The Vietnam War launched Judi Bari's life's work as an activist but her job as a carpenter sparked her "environmental epiphany."  

As a student at the University of Maryland, Judi joined protests against the Vietnam War. She moved on to work as a labor organizer in Washington, D.C, leading postal workers to victory in a wildcat strike against the U.S. Postal Service. After her efforts to unionize grocery clerks fizzled, Judi moved to Northern California and took a carpenter job.

While siding a house one day, she marveled at a board she handled. The long piece of wood didn't have a single knot and she wondered aloud if it was old-growth redwood. Her supervisor confirmed the piece of siding had been cut from a redwood 1,000 years old.

''A light bulb went on: We are cutting down old-growth forests to make yuppie houses,'' Judi later told an interviewer. ''I became obsessed with the forests.''

Judi Bari organized nonviolent protests against destructive corporate logging of the redwood forests.  Photo courtesy of Greg King

Judi organized the combined forces of the Industrial Workers of the World and the environmental group Earth First in a campaign to stop or slow down liquidation logging by multinational timber companies in the old-growth forests in Northern California. By 1990, the companies had depleted the redwood forests by approximately 95%.

Earth First members advocated direct action and chained themselves to trees, blockaded roads and sabotaged logging equipment. Judi became a compelling speaker leading up to that summer, tempering the message of the radical environmentalists and working to form an alliance between environmentalists and timber workers.

Judi insisted the logging protests were directed at the corporations, not their employees. She spoke out against the use of sabotage that might injure or kill workers, such as ''spiking'' trees with ten-inch nails to destroy lumbermill saws.

Judi Bari (right), environmentalist, feminist, labor organizer, and musician gearing up for Redwood Summer with colleague Darryl Cherney (center) Darlene (right), 1990. Photo courtesy Evan Johnson.

Judi imagined Redwood Summer arousing the civil rights spirit that had characterized protests throughout the South in the summer of 1964 and encouraged student from all over the state to join the protests.

As summer approached, Judi had made little progress convincing lumber workers to help protect the forests and tensions in the community escalated. Judi and other organizers received death threats and a logging truck rammed her car.

On May 24, 1990, she and Darryl Cherney took a concert and speaking tour to recruit college students. They were driving through Oakland when a motion-triggered pipe bomb wrapped with nails exploded directly under Judi's driver's seat.

Judi would be maimed and permanently disabled by her injuries; Darryl suffered minor injuries. The two told paramedics and responding police officers they believed they had been targeted because of their activism against the timber industry. They had copies of the written death threats they're received with them in the car.

Judi Bari Web Photo Gallery 

Judi's bombed car in Oakland Police Department storage, 1990. OPD photo

Oakland police, OPD, tracked Judi and Darryl to the hospital, arresting them as primary suspects in the case. Working with the FBI, they pursued a case of terrorism, insisting they had evidence the two activists had been transporting the bomb with evil intent when it accidentally detonated. Originally, the announced to the press that the bomb was in the back seat of the car when it exploded.

Arraignment in the case was delayed seven weeks until the District Attorney said he would not file charges due to lack of evidence. The Oakland Police closed the case, but the FBI continued investigating, telling the media Judi and Darryl were their only suspects.

When law enforcement reported no progress in the case a year after the car bombing, Judi and Darryl filed a federal civil rights suit against the FBI and OPD claiming law officers were trying to frame them as terrorists to discredit their political organizing to protect the redwood forests.

The case dragged on for years, but in 2002, a federal jury concluded the pair's civil rights had been violated by the FBI and Oakland Police Department. The two were awarded $4.4 million. Unfortunately, Bari had died of breast cancer in 1997. Her share went to her two teenage daughters.

The jury found that three FBI agents and Three OPD officers had violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and for the defendants' various unlawful acts, including unlawful search and seizure in violation of the plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights. 

After the trial's gag order was lifted, a juror told the media that she believed the law enforcement agents had lied.

"Investigators were lying so much it was insulting.... I'm surprised that they seriously expected anyone would believe them ... They were evasive. They were arrogant. They were defensive," said juror Mary Nunn.

As of 2015, North Coast Journal reported it appears no official effort has been made to determine who put that bomb in Bari’s car in 1990.

The timber wars of the 1990 scored some victories for the environment that could serve as models and inspiration for climate warriors today.

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