UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIAL

From Ramon Treehugger or Idaho:

                                                                               "August 16 aught aught

Dear John, I don't know if you remember me or not, but we first met at Redwood Summer and you sent me a check for $500 back in 1992 or 1993 to help fund the Cove/Mallard campaign in central Idaho.

Well, rest easy ... I'm not writing to ask for more dough but to tell you of our victory there. After 7 years of direct action and hundreds of arrests and protests (plus a little monkeywrenching for which we got blamed ... and sued), we've saved the damn place. At least for now. President Clinton has proclaimed a moratorium on building roads in roadless areas and the Forest Supervisor has announced publicly that, even if the moratorium were to be lifted, Cove/Mallard is off the table logging-wise. It turns out he's a product of Brooklyn, New York, like me, and understands certain "realities", New York-style.

Anyway, I'm taking a long break and heading for the sunny Caribbean for 6 months or forever, whichever comes first. I've been working on my book "Treehuggers" for three years and its time to stop farting around and get it into publishable shape. Mike Roselle will (allegedly) be joining me in this endeavor. Everybody thinks we'll just stay drunk all the time, or maybe kill each other, but I don't think so. Mike and I have known how to deal with each other for quite a few years; we'll work 4 hours a day on the book, he doing the serious stuff, me doing the funny stuff, and THEN we'll party until we drop (which for me anyway, is about 8.30 at night). Sounds like a plan, no?

And thats really that for the nonce. Thanks again for your support back when it was truly needed, back when $500 was like getting $5,000. Your donation got us over the hump after which we were able to appropriate huge sums from a goodly number of (former) millionaires. And we had a blast doing it, in spite of owing the roadbuilder a million dollars (over $1.2 million now with interest.) He just doesn't know how to take a joke.

Hope all is well with you and your trees. Keep on, John

Uncle Ramon