Training for the Front Lines
The trainers and trainees

When we got to the park, Sleeper and another trainer named Cricket prepared some notes on a white board while the two other cadets and I sat down and checked out the view. To one side, we had a foggy glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. Facing the water to our other side was the battlefield. The lines of battle were clearly visible. Wherever the lush, green forest ended abruptly next to a brownish, muddy clearing, a battle between environmentalists and the lumber corporations had, at one time, occurred. Ironically, the park we trained at is located right next to the offices of the Department of Fish and Wildlife - a previous site of an Earth First! Protest.

Training began with introductions. Sleeper told us his experiences as an activist and that he got involved because of an internal duty he feels toward the earth. Cricket shared her belief that people who become activists have a deeper knowledge of the environment than most people do. However, she added that despite the emotional connection to the cause, activists need compassion for those who don't share that knowledge.

Jill, a student at Humboldt State University, said she wanted to get involved in preserving the redwoods after moving to the North Coast a few months earlier. She also told the group about an incident that happened to her where non-violence training might have helped. While visiting Oakland the previous weekend, a woman tried to strange her. Sleeper assured her that she would learn some techniques during our session.

I told the group I was a journalist covering the training program for a story. But not wanting to seem any less interested in what our trainers were about to teach us, I told them that I became concerned for the environment while living in Lake Tahoe a few years earlier. I even shared a true story about a time my friends and I made a couple of tourists pick up litter we saw them throw on a trail by eagle Falls.

A drifter named Jay and a student from the University of Santa Cruz named Lee were the only other cadets that day. We never heard Lee's soulful interest in saving the planet because he didn't arrive until near the end of the training. But after it was over, I learned that he was also researching a story. He said he was late because he had spent the morning interviewing Julia Butterfly, the famous activist who has been living in an ancient redwood for over a year.

Jay told us he had always felt like something was missing from his life. Originally from New York, he had spent the last few years cruising from place to place before he landed in the North Coast. He said he found something positive in himself while living in the forest and decided to become active in saving it. He said he was happy to find people "not only talked the talk, but walked the walk" as well.

After introductions, Sleeper and Cricket taught us just how North Coast Earth First! walks the walk.

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