Earth First! is characterized as a radical environmental group by its
             enemies and as a necessary and militant group seeking to protect the
             environment from illegal use and predatory actions by big business by its
             supporters. The group has raised objections to one project in particular,
             the Headwaters project in Humboldt County in Northern California, bringing
             it into conflict not only with the Maxxam Corporation that is pushing this
             project and with various employees or potential employees of that company
             but also with the FBI, lading to several court cases either directed at
             Earth First! or undertaken by Earth First! in order to challenge the
             actions of Maxxam. A number of legal issues are raised in these court
             actions by both sides in the dispute.
             Headwaters Forest was acquired by Maxxam Corporation in 1986 in a
             leveraged buyout. Maxxam Corporation is headed by Texas financier Charles
             Hurwitz, and he greatly increased logging of ancient redwoods to reduce his
             takeover debt, which started a ten-year battle with Earth First! over what
             would happen to the forest. The forest in question includes six ancient
             groves of old-growth coastal redwoods covering approximately 6,000 acres.
             Also included is another 12,000 acres of old-growth trees. These have been
             selectively logged but are surrounded by a mixture of young forest, stream
             zones, and cut-over lands targeted by environmentalists for restoration.
             Groups like Earth First! became interested because there are good reasons
             to protect this sort of forest:
             The old-growth redwoods of Headwaters provide critical habitat
             for the endangered marbled murrelet, coho salmon, and other
             species. Only 150 years ago the redwood forests of Oregon and
             California covered two million acres; now less than four percent
             remain. The Clinton administration and the State of California
             have agreed to purchase t...