Suggestions for consideration of NAIL members
10/23/05
I have some suggestions I would like to propose to the members and officers of NAIL. Order does not necessarily indicate importance; it is just in the order I thought of them.
1. Call press TV and Radio conferences to educate the public on how logging increases Fire danger and harms water sheds. Publicize the inaccuracies and omissions in the NTMP document. Publicity will attract volunteers from colleges and the rest of the Bay area community. We have to build our numbers into overwhelming proportions.
* Make clear it is the slash and ladder fuels that is most likely to burn, not the large trees
* Make clear ladder fuels should be removed and most ideally (but expensively) chipped.
* Show photos of areas under Redwood trees free of fuel due to the excess shade.
* Show photos of sunny areas with Scotch Broom and ladder fuels that are nearby above
* Show photos of landslides and sediment inducing issues related to logging
* Highlight the non-logging policies of other West Coast municipalities
2. Picket SJW headquarters and publicize the event to newspapers and TV news organizations. Reiterate messaging above.
3. Find out when and where the investors meeting is and present views and or past presentation to Los Gatos City council. If need be, purchase a least one share per protester, in order to enter the meeting.
4. Challenge SJW to use experts and consider studies that NAIL considers relevant.
5. Try to force the state to hold approval hearings in our community in venues large enough to hold all interested parties and well publicize the times and locations of and well in advance of the meetings.
6. Find ways to boycott SJW or major shareholder products. Unfortunately, institutions hold the largest chunks of shares.
7. Explore potential liability SJW Corp might incur if their logging activities (if approved) are shown to increase sediments in Lexington reservoir. Any liability must be considered a part of the fiduciary responsibility of the officers of SJW. Make clear that any fires that occur after logging operations (if executed) will result in law suites against SJW
8. Continue outreach and the forming of alliances with other environmental groups such as Green Peace and Sierra Club and other groups to publicize and fight through legal action and protests if required. If logging in watersheds is allowed, then we will be going down the slippery slope of more logging throughout our region.
9. Show SJW that logging increases fire danger. This could be a prelude in order to take legal action to fight the logging. Consider the tobacco companies. Even though they knew smoking was dangerous to ones health, they publicly maintained it was not harmful. For that stance, in the end, they were legally responsible for the harmful effects of smoking despite legally selling tobacco at the time.
10. Contact the top mutual fund holdings and top institutional investors
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=SJW
11. Put a link in the left hand side of the main page to make it easier to find who to contact to express my views and to find the petitions. Link to the documents prescribing the policies for the water sheds of other large West Coast municipalities including San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Marin County, Portland and Seattle
2. Explore ways to increase public participation and enjoyment in SJW’s properties such as hiking trails through the redwood groves.
Thanks,
Nick Arreguy