Speaking at the rally, Eric Brooks went through the governor's appointments to show how timber industry-oriented he is. "His first appointment, as transition team leader, was Barry Munitz, a former vice president of Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Company," said Brooks. "He also appointed Mark Bossetti, formerly on the board of Sierra Pacific, to the California Board of Forestry."

Many of his other appointments have been spineless bureaucratic hacks, such as Robert Hight, DFG Director; Andrea Tuttle, California Board of Forestry; and Susan Kennedy, who was formerly an aid to Feinstein, the author of the Quincy Library Group Law that forest advocates opposed.

"We demand better appointees on the Board of Forestry," said Brooks. "The next two seats should be filled with representatives from the environmental community. The only way to get Davis to do this is to push on him hard."

"Clearly, timber dollars in the hundreds of thousands have intoxicated Davis to the point of him having no desire to work toward any forestry reform at all," said Darryl Cherney of Environmentally Sound Productions. "The rally and attendathon were catalyzed by a recent uprising of groups throughout Eastern and Central California, areas not traditionally known for civil disobedience and feisty protests. But with arrests in places that have never seen them before, like Arnold and Nevada City, and vehement outrage from Shingletown, Redding, Hayfork, Mt. Shasta and Weaverville, the other shoe seems to be dropping in the arena of forestry activism."

Unfortunately, no representatives of fishing groups, who have been working for healthy watersheds and forests for years, were put on the list of speakers who addressed the crowd. This was a glaring weakness by the organizers of the rally. Trout Unlimited, United Anglers and Save Our Salmon, who have devoted much of their time working with environmental groups on preserving North Coast and Sierra Nevada forests, weren't there.

These are the folks who are mostly directly impacted by the destruction of salmon and steelhead fisheries on the North Coast and rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout in the Sierra Nevada. While the governor refuses to clamp down on timber operations that destroy the habitat of salmon and steelhead, the Department of Fish and Game and National Marine Fisheries Service has imposed increasing restrictions on anglers.

Just to fish now, you nearly need a lawyer with you to make sure that you are not fishing in the wrong stretch of a river at the wrong time with the wrong lures or baits with the wrong hooks. The state regulations are punitive against anglers, who were supporting sustainable forestry practices before many of the environmental groups came into existence.

Meanwhile, timber companies like Pacific Lumber and Sierra Pacific can devastate entire watersheds, killing hundreds of thousands of endangered salmon and steelhead in the process, and get off with a minor fine or slap on the wrist.

Representatives of fishery conservation groups, who may not agree with the environmental groups on every point, but certainly have enough common ground to work against such a timber industry puppet like Grey Davis, are needed to give a greater legitimacy and power to the battle to save northern and central California fisheries and forests.

Nonetheless, the rally represented a step forward in merging the North Coast and Sierra Nevada timber battles. Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) has been principle target of many of the latest protests. Its owner, Red Emerson, who holds title to over a million acres in California alone, is the second largest landowner in the United States, just behind Ted Turner. SPI is also the state's largest recipient of timber cut from California's National Forests, according to the environmental groups.

Other lumber companies that have incurred large protests include MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber and the Mendocino Redwood Company, owner by the Fisher Family of GAP Notoriety. Mary Bull, Spokesperson from The Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap campaign, summed up the feelings of many at the rally when she said, "Corporate loggers in forest counties across our state are in a frenzy of forest liquidation that likes of which we've never seen."

In case you think that the environmentalists' claims that Davis is beholden to big timber companies is just rhetoric, check out the donations that Governor Davis received last year on July 13 in a fundraiser at Sierra Pacific Industries Headquarters. According to Kevin Bundy of the Environmental Protection Information Center in Garberville in his tabulation of information from California From 490 of the Gray Davis Committee, the total amount raised was $129,000. This money came from a variety of timber corporations, including Pacific Lumber Company, Sierra Pacific Industries, Mendocino Forest Products and Simpson Timber Company.

There is no doubt about it - Gray Davis is the Governor For Sale.