willits residents are rightfully concerned about having to breathe the fumes day after day, hour after hour.
        So CalTrans and the city Powers-That-Be devised the Bypass. I’ll save for another time the history of the various forms that the proposed Bypass has taken, including alternative routes that seemingly have far less impact on the local environment. Those impacts I’ll also discuss in coming posts.
        But for now, let’s look up this tree and learn about the woman who has captured the hearts and raised the ire of many Willits residents.

“Warbler,” her adopted name for this tree sit, comes from Colorado. Aged 24, she has been in Willits for four years, living on a small farm where she has been milking goats and cultivating organic produce. Last year she became involved in the dispute over the Bypass when she learned how the proposed freeway would destroy the farmland very near where she herself was living and working.

         The Bypass will require the drilling of 55,000 holes 85 feet deep by a couple of feet wide to compact the dirt and pump out, by this force, water in the aquifer of Little Lake Valley. Willits lies in this valley, which is a watershed for the Eel River, collecting water from the surrounding hills and mountains, and sending the water further south. The fear is the extraction of so much water and the impact of the cement viaduct over a few miles through the valley will greatly reduce the natural resource so valuable to local farmers—which is one reason why the Farm Bureau is a party to a court case that sought an injunction against the Bypass.
        Concerned for the agricultural and environmental impacts of the massive structure, Warbler and other activists from the group Save Our Little Lake Valley (SOLLV) sought a way to prevent the imposition of the Bypass. Warbler took the advice of the Cascadia Forest Defenders and decided to take the dire step into a tree top as a way to bring attention to the dire consequences of the Bypass.  “We were running out of options to prevent the Bypass, and CalTrans was ready to start chopping down trees.”
         When I asked her what kind of sacrifice this is for her, Warbler said that she hardly thought it about because she’s used to living simply and she is easily adaptable. “People come every day to help take care of me—bringing food and taking care of my needs.”
        She emphasized that this tree sit is not nearly as romantic as that of Julia Butterfly who sat in a huge redwood tree for over 700 days in order to prevent the chainsaw from taking down that old growth tree and those nearby. Warbler’s tree is much smaller in diameter, and she has fewer options for creating a variety of “living” spaces among its branches than the gigantic redwood tree offered Julia. Worst of all, being only 50 feet from the four-lane highway, she endures constant noise from the traffic. But she is determined to make the best of it.
        I will return with more of the issues that frame the Bypass battle. It involves a common array of players in many social struggles: economic scarcity; the roles of big money, status, and power; the conflict between environmentalists and those seeking to capitalize on natural resources; health concern; battle fatigue; and generous doses of self-righteousness from every side—from those holding up signs to those flipping off the sign holders.
        The huge machine of CalTrans, slated to get $300 million to create the Bypass, is the favored winner of this battle. So why bother sitting in a tree or standing by the road?
        I’m gnawing on that question daily.