Temple City Sheriff’s Release 3 Environmental Protestors on OR After Standoff with Police and County over Removal of 200 plus trees in Arcadia Woodland

Cam Stone and actress Daryl Hannah were on hand to greet 3 of the people who sat in the Arcadia Woodland trees in an attempt to save the 11 acres from county bulldozers - Photos by Terry Miller

A very grateful, but tired Julia Posin, 23, was the first woman to emerge from Jail Thursday afternoon at Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Temple Station. The UCLA Anthropology student, looking cold and hungry was complaining of thirst. Julia said it was a great relief to be out of the jail…”It’s not very nice in there…the food is awful.”… It was the first time this young student was arrested and also her first experience sitting in a tree in an attempt save it from county bulldozers.

“It was really scary… not the jail ( although that wasn’t very nice at all…).but the sound of the machines shaking the trees we were sitting in….I thought we were going to fall out” Postin said. Daryl Hannah gave her a hug in the lobby of the Temple Station Sheriff’s department in Temple City after the paperwork was complete for her release.
Julia Posin “I don’t have any of my personal belongings, they’re keeping it for evidence,” she said with a confused look on her face. “ I don’t even have my student ID” she added.

The next to be released was Andrea Bowers who looked frightened and tired and then, finally, veteran environmentalist John Quigley. All looking a little tired and defeated they were in good spirits.
Quigley, who is a fit man of about 50, is no stranger to this form of protest. He once spent 71 days atop an Oak Tree in Santa Clara in a similar effort to the Arcadia protest. He said we were saddened by the outcome as, Daryl Hannah rushed up to hug him seconds after his release. “We missed you up there Daryl!, “ he said. Qugley and Hannah spend time together in a similar protest at a Los Angeles Community garden.
The fourth tree protestor remained in Jail overnight Thursday due to an outstanding warrant in addition to the most current charge. He appeared in Alhambra Court Friday morning.

Andrea Bowers said that she was really scared for her life and described in vivid detail how the workers were shaking the tree in which she was sitting. “I thought we were going to fall out.” She added that she was really felt threatened and intimidated. She, at one time, even wondered if they (county workers) were actually aware that there were people in the trees they were so violently pulling from side to side.
Asked how they officers got them down from the trees, Julia Posin said that cherry pickers were used as well as offers of a beer and a date with one of the officers negotiating for their safe return to ground level.
Andrea Bowers said that one of the deputies asked her if she was part of a group that might be connected to the attempt on Congresswoman Gifford’s in the Arizona shooting last weekend. A stunned Bowers asked if the officer was serious!
Negotiators use many different tactics in an effort to talk people out of a dangerous situations and coercion is occasionally used.
Beacon Media News and Channel 5 KTLA were the only media on hand to personally interview and witness the release of three of the four tree sitters, despite a blog post to the contrary. The Los Angeles Times then spoke with the environmentalists about their ordeal.
On hand to hug and thank (and post bail if need be for the environmentalists) was Daryl Hannah whose is perhaps best known for not only her popular movies but is also as an ardent environmentalist.
A day long standoff between four environmentally concerned tree sitters and public works, crews ended peacefully according to Posin but the clearing of hundreds of trees was a great cost environmentally.” I think they could have found an alternative solution,” she added.
Public works officials say the 11 acres of trees, some of them more than 100 years old, had to be removed to ensure the integrity of a nearby dam that provides most of the drinking water to the Los Angeles suburbs of Arcadia and Sierra Madre. By nightfall, authorities said most of the trees had been removed.
At least 179 coastal oaks and about 70 sycamores were uprooted and left for the next phase of the project Thursday. Beacon Media was escorted around the desecrated 11 acres by Public Works Mike Kaspar about an hour after three of the protestors were released from jail. The naked forest was truly an eye opener with limbs of trees in every direction. In one of the former sycamore groves we could see an active bee hive with fresh honey combs clearly visible.
Actress Daryl Hannah said she learned of the protests regarding the Arcadia Woodlands from Quigley, whom she has known since she took part in a tree-sitting protest to try to save an urban garden in a Los Angeles in 2006.
Hannah, like other environmental activists, said the sediment from the Dam could be placed elsewhere, including a huge gravel pit about 10 miles away in Irwindale.

Los Angeles County Public Works spokesman Bob Spencer said the tree removal project has been in the works for three years and the county has approval from federal and state agencies. He said it must done for the Santa Anita Dam, which was built in 1927, to meet seismic safety standards.
Clearing the 11 acres of oaks and sycamores will create a placement area the sediment can be channeled to. Spencer said the dam provides 75 percent of the drinking water used in Arcadia, a city of 80,000 people, and all of the drinking water for Sierra Madre with a population of 10,000.
Julia Posin said at one point “They were pulling branches off trees with chainsaws and bulldozing the trunks. Startled birds did not know where to go in the chaos. We were scared”
“I started to cry in the tree, the forest that had taken a century to create was demolished in a matter of hours.”
Backed by environmental groups such like the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society, community activists pleaded with Los Angeles County flood control and Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich to find an alternative to destroying 11 acres of pristine woodland.
Many blame on the Arcadia Highland Homeowners Assn., which allegedly represents over 800 residents for not supporting alternative plans.
The department had been ordered by state dam safety officials to expedite dredging sediment from the 83-year-old dam, which does not meet seismic safety standards, Lee said.
Many supporters and environmentalists felt abandoned by the Arcadia homeowners’ association.
“The association was deceived by public works officials who gave them a scary choice,” neighborhood activist Cam Stone said.

A relieved and tired Julia Posin, 23, said she was happy to be out of jail and that she really wanted to get something to eat and have a shower.

“It is not a very nice place in there” she said. Julia was the first to be released then Andrea Bowers and finally John Quigley.

Andrea Bowers, 45, of Los Angeles; John Quigley, 50, of Eagle Rock; Julia Posin, 23, of Venice Beach were released from Temple Station jail this afternoon after being released on their own recognizance.

The fourth tree sitter Travis, remains in jail on an outstanding warrant which will hold up his release date.
It looks like the date of the first hearing in the matter will be Feb 3rd at Alhambra Superior Court:

UPDATE:– The fourth activist arrested Wednesday for tresspassing appeared in Alhambra Superior Court Friday on a bench warrant for failure to appear on a previous charge.

Travis Jochimsen, 28, was held by sheriff’s deputies in Temple City as John Quigley, Julia Posin and Andrea Bowers were released on their own recognizance.

Photos and rather shaky videos by Terry Miller

The hold came on a bench warrant, the source said.

No charges have been filed in the tree sitting case against any of the four.

Jochimsen’s record includes possession of 28.5 grams of marijuana, officials said. That case was adjudicated on Jan. 3.

John Quigley receives a hug from Daryl Hannah seconds after he was released

Andrea Bowers outside Temple Station

Daryl Hannah and Julia Postin

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