TWO VISIONS CLASH ON NORTH COAST

Pro-Timber Forces Oppose The Eco-Minded In Humboldt's Recall.

FORTUNA, Calif. - To Mel Berti, local butcher and politician, the looming
recall election is the most important vote in Humboldt County history - a
watershed event to preserve a fading way of life on California's northern
coast.

Not the October recall vote on Gov. Gray Davis. More important to Berti and
many others here is the effort to recall Humboldt County Dist. Atty. Paul
V. Gallegos. Earlier this year, Gallegos rocked the Humboldt establishment
with two acts: He sued the area's biggest lumber company and eased the
county's standards on medical marijuana. "Four years of this guy as D.A.
will be our ruination," said Berti, the 64-year-old mayor of Fortuna and
one of the recall leaders. The effort was launched after Gallegos filed his
lawsuit against Pacific Lumber Co., charging the county's biggest private
employer with massive fraud in its timber harvest reports.

Such strong sentiments are commonplace here, where the Gallegos recall is
being viewed as a test of just how much the North Coast has changed. In a
region once dominated by the timber, mining and fishing industries, the
political balance may be tipping with the arrival of retirees seeking real
estate bargains and of eco-sensitive young families attracted by the
liberal milieu surrounding Humboldt State University.

Gallegos, a 41-year-old USC graduate who moved here nine years ago with his
attorney wife and their young family, is philosophical about the recall battle.

"This community is going through birthing pains and is trying to decide
what it stands for, where it is going to go," Gallegos said last week after
the opening court hearing in People vs. Pacific Lumber Co. "For one reason
or another, I seem to be the symbol of that struggle."

A hearing was held Monday in a courtroom packed with local environmental
activists, who support the case against Pacific Lumber. Humboldt Superior
Court Judge Christopher Wilson deferred ruling on a motion to dismiss the
case until he could review voluminous briefs filed by both sides.

To indicate the interest in the recall effort, petition sponsors say they
have more than 11,000 signatures, significantly more than the 8,441
gathered in the county to recall the governor. However, sponsors believe
they need to gather at least 15,000 signatures before submitting them for
certification, probably late this month. If they reach their goal, as
expected, the recall election may not be held until March.

"What's going on in Humboldt County," said Steve Hackett, economics
professor at Humboldt State, "is indicative of what is going on across the
West - a transition from logging, agriculture and mining to more
diversified, service-type economies. It is not so much that the attitudes
of people here have changed as it is that attitudes of people who are
moving here are different."

Marcia Tauber, a San Francisco Bay Area lawyer who moved here three years
ago and owns a computer store on the Arcata downtown square, personifies
this change. Tauber, 52, said she was attracted by schools for her high
school-age children and the town's liberal politics. She ardently supports
Gallegos and the lawsuit alleging fraud by Pacific Lumber, the historical
power here.

"People who have lived here their entire lives," Tauber said, "have a
different relationship with the timber industry than those of us who came
here by choice."

Most people think that the Gallegos vote, if it occurs, will be very close.
Environmentalists and advocates of marijuana legalization, strong in
southern Humboldt County, are expected to back Gallegos. Marijuana
advocates were delighted when he increased the number of plants permitted
to medical card holders from two to 99, matching the highest levels
permitted by any California county.

Tauber points to a recent charity art auction staged in Arcata by the North
Coast Environmental Center as an example of the depth of support in the
college town. Although several local politicians attended, Tauber said,
Gallegos was the only one to receive a standing ovation.

Longtime residents, ranchers and loggers tend to support the recall. "We've
drawn a line in the sand," said Robin Arkley Sr., 78, a retired timber
company owner who launched the recall. "It's us versus them." But the
emotional effort has also divided families, including Arkley's. His son,
Rob Arkley Jr., the wealthy owner of a Eureka securities business, supports
Gallegos and opposes the recall. Although he remains friendly with his
father and shares some of his father's conservative values, the younger
Arkley, who was one of the main contributors to Gallegos' campaign,
characterizes the recall as an ill-advised last stand by a defeated ideology.

"To be honest," said Arkley Jr., a generous benefactor of local civic
projects, including a new harborside promenade and a petting zoo in Eureka,
"people like my dad and Pacific Lumber should step aside and keep their
mouths shut, since they all sat by and watched our town and area devolve.

"It wasn't until I came along that anything has happened," he said. "It's
all about power and the way things used to be. Who wants to run a sinking
ship?"

When the recall campaign begins in earnest, it promises to be a
no-holds-barred affair.

Early radio spots produced by recall supporters have attempted to tar the
district attorney for his association with Assistant Dist. Atty. Timothy
Stoen, whom Gallegos hired and put in charge of the Pacific Lumber case.

As a young attorney in Mendocino County and San Francisco, Stoen was a
member of the People's Temple congregation headed by Jim Jones, who later
presided over the Jonestown, Guyana, mass suicide. "Stoen was Jim Jones'
right-hand man," said a recall organizer, Rick Brazeau. Another recall
supporter distributed a statement in which Stoen entreats Jones - referring
to Jones as "the most compassionate, honest and courageous human being the
world contains" - to sleep with Stoen's then-wife and father a child on his
behalf.

Stoen, who later broke with Jones and became one of his fiercest critics,
acknowledged having signed the statement in 1972. But he described its use
against him in the recall effort as "a pretty cheap shot. I'm disappointed
they would stoop that low."

Gallegos said he is fully aware of Stoen's background with Jones, including
the loss of Stoen's 7-year-old son in the massacre. "Tim Stoen has Jim
Jones in his background," said Gallegos. "He has paid a terrible price for
his mistakes. But he is an ethical, highly competent attorney, and I think
he is an asset to the community." The lawsuit against Pacific Lumber, based
largely on research provided by local environmental groups, contends that
the former family business, now owned by Houston-based Maxxam Corp.,
intentionally deceived state agencies about its timber-cutting plans,
resulting in massive landslide and flooding damage to local streams and
farms. The suit says Pacific Lumber was able to sidestep restrictions
established by the historic 1999 Headwaters agreement, which set aside a
7,500-acre stand of ancient redwoods for the public trust. Pacific Lumber,
which employs 800 people here, has taken no official stand on the recall.
But in a recent letter to employees that is displayed alongside the recall
petition in several local businesses, Pacific Lumber's chief executive,
Robert E. Manne, comes about as close as possible to endorsing the effort.

Under the heading "What You Can Do" in the five-page letter about the
lawsuit, Manne urges workers to: "Talk to your friends, relatives,
neighbors and clerks where you shop - tell them what's really going on
here. Register to vote, participate in the political process to achieve
change, and make your voice heard to elected officials and newspaper editors."