By Ben Neary And Donna Jones, Journal Staff Writer, transcribed from Albuquerque Journal, April 13, 1989
Police arrested three environmental protesters who chained themselves to heavy equipment Tuesday to stop work on a new pumice mine on federal land in the Jemez Mountains about 15 miles west of Los Alamos.
The three — Jim Hobson, 31, of Albuquerque and Stella Reed, 28. and Gary Schiffmiller, 30, both of Santa Fe — pleaded no contest in Bernalillo to charges of criminal trespass.
Sandoval County Magistrate Bennie Lovato imposed a 90-day suspended sentence on the three, who are members of Earth First!, an environmental group.
Lovato ordered them to stay away from the mine area or “you will come in here and do the time in the county jail.” They said they would obey.
The three had locked themselves with bicycle locks around their necks to earthmoving and logging equipment to stop construction of a road to the mine site. After a few hours, they unlocked themselves voluntarily and left with State Police officers.
The three who were arrested and about 15 other protesters arrived at the scene about 6 a.m. They are opposed to a private company — Copar Pumice of Española – opening a mine on public land before the Forest Service rules on an appeal other environmentalists’ filed to block the project.
John Dickenson, Forest Service law enforcement officer for the Jemez District, said he arrived shortly after 9 a.m. and found protesters singing. “To the tune of ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky,‘ it was ‘bulldozers in the Jemez.’ ”
One of the organizers, Rich Ryan, said in Bernalillo that he could not say if the group would continue its protest.
“We’ll just play it by ear from here,” he said.
Earth First! uses its actions to dramatize how powerfully members feel about protecting the environment, Ryan said.
“It was necessary to act,” said Reed, a baker, after her court hearing. “When the free, wild earth is gone, we have no home. We are homeless.”
Said Schiffmiller, a carpenter, “We have to defend whatever land is left.” Hobson, a movie projectionist, said, “Stone-washed jeans are not a necessity.” Making the jeans is one of the uses of pumice.
One protester chained himself to a timber-cutting machine belonging to
Blackjack Timber of Jemez Springs. The company has a contract to clear a road to the mine site.
“What people have to realize about all the local miners and loggers is that we live here,” said Wayne Lewis, president of the timber company. He emphasized that locals are interested in seeing the forests properly managed for sustained timber production.
“We’re out here every day; it‘s not an occasional thing,” Lewis said. “If we cut all the trees and mine all the pumice, we’d be doing ourselves out of a living.”
Cindy Lewis, Wayne’s wife, said protesters didn’t participate in Forest meetings concerning the mine but chose to disrupt work after it started.
“We don’t have a paycheck coming unless we get our work done, which is apparently something these people don‘t have to worry about,” she said.
She said one of the protesters locked himself to the hydraulic arm of a logging machine and was in danger of being crushed as the arm slowly came down. “I was ready to send for a cutting torch,” Wayne Lewis said.
The protester finally unlocked himself and then locked himself again to a safer part of the machine.
Wayne Brown, plant manager for Copar Pumice Co., said the company started building a road into the area Monday. He said he doesn’t plan to do more in the next five days or so beyond putting in roads and getting samples.
Española businessman Richard Cook owns Copar. He wasn’t at the protest. Asked whether mining will continue in the area for long, he responded, “I think it depends on the market. Currently, there’s a good market for it. We don’t know if the market for stone-washed jeans will last.”
Mining in the area has been stalled since last fall, while Forest Service officials prepared their environmental assessment of the mining operation.
The Forest service filed notice Jan. 4 that it favored the mine. On Feb. 16, lawyer Grove Burnett filed a notice that the Sierra Club, New Mexico Citizens for Clean Air and Water, Save and Jemez and the Elk Mountain Action Party intended to appeal the ruling. The next day, The Forest Service approved Copar’s mining plan, meaning that the company could start mining at any time.
Burnett filed a 28-page document giving his reasons for the appeal early the month. Late last week, he filed a motion for a stay with the Forest Service, requesting the agency to block the mine until it hears the appeal.
Burnett claims the Forest Service performed an environmental assessment of the project that incorrectly found it wouldn’t have significant environmental impact. Burnett said Tuesday that if the Forest Service doesn’t respond to his request
for a stay by Thursday, he will seek a temporary restraining order in federal court. Fred Coe, spokesman for the Santa Fe National Forest, said Tuesday that his
office probably would respond to the request for a stay next week.